Customer Reviews

Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There have been many fans who were disenfranchised with the band ever since the release of Midian. Still there were others, like myself, who have enjoyed all of their albums. Even many of us who had enjoyed all of their releases were disappointed with the release of Thornography, however. It was an album that attempted to make their sound more commercially viable, included a guest appearance by the whiny emo b*tch known as HIM, stripped away most of the keyboards, and included pathetic attempts at sounding like a dying animal, errr, uh, I mean clean singing by Dani. Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder includes none of this. It is a triumphant return to the Cradle sounds of old. It still may not please all of the fans of Dusk and Cruelty (though it might please some of them as well), but it is sure to please fans from Midian on, and fans who loved all of the albums except Thornography. Now, if you happen to actually like Thornography, you will probably enjoy it as well, but it does not sound like that album at all. The only softer song on the album is The Death of Love, though I find it more reminiscent of the title track from Nymphetamine than of anything from Thornography.

I must confess that I was really dissapointed with thornography and a little bit with nymphetamine. I think they lack the chilling atmosphere and the power that was present in midian, cruelty and damnation. Luckly, this is not the case of godspeed on the devils thunder! I would rather say that this album is better than damnation and it is at the same level as midian and cruelty. This is beacuse the songs are harder, faster and damned! they give chills down my spine as they have haunting keyboads, Sarahs signature vocals and a male baritone that really adds to the sick and disturbing atmosphere! the guitar solos are great as well as dani filth vocals! they sound very devilish and varied like in the past great albums! the lyrics and the concept of the album are great and seems like this album could turn to a black symphonic metal musical! do yourself a favour and buy this album!
best tracks for me are: intro plus shat out of hell, the death of love, the 13th ceasar, tiffauges plus tragic kingdom, honey and sulphur, midnight creatures....and darkness incarnate!

Cradle Of Filth have not released a record this good since their epic 'Cruelty And The Beast'. 'Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder' is a concept album (like Cruelty..was about Elizabeth Bathory), on this album the subjected charachter of study is Gilles De Rais. Gilles, a former right hand man to Joan Of Arc, was a merciless child murderer. Anyways, this is all just in good fun for those of us who get it...musically this album is extremly fast and aggressive. Seriously, it's their second best album. The production is amazing BTW.

What a disc. That's my first reaction to Godspeed. The thing with it that makes it so good, so interesting is that this is, in my opinion, Cradle's very first TRUE concept album, with narration from Doug Bradley on almost every song (Tragic Kingdom doesn't feature any, but as the song is a virtual continuation of Tiffauges, this makes no difference to me). Damnation may fit this bell as well, but I feel this album more fully realizes that objective.

Some of the songs themselves are by far the best since the Midian era. Think melding the more metal-oriented keyboards of Damnation and Midian (vs. the atmosphere-oriented keys of old) with the technical songwriting of Thornography. (I still feel that, while different, as a general metal album, Thornography was amazing. Cradle, though? Definitely not).

Gone are the days of the Nymphetamine era, and back in with the way Cradle was meant to be realized (for the most part). If you've heard Dimmu Borgir's latest output, In Sorte Diaboli, consider this album to be similar, but minus the repetitiveness that plagued the aforementioned.

The only true comparison to the Nymphetamine era could be "The Death of Love," which soars above every song on that album except for "Guilded." Without a doubt, as well, it's one of the best songs on the album. It has its hooks, melody, and yes, Sara really hits the spotlight on this song. It's probably one of their only songs in recent years that's really stood out to me ("The Foetus of a New Day Kicking" [prior to it getting and popularity from that. The video is horrible] and "Under Huntress Moon" really come to mind here).

So that said, how can it recover from infectious sound that many fans have recently been dubbing "pop-ish"? You'll hear "Shat Out of Hell" long before "The Death of Love" and you'll know right from there just how vicious the album is. Not only that, but Bradley's cold and remorseless narration really help add to the dark atmosphere of the disc. One notable factor of Bradley's narration is how he begins to slowly sound crueler with each song. Listen closely to his tone of voice and you will see what I mean.

