GIG: Cradle of Filth (Nottingham)

I'm rather late to the party when it comes to Cradle of Filth, having not really listened to them properly until earlier this year... about 30 years after their debut album! And while I have listened to all their albums (and there's a lot of them) I haven't yet had time to focus on one or two and really get into them properly - because COF, despite being 'commercial' in one sense aren't the most accessible of bands, with most songs being pretty long and with multiple time changes and parts. So in this instance it was simply a case of getting a recent setlist off the internet and then listening to it twice a day for the days leading up to the gig. Not a perfect solution but it was much better than going in completely blind.

But in fact my main motivation for attending this gig wasn't actually COF themselves, rather it was Aaron Stainthorpe's (My Dying Bride) new band 'High Parasite'. Unfortunately that meant having to endure Butcher Babies as well, and that was not a fun time.

I actually got to the venue in time to catch the last two songs of 'Black Satellite's' set. Which meant one jump-up-and-down-while-playing-the-lowest-note-possible-because-that's-what-being-heavy-is-all-about-these-days (Sepultura's 'Roots' has a lot to answer for) and one fairly decent Rammstein cover.

Thankfully the changeover times between bands was short and so it was only 15m to wait for 'High Parasite'. There was the legend himself, resplendent in his white suit and who's this on bass... why it's Skellator. Does this guy always look like this or was it just for Halloween (which was a few days ago). No idea, but it looks a bit silly. Anyway, the band only had a half hour and the sound was a bit rough at the start, but it settled down and they played all the best cuts from their recently released debut. Not a bad start, though it doesn't really feel like a band somehow - more like Aaron plus some youngsters along for the ride...

Having checked out the Butcher Babies on YouTube prior to the gig I knew they were going to be absolute dogshit, and I wasn't wrong. This band has to be one of the worst bands I've ever seen... well, heard. Because there was no way I was standing up for 3/4hr watching this garbage, I took myself off up to the balcony and found a nice comfy seat to rest my poor feet and spent the time WhatsApping Rose who was at home eating chocolate raisins and drinking wine. Honestly, Butcher Babies were painfully bad, and I detest the way American's pronounce 'Nottingham'.

'Fuck Yeah Notting-haaam'

There's only one Butcher Baby now, since the one with dark hair has left the band. I can't imagine how much more annoying it would have been with two of them pretending to be Phil Anselmo while the band skates through piss-poor approximations of 'Primal Concrete Sledge'. