Cradle Of Filth

England's masters of malevolence and legends of black metal make their Roadrunner debut with their seventh album, the beautifully orchestrated opus of chaos Nymphetamine. Regardless of being aborted from the grimy metal underground which they were spawned, Cradle of Filth continue to create unparalleled metallic mayhem proving them worthy of the illustrious dark throne of metal.

Nymphetamine is not a conceptual album like many of Cradle's past, allowing for more diversity in their music and they're not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves. "Gilded Cunt" is injected with an '80s mosh-core sound akin to Sepultura and "Coffin Fodder" thrashes with relentless Iron Maidenesque riffs.

Dani's lyrics, scrawled with his blood tipped plume, resemble the words of a Satan possessed Shakespeare. Dani's anti-poetry depicts everything from a vampyric love affair in "Nymphetamine," a gothic infused track featuring the vocal of Liv Kristine (Leaves' Eyes/ex-Theatre of Tragedy) to a tribute to the Great Goddess Cthulhu in "Mother of Abominations."

Cradle of Filth manages to pull another masterpiece from their Abra Cadaver hat. With a diverse mix of brutal melody, unrelenting and piercing nailbomb vocals, Nymphetamine not only proves Cradle of Filths worthiness of metal royalty, but forever cements them like a towering tombstone as the most superlative and malicious master of ruthless malevolence and the blackest of metal.