Review of the Album Midian by British Symphonic Black Metal Band Cradle of Filth

Midian is the 4^th full-length album by British black metal band Cradle of Filth. As usual, it seems that the band starts out with instrumental songs to set the tone for their dark, atmospheric albums. Replacing Stuart Anstis on guitars is Paul Allender. And replacing Nick Barker on drums is Adrian Erlandsson. I mentioned in my review of the album Cruelty and the Beast that Midian may be the band’s best album. But best album may not necessarily mean that it is flawless musically. The screeching vocals of Daniel Davey will prevent any of this band’s albums from being flawless.

Midian is the album title that is inspired by author Clive Barker’s novel called Cabal. There was a movie made for the novel called Nightbreed. I don’t know whether the album’s title Midian comes from the Midianites or not but the album might as well be a cultural symbol of sorts. When the prophet Moses left Egypt Midian was where he was for 40 years. Midian is also the name of a former territory. This territory covers a small portion of Western Saudi Arabia, Southern Jordan, Southern Israel, and the Sinai region.

Cthulhu Dawn starts out with some symphonic keyboards and it sounds like the kind of music that we would hear from the band Ring of Fire. I never really thought that article #689 would cover an extreme metal band but for the avid music fan, pretty much all genres of metal will be listened to and covered though I must say that the extreme doom metal isn’t always my cup of tea. The song Her Ghost in the Fog makes reference to this by calling it an Arabian nightmare. The story in the song goes in such a way that during a night where there is a full moon, the wind is blowing through the trees as the woman is described as a queen of snow. The song slows down briefly as the bass guitar can be heard. The next song if we can even call it that is a chant that starts out soft and increases in loudness and intensity for the full 50 seconds.

The song Saffron’s Curse sees Daniel using his low vocals to his advantage as there is a choir style vocals mixed in. Another con about this band is that their lyrics are so complex that it is hard to comment on the lyrical concepts and how they relate to the band’s musical style. The song Lord Abortion starts with a piano part that has been used by other bands since this album came out. However, by the middle of the album Midian, we hear that this band sticks to the same style of music on their albums. They begin them with short, symphonic instrumentals and then follow up with several heavy songs and then have another instrumental song and then go back to the same formula. This musical approach may not suit some music fans that crave variety. The vocals sometimes sound like they are so forced that Daniel is struggling to keep them to an audible and understandable level. But in spite of these factors, the uniqueness of Cradle of Filth cannot be forgotten by fans of the extreme metal genre. The song called Tearing the Veil from Grace tells the story of men that fell from the grace of GOD due to their sins. The Bible tells the story of how man sinned against GOD and since that time, the punishment for this sin has been hardship, suffering, torture, and eventually death. Overall, Midian is an album telling the tales of these different characters and the last song called Tortured Soul Asylum sounds a little like the band Sepultura early in the song before the screeching vocals come in and the drums pound fast and the rougher vocals try to complement them.

Final grade: 85 out of 100 points for a solid B