Cradle of Filth
Thornography

Release Date: 2006 | Tracklist

And here we have exhibit G. Cradle of Filth at their most watered down. At their most accessible. Kiss goodbye are the grand orchestral sweeps. Bid farewell to the multiple, impressively orchestrated multi-movement, overblown odes. Tearfully acknowledge the lack of pronounced, disconcertingly sinister energy that had lynchpinned their career up until this point. These are all unfortunate losses, each one substantiated by the music on display throughout Thornography. Yet, the album is also the band at their catchiest. At their least cumbersome. At their tightest, most polished and most contained. With no uncertainty, the release is a regression in quality when appraised beside preceding full-length Nymphetamine, in the sense that the band has reeled in the musical hangers-on that were still clinging to the frayed edges of their luxuriant cloak from the days of yore. These losses are lamentable, to be sure, but in dispensing with the aspects that no longer felt integral to their current form, CoF are able to focus their efforts onto the more metallic aspects of their sound. It remains furious, frenzied, undercut with that signature sense of darkness that they have managed to retain even at their lowest ebb, and, fundamentally, it remains a massively fun listen. During this diluted era of Cradle's career, before they began to implement fully-fledged, thematic concepts back into the mix, the band struggled to distil exactly where their appeal stemmed from. The more unwieldy aspects of their earlier releases were stripped back album by album, the nadir of this scaling reflected here in no uncertain terms. It feels like Cradle of Filth without the elaborate ceremony. and that is perfectly alright, since every other aspect showcased has been polished to a high mirror shine. What the band have sacrificed from their sound in the execution of Thornography, they have gained in digestibility and kinetic album structure, and ultimately, have managed to perfect a more streamlined, likeable iteration of their brand of metal.

In stripping what makes Cradle who they are down to its bare bones, melody and grooves are able to hit their stride and stand out as more than just a distorted facet to their musical tapestry. Nowhere is this better illustrated than on Thornography's deadly two-hit opening combo, 'Dirge Inferno' and 'Tonight In Flames'. Both tracks feature excellent front-and-centre riffs, with the latter borrowing more heavily from classic Cradle and the former channeling the galloping eccentricity of more recent releases. 'Dirge Inferno' features a groovy chorus riff and a chundering assault in its verses, managing to retain the distinctive CoF energy with a pleasingly earworm edge to offset the bile. 'Tonight In Flames' is probably as close to an anthem as the band are ever likely to get; laden with hooks and a scream-along chorus that, despite the novel nature of its structure, never feels awkward or hacky. 'I Am The Thorn' deserves a special mention; a brutalising infernus of heavy riffage and well-implemented dynamics, it features some interesting vocal production choices during its bridge section and a satisfyingly thumping chorus. It also has a positively cataclysmic breakdown/ solo in its latter half, using a very 'core motif which features the sound of a firearm being racked to usher in the chaos. It's more than a little idiosyncratic for the band, who have always remained, at their core, very devoted to the classic heavy metal aesthetic. Still, it works extremely well, and the result is a wide-eyed, albeit unusual, sense of tasteful modernity.

A topical focus abounds on Thornography, with 'Libertina Grimm' and 'The Foetus Of A New Day Kicking' being notable examples. 'Foetus' especially is an excellent song, full of chunky riffs and home to a memorably melodramatic chorus that squares religious underpinnings with the threat of nuclear annihilation. It's more on the nose than is typical for the band, but it still makes its points in blood and ash with the expected gothic flourish. Elsewhere, preoccupations with literature, the supernatural and fairytales are clear and given the appropriate Cradle treatment through Dani Filth's flowery lyricism and typical shrieking delivery, albeit in a more decipherable way this time around. 'Cemetery and Sundown' and 'Lovesick for Mina' represent a later-album 2-hit combination of vampiric fascination, and both are balanced in terms of their whimsy and mock-demonic posturing. 'Cemetery and Sundown' rings slightly hollower out of the two, and is an inferior album cut on its own terms. Tepid in execution and underwritten despite the solid hook, it does little more than tread water during its overinflated 5:30 runtime. Conversely, 'Lovesick' bleeds atmosphere, opening with a gentle guitar lick before lurching into its blistering assault. It's as close to a multi-part epic as the album has to offer, skittering between melodic bridges and groovy passages like a headless horseman with unmedicated ADHD. Despite the elaborate nature of the songwriting, it seldom feels overbaked or too bloated, and manages to barrel through its forceful overture in a cool seven minutes.

Although widely decried as one of a series of misfires for the band, Thornography is anything but. Its tighter scope and pandering to the more casual metal market is much more obvious than ever before, but in getting a stranglehold on the musical elements and downplaying the theatricality somewhat the band have been able to capture their essence and purvey it through a more accessible, affable sound. That it doesn't feature as much depth to its songwriting is undeniable, but this needn't be seen as such a negative when the surface elements shine as brightly as this. There is more evidence of complacency on certain tracks ('The Byronic Man', 'Cemetery and Sundown', 'Rise of the Pentagram'), and the reining in of the more egregious symphonic elements neuters the sense of grandiosity overall, but there is so much frenetic energy and memorability to the well-executed moments (of which the album has in spades), that it seems unfair to lament the loss of aspects that would not have served this particular release in the same way. Cradle scaled back, but in doing so they purified their base elements, and, prior to their re-introduction of some of their more classic hallmarks (pronounced orchestral components, detailed overarching concept, operatic scope...), this is their cleanest sounding and certainly their most entertaining album. It's not as majestic as Midian, as elaborate as Nymphetamine, or even as well-realized as Damnation and a Day, but goddamn if it isn't so much more FUN.

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2.9 good

Rank: #175 for 2006