aaamusic | On 23, Oct 2011

Context is an odd thing for a record to need, but in the case of this stopgap E.P by nigh-on legendary Suffolk Metallers Cradle of Filth, it’s kind of necessary. Y’see, Evermore Darkly is something of a grab-bag of Dani Filths crew’s past, present and future, acting as a full stop for their last album campaign, including reworked versions of some tracks from last album Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa, a taster for their forthcoming orchestral album (amusingly listed as a “Breadcrumb trail”), two new tracks (although, as a self consciously creepy monologue by a Alan Rickman Sound-a-like about a supposed recording of the screams of those in hell found in a Siberian mine backed by static and other strange noises, it’s difficult to call Transmission From Hell a “track”) and a trance remix of another track from Venus Aversa.

 

So a mixed bag then, but Filth made clear in it’s press release that this is entirely for the fans, and in that case he’s knocked it out the park, other new track Thank Your Lucky Scars is rawer and more propulsive than anything on here, and is all the better because of it, the orchestral version of Summer Dying Fast from debut album The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, is an awful lot of black clad fun, and in a way, that pretty much sums up the E.P as a whole. It’s like a Hammer Horror musical, melodramatic, dark and an unhealthy amount of good, defiantly unclean fun, but not quite for everyone, just the way Dani Filth would like it.

 

Will Howard