Uneasy Listening

"I fucking hate arrogance. No, correct that... I fucking hate people. Vast mindless herds of people, usually around Christmas time or rush hour. And TV stereotyping. Urrrgh! Normality, waiting for anything (patience is not one of my virtues), litter, concrete urbanisation, lack of vision, religious strangleholds, bigotry, sponge cake... hate them all." Dani Filth, lead singer, Cradle of Filth

Ahhhh, what better way to spend the day giving thanks for your loved ones and all the sweet potato soufflé you can eat then writing a post about your favorite Black Metal band, Cradle of Filth, and their latest album Thornography.

I’ve been in Huntsville for nearly two weeks. Whenever I work out of the Hsv office I am operating under a general umbrella of anxiety. It’s impossible to work quietly here. The Hsv people will welcome you loudly and with open arms and you will never be alone at lunch. They won’t have it. It’s something that is beautiful and exhausting at the same time and to prove it I’ve been in bed by 9 every night. Last week, all of the attention and the amount of work I had caused me to not exhale for about five days. Every day when I left the office I would get in my car and immediately queue up a Cradle of Filth single on my iPod called "The Byronic Man". Gradually, I would just let all of Thornography (2006) play itself out while I drove. To seek solace in thrashy metal is unlike me. For example, usually I need to sing along-- ok by sing I don't mean like that delusional kid on the American Idol auditions that wore an MCR hoody and screamed a scream that sounded like a shrieking intake of breath. There's a little of that on this album and I'm not going to attempt to sing along. Another example is that usually when I need a little musical therapy I go straight for early HIM tunes, the sonic equivalent to wrapping myself up in my featherbed. This time I was seeking a musical remedy ten times more extreme than usual, and therefore considered it to be a short period of musical psychosis. Anxiety is now almost completely gone, yet I’m still listening to the album. Does this mean I’m a fan of Black Metal now?

Black Metal, to me, has always been a genre that consisted of bands that took themselves too seriously, produced melody-free cacophony, and burned churches. Yeesh. Thornography seemed like it would be a very typical Black Metal piece, but after listening to it in its entirety I realized that CoF may have shades of Black Metal in their music and on stage, but they seem to be a more commercial and harmless variety of the genre. Ambient, slightly thrashing, theatrical and full of Tim Burtonesque dark humor, I have to say I’ve moved past any kind of musical psychosis into a steady affection for the album.

Random thoughts:
The Byronic Man was the gateway song for me as it’s a duet between Ville Valo and CoF.

What I can’t figure out is why the band has a fast band member turnover rate. The lead singer is the only member who was part of the original lineup. I wonder if there’s something Napoleonic going on there.

Dani Filth and the band join the Viva La Bam crew for an entire episode during the last season.

Dani Filth used to have a regular column in Metal Hammer called “Dani’s Inferno.”

Although I could do without the tiny bit of narration on this album, I do have some favorites:
Under Pregnant Skies She Comes Alive Like Miss Leviathan - Black Metal with shades of Emo due to the incredibly long song title. What's with that?
The Byronic Man - Kickass duet with Ville Valo.
Lovesick for Mina – After being away from my cat Mina for nearly two weeks, I think I will serenade her with this song next time I see her. We’ll see how far I get with the screaming before she claws me. The meandering guitars make me think of Iron Maiden.
Libertina Grimm - Very groovy!
Cemetery and Sundown - Love the guitars and the guitars on this one.
Temptation - Yes, this is a cover of the Heaven 17 hit. Very unexpected, I must say.

I may really like Thornography, but I won’t be walking around in corpse paint any time soon. -K