HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Nymphetamine – Cradle of Filth

CRADLE OF FILTH are one Ed Sheeran collaboration away from becoming national treasures. As luck would have it, one is on its way. Thanks to appearances on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, a friendship with Bam Margera, and shoutouts in The IT Crowd, the band’s intensity – both in sound and in look – hasn’t hindered them seeping into the mainstream consciousness. They were even mentioned on Coronation Street.

Black metal purists will argue the band’s best days were long before 2004’s Nymphetamine. But that’s a bit like saying punk elitists didn’t like American Idiot either. Despite looking like Cenobites and getting people’s knickers in a twist with heretical t-shirts, CRADLE OF FILTH had already grown into something more palatable, and even sometimes more catchy, than black metal by this time. Nymphetamine is an extreme record, but Rob Caggiano’s crisp production separates it from the murky depths of the beloved Cruelty And The Beast, each riff – and this is an album defined by its riffs – finely layered with crystal clear harmonies and balletic synth accompaniments; unlike Cruelty, which sounds like it was recorded in a cave while the band performed in another cave 10 miles away. 

So this high definition version of the band shouldn’t have been a surprise, especially not after the previous year’s Damnation And A Day, which was released on Sony Records – their first and so far only major label album – and featured the huge Budapest Film Orchestra. CRADLE OF FILTH had ambition, and the first half of the 2000s was a fertile time for their creativity. Although Damnation didn’t get them where they wanted to be, they recouped quickly. Just 18 months later they took another run at something massive, this time on Roadrunner Records. This time round, with Nymphetamine, they got invited to the Grammys.

Twenty years on, it’s a record most obviously remembered for the shortened version of the title track. A mainstay on music video channel Scuzz, it features Liv Kristine of THEATRE OF TRAGEDY and LEAVES’ EYES lending her ethereal voice to an uncharacteristically graceful CRADLE OF FILTH cut. Something about its beauty-and-the-beast vocal interplay and the comparatively tuneful chorus made it a breakthrough hit, all of which led to its nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 47th Grammy Awards. They lost to MOTÖRHEAD, in which there’s no shame. If fans of the song never listened to the album proper, they might not have realised it is the middle section of a nine-minute triptych. A stellar standalone single it may be, but it benefits even more from how the band transition in and out of it when taken as part of its whole. But it’s the shorter version that remains a staple of the band’s live shows today.

The only other track that has survived in setlists past the album’s promotional cycle is Gilded Cunt, a song that Siri refuses to say in the car. It was a delightful discovery for teenagers looking for an excuse to howl obscenities along to something dark and twisted. While pain and terror are par for the course in Dani Filth’s lyricism, he spits this one out with some next-level rage. It’s accusatory and angry as hell. 

That CRADLE OF FILTH have tried out different sounds over the years is to be commended, but it means fans of the band latch on to certain eras and feel betrayed every time they do something different. One quick Google throws up every opinion imaginable, for all of their records. It makes for a rich and rewarding catalogue that they continue to add quality cuts to (how good was Existence Is Futile?), but outside of the canonised tracks from their 90s days, it is hard to draw any kind of consensus on their work since. 

So if you’re after the rawness of Dusk…And Her Embrace, for example, maybe Nymphetamine’s sheen will always be a turn off. Fine, your loss. It’s here where the band match their epic ambitions with their tightest songwriting, and the music gives Filth’s gothic poetry the gravitas it deserves. Written by Paul Allender and Martin Powell, each composition sounds like IRON MAIDEN on steroids, with some sinister symphonic metal elements adding to the otherworldly horror of each track. Nemesis may as well have been a blueprint for MAIDEN’s post-2000s career. Rarely has metal combined beauty with ferocity as perfectly as on English Fire, its opening piano flourishes giving way to prowling guitar licks that creep their way across ancient and pagan land. 

This guitar-oriented approach, combined with the success of Nymphetamine, might explain the goth rock of follow-up Thornography. It’s a record that’s most guilty of playing it safe after reaching for new creative grounds on Damnation and Nymphetamine. They continued to search for another winning formula over the run of records that followed, but it wasn’t until 2015’s Hammer Of The Witches that critical and fan acclaim synchronised again. They’ve been on a hot streak ever since, sounding revitalised and relevant, having more than earned their place atop Britain’s extreme music scene. 

But before new music arrives in the coming weeks, it is worth revisiting Nymphetamine. Were they ever more explosive than on the apocalyptic Mother Of Abominations? Was their rhythm section ever more electric than Medusa And Hemlock? Has Filth’s storytelling ever felt more darkly cinematic than Swansong For A Raven? The galloping Filthy Little Secret is a deep-cut gem, while Coffin Fodder’s harmonies would delight every classic metalhead, as would the 80s-thrash influence of Absinthe With Faust. Nymphetamine might just be the brightest star in CRADLE OF FILTH’s glistening night sky. 

Nymphetamine was originally released on September 28th, 2004 via Roadrunner Records.

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