While not nearly Cradle's best (by far, their first 3 albums are so heavily separated from the band's last three that I dare not even compare them) it's still a wonderful breath of fresh air. No doubt it will once more leave fans divided, but in truth, doesn't this happen with all bands? Nothing lasts forever after all. Come what may, Cradle is still alive and kicking.

All said and done, I offer one final word of consolidation for fans and, in the rare event they will, the band: Cradle will never again truly realize their potential until they jump ship with Roadrunner. Until they do, though, I'm at least satisfied that they are at the very least giving it their all with what they have available to them.

Til next time, boys (and girl).

It seems I'm not alone in my thoughts on Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder.

Cradle Of Filth have returned to a sound more reminiscent of their days before becoming "popular" (which should not be seen as a bad thing) and Godspeed is their best effort since Midian, if not better. That's not to say that Damnation And A Day, Nymphetamine and Thornography are bad albums. Quite the opposite, actually. But Godspeed features COF utilizing the best of old and new. Musically, this album sounds more like Cradle of old (without being as brutal or as fast as possible), while Dani has retained the clearer (but rarely clean) vocals of the later releases. No Cradle Of Filth album has grabbed me quite like Vempire did when I first heard the band, though Godspeed and Cruelty And The Beast come close, followed by Midian.

As mentioned, the album tells the tale of Gilles de Rais, a man who served with Joan of Arc and supposedly lived a second life, dabbling in the occult and turning to mass murder later in his life. While Dani may have taken some liberties with the subject matter (as with Erzsébet Báthory on Cruelty And The Beast), Godspeed does a good job at telling the story, including the execution of Joan of Arc in 1431.

Lending his voice to Cradle Of Filth for a fourth time is Doug Bradley, who is best known for playing Pinhead in the Hellraiser movies. I thought his voiceovers were used too much and they seemed to be a bit of a distraction at times. Really, that's the only flaw I can find with Godspeed. Everything else is in its proper place.

As has been commonplace throughout most of Cradle Of Filth's career, not everyone from Thornography is around this time. Also, only four members (Dani, Dave, Paul and Martin) are listed in the liner notes as being full members of the band (and shown in the picture), although Charles and Rosie are also mentioned as the live guitarist and keyboardist respectively. Sarah Jezebel Deva is also featured on the album, though not considered a "core" member.

The second CD offers two more tracks that were recorded during the sessions but had to be cut from the final result due to length, two songs from Harder, Darker, Faster: Thornography Deluxe, a cover song, two demos, a remix (the weakest of the offerings on the bonus CD) and two live tracks. I'm hoping that since this was made available in the beginning, there won't be a re-release of this album within a year or so, an annoying trend in music today.

Highlights:
The Death Of Love
The 13th Caesar (it took a while though - the vocals on the chorus were a putoff for me at first)
Honey And Sulphur
Darkness Incarnate
Ten Leagues Beneath Contempt

All said and done, this is an excellent release from Cradle Of Filth, easily one of their better efforts. I'd give it four and a half stars if I could, only because of how I thought Doug Bradley's lines affected the album. However, that's not enough to drop it down to a four because I can't do halves.

Cradle Of Filth have always been a good metal band deep down below, they just happen to be misunderstood, discarded as not "metal" enough, or have produced some albums that fell aslant. I've been with them since the beginning of the millennium, and starting with Midian, they produced a dark and visionary album that felt compelling and fascinating when everyone else would clutch their hands over their ears (I first heard them because my brother gave me the album, claiming he "just could not stand listening to it"). After that came Damnation and a Day, an absolutely fantastic (and probably all-too overlooked) album which bears an epic thematic thread, a biblical story told from the point of view of Lucifer. Complete with a full orchestra and choir, as a whole it can't get much better than that. Both Nymphetamine and Thornography failed to deliver the same experience, and even though they had a few stand-out songs, the overall musical album experience wasn't there.

I wasn't expecting much going into Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder, but what a surprise! Again it's thematic and epic, the choirs and melodies are all there - and Doug Bradley, a cornerstone of the band's eerieness, returned to narrate throughout the album. They managed to balance it again, making a complete listening experience that is both dark, heavy, deep, melodic, beautiful and interesting. From producing an album last time that felt very mainstream even for their own likes (meaning lightly borne on melodies that could be gladly hummed and whistled), they've come back to do what it is they do best - a dark 71-minute audio-saga, a bed-time story for gothics. And my applause for it.

