Cradle of Filth up to Midian fucking rules.

[Eoin McLove]

Yeah the artwork was terrible which really didn't help, but the EP before it had great artwork and shite music which was the nail in the coffin for my interest.

[deathinjune666]

Massive fan of Cradle up to Midian, ended up getting all their stuff on cd cause they show up in carboot sales for 2 quid a piece, picked up the Gospel of Filth for a fiver, seen them live for Halloween in 2018 in Dublin which was great craic, heard their newer stuff is harkening back to the old style but the only stuff I regularly listen to is Principle to Cruelty. I think their early stuff is disregarded because of where they ended up playing hot topic gothic metal but the first 3 full lengths are killer releases imo.

[Paul keohane]

Principle is regarded as one of the best black metal releases ever,its gets forgotten  because they turned into a different band.I still remember hearing Principle for the first time on the 2fm metal show,i was 15,never heard anything like it!.

[Kailash]

There I fucking said it. And I stand by it. and fuck the controversial metal opinions thread too cus I feel this is worth its own thread and not controversial. And also; I am genuinely vaguely curious about peoples opinions on this band, both where they are at today and what they think of their work up to Midian. I'm not sure if I am alone in seeing such a distinct shift in their style from Thornography to today from what they did before but I just have a hard time getting into any of it. and I've tried!

For me I really feel Principle, Dusk, Cruelty, From The Cradle & Midian most especially are just fucking brilliant and essential black metal. and for me archetypes. I have vivid memories and nostalgia around the years 1999/2000, being 15/16 & honestly thinking they were the most extreme and evil band out there, and I swear thinking and feeling like I was the coolest cunt going hanging around Dublin City round the central bank and the old Temple Bar music center etc alternating between wearing a From the Cradle to Enslave tshirt and that Jesus Is A Cunt one that nearly got me killed on the way home on the bus one night!

I also have vivid nostalgia; remembering just going into Sound Cellar off Nassau street weekly almost ritually and just worshipping the glass case collection of death and black metal cds, but being most curious about Cradle and buying 1 a week feeling like a fucking dark lord. You have to remember this was back in the day of early MTV2 and Kerrang! TV channels being often other than the old PhantomFM radio station the only places to hear metal besides your own research like, and the vids for "Her Ghost In The Fog" and "From The Cradle to Enslave" were easily among the most extreme you could get on these poxy channels so yeah I've watched them countless times.

I really feel like Midian has aged extremely well and stands as one of the best black metal albums. I know they got very overblown on the theatrical symphonic and cheese elements for most peoples taste, and honestly this includes me so I get it! But I fucking stand by their early work man and suggest it highly to black metal fans, like if you dismissed it maybe retry it sometime. and finally I have to say, despite not being on Midian sadly, Nick Barker is a fucking beast on drums on those early Cradle albums!

Opinions! 

ha, yeah a lot of this resonates with me. i was wholly sucked in a few years before when the first albums were being released.
running around with Vestal Masturbation LS thinking i was the mutts nuts. spun TPOEMFlesh to death, knew every lyric back to front. Peaked with Dusk.. for me. picked up Cruelty.. on release and enjoyed it but interest waned and i've never properly listened to Midian. Will need to return to it now

[Thorn]

On a related note, the missus threw in a Cradle longsleeve without even looking at it in my Xmas box,  scantily clad nuns lusting over each other all over the show. I have it on now. Inside out.

[Trev]

I'd heard a load of their stuff over the years, but only started picking up the albums and properly listening to them about a year ago. So far it's Damnation, and Godspeed on the Devils Thunder I keep coming back to

[Carnage]

The problem with COF for me is that very early on, it became more about selling the image than the music. An album and an EP out but around 30 T-shirts on sale, that kinda thing. Savvy business sense maybe, but offputting at the time. Nowadays it's common practice obviously but I could never take them seriously as a band from early on.

This gave me a chuckle, though:

[Thorn]

Yeah, even Graham Linehan and the IT crowd were taking the piss, ..they made themselves easy targets. There's 3 different sets of naked tits on that shirt I got. Shocking stuff Ted.

[jpm4]

I had a big titted COF t shirt also as a teenager come to think of it... mysteriously vanished between washes. Don't think my mother was too impressed.

[nukeabuse]

Nothing more dangerous for an edgy t-shirt than a religious ma at a washing machine

[Eoin McLove]

I had the Sedusa LS back in the 90s. No tits on it but maybe one in it.

[Paul keohane]

Didnt Tommy in Sound Seller get a load of COF shirts in one time years back,but there was a  Union jack on the back of the shirt!?.The only COF shirts he found hard to shift in Ireland at the time.

[Paul keohane]

A lad i used to be good friends with back in the mid 90s was one of the first i knew to get the 'Jesus is a cunt' shirt.Hes long gone out of the scene,but id bump into him every so often and we'd stil have a good chuckle about him walking around in the shirt ,and me in a Machine Head 'Fuck it all' shirt backb in the day.Christ!,embarrassing!Two knuckle heads!

[Anvil]

Listened to Principles yesterday for the first time in years, had sort of forgotten how good it actually is. Now I have ended up ordering Cruelty and Midian as I had sold them years ago during a clear out, due to this thread.  Still have Dusk so will stick it on later. 

Remember liking Damnation when it was first released but the one after that turned me right off them. 

[Carnage]

I had a big titted COF t shirt also as a teenager come to think of it... mysteriously vanished between washes. Don't think my mother was too impressed.

Praise the whore in massive letters on the back? My brother had that one, there's a different one on the go now. He had the orignal JIAC one back in the day, lost it in a house fire. Probably worth a few bob now.