Cradle Of Filth Music:

		List Price: $17.98		Label: Mayhem Records Salesrank: 180415 Released: November 3, 1998
		Used Price: $6.96
		Media: Audio CD

Cruelty and the Beast Track Listing:
1. Once Upon Atrocity
2. Thirteen Autumns And A Widow
3. Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids
4. Beneath The Howling Stars
5. Venus In Fear
6. Desire In Violent Overture
7. The Twisted Of Faith
8. Bathory Aria: Benighted Like Usher/A Murder Of Ravens In Fugue/Eyes That Witnessed Madness
9. Portrait Of The Dead Countess
10. Lustmord And Wargasm (The Lick Of Carnivorous Winds)

Editorial Review:
Limited edition double disc version of the '90s top black metal group's 1998 offering with considerably different artwork and a bonus CD featuring five previously unreleased tracks, 'Black Metal', 'Sodomy And Lust', a cover of Iron Maiden's 'Hallowed Be Thy Name', and remixes of 'Lustmord And Wargasm' (The Relicking Of Cadaverous Wounds) & 'The Twisted Nails Of Faith' re-titled as 'Twisting Further Nails' (The Crucifiction Mix). A combined total of 15 tracks. Double slimline jewel case. A Peaceville/ Music For Nations/ Mayhem Records release.

Cruelty and the Beast Reviews:
BEST C.O.F. ALBUM EVER
2005-08-17 - THIS IS THE BEST CRADLE OF FILTH ALBUM EVER. I LOVE EVERY BIT OF THIS ALBUM. DANI FILTHS VOCS OM THIS CD IS AWSOME AND AMAZING DRUMMING BY NICHOLAS (WHO NOW DRUMS FOR DIMMU BORGIR AND OLD MAN'S CHILD). ALSO THE SECOND DISC HAS ANOTHER VERSION OF "LUSTMORD AND WARGASM" AND A COVER OF VENOMS "BLACK METAL" SODOMS "SODOMY AND LUST" AND IRON MAIDENS "HALLOWED BE THY NAME". AND A TECNO VERSION OF "TWISTING FURTHER NAILS". THIS MUST OWN BLACK METAL CD.

Cradles Craziest...
2005-06-12 - fast beat..dannys vocals were even faster .. a verry good album to own .. if ur a black metal fan u will think cd is different and its understandable because of danny's bitch vocals .. and if u love heavy metal u will live the bonus cd .. nick parker does a great job on the dumming .. production was ok very low 400hz and 800hz which makes drums and lead appear more .. this will always be in my cof collection ....buy this shit

Haunting
2004-05-03 - This is my favorite CD by COF. I think it's their best. When I first heard them, I could not stand to listen to Dani's screeching. Now I find his vocals have somewhat of an aphrodisiacal effect on me. This entire CD is a story based on the life of Elizabeth Bathory. The visual imagery provoked by Dani's poetic lyrics is disturbing. Having 6 members in the band really pays off too. One minute the listener is being assaulted by an onslaught of howling screams, heavy riffs and bass. Then just when you think your heart couldn't possibly beat any faster, the band gives you a chance to breathe and takes you on a journey filled with dark and sorrowful classical music. The keyboards add so much. It's especially scary if you create the right atmosphere for yourself while listening to it. Make sure you're home alone one night. Get a bottle of merlot and light some candles. Get yourself a black bed shroud or borrow one from a friend. Crank this CD up and read a book about Elizabeth Bathory by flashlight. 'The Blood Countess' by Andrei Codrescu is an easy and thrilling read. Keep in mind, it's only based on her life. It's fiction and it's kind of trashy. Nonetheless, it's absolutely frightening to read about this human monster. Once you have all the right ingredients to set the mood, you'll soon find yourself amongst the foreboding castles and snow-covered mountains of 16th century Hungary.

Their Iron Maiden cover on the bonus CD is great too. All the covers are excellent.

Cradle Of Filth's Darkest and Finest Hour! Yeah!
2001-09-19 - Chapter IV in the saga of Cradle Of Filth was my introduction to them and remains my favorite. It was also my introduction to the Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory, cousin to King Stephen of Poland and descendant of Vlad the Impaler, and more notably, Transylvania's most notorious and prolific serial killer, who had 600 recorded victims. Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu, often compared to Dracula by the Hungarians he persecuted, had nothing on Bathory. Cruelty And The Beast is Cradle's most brutal work to date, and to me, their masterpiece.

