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Album Details

• Artist: Cradle Of Filth
• Album: The Manticore And Other Horrors
• Label: Peaceville / Nuclear Blast
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2013-01-09

It is slowly becoming apparent that one of the world's most prominent extreme metal acts are trailing off from relevancy. At least, in terms of breaking new ground. The evolution of Cradle of Filth is a snaking, confusing thing that sees members come and go at an alarming rate, but ultimately results in excellent material along the way. 2012 will not go down as anything truly memorable, with the mostly enjoyable but overbearing Midnight In The Labyrinth and it's symphonic arrangements of older CoF tracks, along with The Manitcore and Other Horrors, a collection of new tracks.


With longtime guitarist Paul Allender and vocalist Dani Filth as the only continuing forces within the band, their output has slowly become stale and a bit too familiar of late. Manticore has some truly excellent moments within, but as a full experience is repetitive and struggles to keep a pulse at times. No one track really sticks out of the fray, but all are expectedly well-done and certainly well-received by me. I suppose my complaints are more relating to personal experience, and my own expectations of far more from such a storied outfit. Longtime fans will find much to keep them entertained, no doubt, but anyone expecting anything on par with Cradle Of Filth at their peak will be disappointed.


Every band is deserving of the occassional slip so long as they take the time to offer treats between the tricks. The Manticore And Other Horrors is a solid, unspectacular album that gets boring quick, inspires little in the way of replayability and ultimately speaks to the band's need to inject new life into their songwriting process. A little more time between efforts could go a long way to recharging the batteries, but this could also be a very unwanted omen of the wells running dry. The future shall tell.


(Just to keep it fair, "Succumb To This" is quite the track, and worth checking out)

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