Track Listing

1. A Bruise Upon The Silent Moon
2. The Promise Of Fever
3. Hurt and Virtue
4. An Enemy Led The Tempest
5. Damned In Any Language (A Plague On Words)
6. Better To Reign In Hell
7. Serpent Tongue
8. Carrion
9. The Mordant Liquor Of Tears
10. Presents From The Poison-Hearted
11. Doberman Pharoah
12. Babalon A.D. (So Glad For The Madness)
13. A Scarlet Witch Lit The Season
14. Mannequin
15. Thank God For The Suffering
16. The Smoke Of Her Burning
17. End Of Daze

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81794 in Music
• Released on: 2004-12-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.co.uk Review
Damnation and a Day is the one the fans have been waiting for, Cradle of Filth's major label debut, their first album with a budget to match their monolithic musical ambitions. And it's no disappointment as they use their new-found financial muscle to predictably excessive effect. Accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra and 32-voice choir from Budapest (a city tolerably close to Transylvania), they've raised their game, coming on like Venom conducted by Danny Elfman. Over 77 thrill-packed minutes, they combine their usual pulverising riffs, shrieking raps and monstrous chants with grandiose melodic harmonies and portentous talkovers, along with rolling pianos ("Babylon AD"), eastern dirges ("Dobermann Pharoah") and female sweetness ("Mannequin"), plus a wide array of creepy whispers, sighs and screams. Like Black Sabbath in their pomp, they regularly break their fierce assault with short instrumental interludes ("The Mordant Liquor of Tears"), then rev up again with ever more manic intensity. It seems their intention is to deliver a Black Metal alternative to Carmina Burana, and it's to their credit that they come damn close, producing a series of scorching epics that would perfectly soundtrack the extraordinary battle sequences in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Only Cradle of Filth could do this. --Dominic Wills

CD Description
Fifth studio album from outrageous gothic black metal band and their first for the mighty Epic label. A sprawling concept album in the vein of 2000's 'Midian' featuring no less than 17 tracks, it was recorded at Parkgate Studio, Hastings with Doug Cook (Cathedral, Anathema, Drugstore). Utilizing the talents of a complete philharmonic orchestra, this is epic, dynamic, brutal music, bigger, bolder and more experimental than ever.

Customer Reviews

Damnation An A Day-From Genesis To Nemesis...
Biblical themes litter this epic masterpiece from the dimensions of filthy hell itself. The now five piece filth have created a majesterial album surely worthy of praise from Satan himself.

MUSIC
The music is amazing...filth have the fantastic ablilty to alter their sound according to concepts and themes within the songs, and that on which the album is based upon. Guitars crash and destroy heavenly deities whilst Paul, Dave and the addition of keyboardist Martin riff themselves to death. Despite only having two guitarists after Gians sudden departure filth seem stronger angrier and more agressive than before. As Dani hinmself said..it certainly dosent sound like a two guitar album.
The music is incredibly strong pulling you into the tide of the story and concept whilst matching it admirably. The biblical theme is echoed in the riffs (SEE doberman pharoah) and filth and co have even added egyptian sounding instruments (think sitars!) to add depth to the sound.The only complaint i have of this album is the fact Martin hasn't done any instrumentals. He did however write the choir sections...but the album lacks something in the fact it doesn't include such masterpieces as Creatures that kissed in cold mirrors...which i feel is a dying shame.

VOCALS
Next the addition of a 30 piece choir and film orchestra...which filth forked out thousands for...contribute heavily to the theme and sounds..layering Damnation with thickly textured angelic voices. Giving the album the quality of a horror soundtrack...Dani only completes the aural fest with his own unique and unrivaled vocals. Shrieks and tortured screams rent the air...hisses and spoken passages...prattled between deep dark grunts...in his own words these seriously are 'Dark Immortal Screams!'. Sarah Jezebel Deva also adds a heavenly touch with her also unrivaled and beautiful vocals particularly (my own fav) mannequin, in which she excels. Overall the album is littered with a huge peppering of all sex/type/range of vocals..becomming an increidbly rich offering...not forgetting narration from a fellow fiend from the Cradle of fear movie...reciting passages from the Holy Bible!!!!

CONCEPT AND PACKAGING
Once again an epic concept from Messrs Filth. The album traces the life of Feriluce (rearrange the letters to get Lucifer!)..from banishment from Hell...various romantic aqaintances he meets along the way...to nemesis. Not my favorite concept, and not as vampyric as some may like...but unarguably great! Design once again by John Coultard...each page of the cd booklet traces the story with exceptional graphic design and illustrational skills. This is a beautifully packaged and designed album-very apocalyptic and gothic.

This is definately an essential buy for any fans of Horror, Vampyres, and of course filth! Absolutely exceptional!

BEST TRACKS
Promise Of Fever, Serpent Tongue, Mannequin, Doberman Pharoah, Thank God For The Suffering.

I just wonder how Filth are going to develop from this album...and how they will manage to create a piece that excels Damnation........??

Darkest Wishes.....
To Damnation and beyond

Count Vladimir De Magpyre

COF's Major Label Debut - my opinion
This, as you've probably read above, is Cradle of Filth's major label debut. Before this release, they've been on various labels, from Music for Nations to Abracadaver. In order to understand just how great this album is requires an examination of their previous releases.

First off, it should be said that if black metal isn't your thing, you probably won't like this album at all. It does have some classical appeal. However, if you prefer the musings of the likes of Coldplay this probably won't be your bag.

There was one thing that let down every album previous to "Damnation and a Day" - budget. Instead of swathes of strings and choirs of angelic voices we got the 'General Midi sound-a-likes'. (Though, to be fair, Dani Filth and co were doing the best they could.)

But now on a major label, the obviously very talented Mr Filth and company have secured the services of a large orchestra and an equally large choir. Substituted for the ‘MIDI’ affair of previous albums, the music now truly sounds epic, sweeping, and full of gothic majesty.

The long and the short of it: if you like your music heavy, gothic, beautiful, slightly unhinged and at times scary, Damnation and a Day is truly superb.

They Haven't Sold Out
I keep hearing from certain reviews that cradle have sold out on this album. Yes, its different from Midian and Cruelty but in no shape or form have they sold out on this album. Theres stil the satanic and evil lyrics, heavy riffs and amazing drums. Dani's voice is still the same and as long as it stays like that Cradle will never be classed as sell outs. This is the longest album they have made clocking at 75 minutes. There are 5 instrumentals and 12 songs.

Song by Song -

Promise of fever - excellent start to the album, the first few notes are amazing as are the lyrics - 10/10

Hurt & Virtue - another brilliant heavy track. 9/10

Enemy led the tempest - one of the best on the album. more heavy drums and bass. 10/10

Better to reign in hell - fantastic, another excellent track. Dani's vocal is out of this world. - 10/10

Serpent tongue - not a great track. Quite tedious 8/10

Carrion - another great track. 10/10

mordant liquer of tears - ok, but nothing great - 8/10

presents from the poisened hearted - second best track on the album. love dani's vocal on this - 10/10

Babylon AD - great track, one of the singles. 9/10

Manequin - the first track i ever heard by Cradle. Didnt like them to start of but eventually got into it. excellent track. - 10/10

Thank god for the suffering - excellent ballad type song. 9/10

the smoke of her burning - without doubt the best track on the album - 10/10

there are five instrumentals, each one is very dark and atmospheric. brilliant 5/5 for all.