This is basically a concept album about Bathory, and we pick up the story at the start of her decade-long reign of terror, which began with the death of her husband Franz in 1602.

Like Dusk And Her Embrace, the opening track is an instrumental, but "Once Upon An Atrocity" is more ominous rather than the gorgeously haunting "Humana Inspired To Nightmare". I picture the camera zooming in on Bathory's castle, through the black exterior, and into the bowels of her throne room, where we zoom into the enthroned figure with long black hair, upon which rests a crown of thorns. Her head slowly rises up, and yellow eyes flash open, and she bares her teeth with a snarl. Then the opening chords of "Thirteen Autumns And A Widow" hammer in their violent glory.

"Thirteen Autumns And A Widow" and "Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids" run a total of fourteen minutes together and are my two favorite tracks on the album. The latter begins with Sarah Jezebel Deva's proclamation: "Hear me now! All crime should be treasured if they bring you pleasure somehow!" The former details her newfound life following the death of her husband. As the last line of the song says, her widowhood also extends to God and His wrath. Sarah Jezebel Deva has the most erotic lines ever: "More. Whore. More./Twitching makes me wet with thee/Carcass rub me raw".

That is followed by "Beneath The Howling Stars". The background choir and the following keyboard solo played over Dani's gravelly vocals in the song's softer midsection are still way harsher than anything in Dusk.

"Venus In Fear" is probably the most disturbing track on here, as it basically consists of high-pitched female screams of agony, while Bathory is clearly in the throes of passion watching them suffer. Now there's another movie-worthy scene that could make it to the silver screen only in this day and age, where the envelope keeps getting pushed year after year.

Psycho-inspired strings begin "Twisted Nails Of Faith", as well as a of the wicked queen in Snow White: "Mirror mirror on the wall..." Nicholas Barker's zyklon beats are really strong here. I love in particular the string arrangement in the middle is lovely, followed by the spoken words: "If blood is what thou craves, foul fiend/I will yield this witch to thee/If thou wouldst draw a veil for Me/O'er lengthening scars of age and grief".

Those who know the story of Bathory will know how the story will end. "The Bathory Aria", split into three sections, tells of her fall, as her crimes are discovered and she is entombed in the tower, surviving only four years. Only the finale, which slowly crawls to a halt, during which Bathory's words are spoken, does the music resemble anything fitting Dusk And Her Embrace. There follows the lamentfully sad string instrumental "Portrait Of A Dead Countess". I see her lying dignified in state on a slab of stone.

As for the bonus disc, their cover of Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is given the usual COF treatment, although the initial guitar sounds the same as Maiden before going into Cradle mode. This song is for those deviants or whoever had ways that were too much for society to handle. Linking this to the Bathory theme, this might be for her underlings. And the "Twisted Nails" remix is what COF would sound like if they decided to chunk their usual formula of black, operatic metal for techno.

Luisa Morando nearly steals the show from Cradle with the photos of her on the album cover and inside the album sleeve. Mark my words, that album cover of her as Elizabeth Bathory, lying naked in her tub of blood, will forever enter the music history books. Equally effective is the drinking from the chalice, and another shot of her in the tub, poised as if ready to rise, a bloodthirsty snarl on her lips. A quote from Nietzsche completes the photo: "There Is No Beast Without Cruelty."

Sarah Jezebel Deva and Danielle Cneajna lend their haunting and erotic vocals on their third Cradle album, beginning with Vempire, and they have surpassed themselves here. But apart from Morando, Deva, and Cneajna, there's one woman who surpasses them all, and that is the Heroine des Grauens herself, Countess Elizabeth Bathory.

All of which makes me wonder, why not make a movie about Bathory, based on this album, complete with music? Luisa Morando could easily translate her role as a mere album cover mannequin to a living legend. And it would have a limited audience instead of catering to the unadventurous mainstream masses, so that would be a persuasive argument for a COF collaboration on such a project.

one of the best albums of all time!
2001-08-31 - My favorite type of music would be prog-rock,(ex. Pink Floyd, Genesis, E.L.P, Dream Theater)but my next favorite genre is black metal! I like a lot of the keyboard-oriented black metal, so Cradle of Filth is my favorite of the genre. The keyboardist, Lector, is awesome. The sweeping atmosphere of the keyboards just make everything darker. Of course there's always the crunchy guitar riffs, high pitched shrieks too low growls, and fast hitting double-bass drums, but they can immediatly loose all that and have very beautiful keys over Danni Filths vocals. This album is just amazing