As a fan of symphonic metal over black metal, I can't say I was at all disappointed with the direction that Cradle of Filth were taking with their album 'Nymphetamine'. After 'Thornography', however, (though it is still in no way a 'bad' album) I was somewhat concerned that they might be headed down the same unhappy route as Sirenia and countless other bands. But how wrong I was!

'Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder' brings back everything we loved about the Cradle of Filth of yore, whilst also bringing a slightly more symphonic feel to the music than in their early albums. Frankly, if you've got any good taste in music whatsoever, then you're going to find something to love about this album.
This time Dani Filth, with his violent albeit beautiful graveyard poetry, weaves the appropriately gruesome tale of Gilles de Rais: a French nobalman/serial killer; cronicoling everything from the death of Joan of Arc, to the atrocities of de Rais, and his trial and execution.
Doug Bradley (AKA Pinhead, for those who're fans of Hellraiser, like me) returns again, this time lending his voice to de Rais. This is just one of those theatrical touches that I've loved about all of Cradle's albums: you can just tell that they've invested so much time and consideration to their projects. Every second of this album is pretty much fantastic, but for me the especial stand-out tracks (aside from their beautiful intro and interludes) are: 'Shat out of Hell', 'The Death of Love', 'The 13th Caesar', 'Sweetest Maleficia', 'Darkness Incarnate' & the stunning 'Honey and Sulpher'.

Alongside 'Median', I can honestly say that this is my favourite album by Cradle of Filth - and hence one of the best albums of all-time. It is brilliant. Get your claws on the two-disc edition while you can!

I liked Thornagraphy as I like All Cradle Of Filth records. However, this album really made me happy....I think this may be one of the top three best COF albums yet. Super fast, ultra gothic, and hard hitting black metal that is 100% adrenaline. Buy this!!!

I have always been a fan of CoF. While many would argue that the last few albums weren't really 'extreme metal' in any way, the musicianship and quality of writing were impressive. I still listen to those albums (Thornography and Nymphetamine), but nothing quite compares to the sound of Midian and Cruelty. Midian was their last album that retained the brutality of the 'old Cradle'. However, I truly think Damnation and a Day is a hidden gem. Some amazing songs on there.

Godspeed is a mix of Damnation and Midian in many ways. It has the symphonic qualities of Midian and the "punchiness" of Damnation. I would be the first to admit that Gian and Stuart had a LOT to do with the sound and progression of the golden years. Paul has obviously taken on a more bombastic sound (lots of thrashy fillers, major chord progressions, not quite as dark or sinister as the old school albums; Nymphetamine and Thorn. rely on the vocals to be brutal). Paul knows how to write, and I think he believes this is the new CoF - an evolved version of the past. From all the interviews on blabbermouth, it seems like he's excited about playing fast again but in this new direction.

Godspeed has a crushing sound - the guitars are layered well and the drums are awesome. No offense to Adrian, but the new guy shreds. Dani continues to write amazing lyrics. This is a great album - DO YOUR PART AND BUY IT - support these guys - they have spent a considerable amount of time writing such amazing music.

The best track has to be Tragic Kingdom. Listen to it more than once - all the classic elements of CoF are there, but in a totally new setting. The new sound and approach takes a little getting used to, but you soon realize that every song has a lot to offer. CoF did this album for the fans. Now my only question is - what's it going to take to get Gian back on the roster???

Let me say that Cradle Of Filth do not make BAD albums. Some are good and some are great, but their last release, "Thornography", left a bad taste in a lot of fans' mouths. As with a lot of great bands, they all experience an album that sounds like they're just going through the motions, and "Thornography" sounded like that. But with "Godspeed", COF doesn't leave it in cruise control, they keep the foot on the gas throughout. I hadn't heard brutally fast tracks like this since "Midian". It seems Dani Filth is in his element when he focuses on one subject matter like my favorite COF release, "Cruelty and the Beast" or the underrated "Damnation and a Day". "Godspeed" is a solid chapter in the Book of Cradle.