CRADLE OF FILTH – HAMMER OF THE WITCHES ALBUM REVIEW

9th July 2015 0 By Jon Deaux

It’s been 3 years since Cradle of Filth released The Manticore and Other Horrors. The break has served them well.

The album’s title is named after the ‘Malleus Maleficarum’, a medieval document of guidelines regarding the persecution and torture of witches – but Cradle Of Filth’s title version is more retributory: It’s the Hammer Of The Witches; the hammer is in the witches’ hands and it’s payback time.

The album kicks off with Walpurgis Eve, Gothic piano & string laden 1:30 cinematic intro. After such a lovely tranquil opening that’s when all hell breaks loose.

Yours Immortally then comes thundering in with some of the most ferocious drumming that COF have ever committed to record. The guitar work sounds as though it comes straight from a Merciful Fate album & is exactly what you expect from Dani Filth & the boys.

The Monstrous Sabbat (Summoning The Coven) rounds off the first half of the album with another full on cinematic gorgeousness before the title track Hammering of the Witches hits home.

Right Wing Of The Garden Triptych follows & has some of the finest shredding guitars that this genre has to offer coupled with some of the best female vocal to grace a COF record.

Blooding The Hounds Of Hell does a great job in rounding the album off with it’s church organ & choir voices. It has a very haunting melody & will more than likely cause nightmares to the more sensitive listener.

Production wise the album is faultless. Dani is on fine vocal form & new boy Marek “Ashok” Šmerda on guitar does a sterling job, fitting in really well & adding another dimension to this, the bands 11th studio outing.

The album is a complete & complex mix of every Cradle Of Filth record & a record COF should be very proud of as it perfectly encapsulates what COF is all about & what has made them a permanent fixture of their genre.

Due for release by Nuclear Blast 10/07/15

Highlights? Onward Christian Soldiers, Enshrined In Crematoria & Hammer of the Witches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSMWrqZmZK8

Track List:-

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”

Score 7/10
(this review is based on the standard 11 track album . There is a limited edition with 2 bonus tracks also available)