English black metal band CRADLE OF FILTH has unleashed ‘Hammer Of The Witches’ album in 2015 via Nuclear Blast Records. I am happy to inform you that this is their best album since 2000’s ‘Midian’. The opener is an instrumental called “Walpurgis Eve” that features an epic orchestral sound with strings and violin. Two new guitar players are added to the mix, Marek “Ashok” Smerda and Richard Shaw, shredding in dual harmonies, along with keyboardist/harpist Lindsay Schoolcraft. I must compliment the top notch production job. The chaotic atmosphere ande brutality achieved all throughout the collection of eleven crushing tunes is in fact on another level entirely. Lead vocalist Dani Filth delivers one of the most wicked singing performances of the year, sounding like he is going to scream until his eyes burst out of his head on the next cuts “Yours Immortally…” and “Enshrined in Crematoria”. Bassist Daniel Firth turns in stellar playing. These face slammers are followed by the epic “Deflowering the Maidenhead, Displeasuring the Goddess”, “Blackest Magick in Practice”, and “The Monstrous Sabbat (Summoning the Coven)”, the latter song being my personal favorite. Schoolcraft’s brilliant work on the keys, along with the sheer bombastic greatness of Filth and co. make this gem a totally memorable one.
The title track “Hammer of the Witches” keeps the momentum going nicely and the decimation continues with “Right Wing of the Garden Triptych” and the run your blood cold “The Vampyre at My Side”. It all concludes with “Onward Christian Soldiers” and the beyond pummeling “Blooding the Hounds of Hell”. Any fan of extreme metal will certainly want to add this to your collection, undoubedtly my prediction is that it will make many best albums of the year lists.
ROCKET REVIEW:
CRADLE OF FILTH – “Hammer Of The Witches” (CD)
(Nuclear Blast Records/2015)
1. Walpurgis Eve
2. Yours Immortally…
3. Enshrined in Crematoria
4. Deflowering the Maidenhead, Displeasuring the Goddess
5. Blackest Magick in Practice
6. The Monstrous Sabbat (Summoning the Coven)
7. Hammer of the Witches
8. Right Wing of the Garden Triptych
9. The Vampyre at My Side
10. Onward Christian Soldiers
11. Blooding the Hounds of Hell
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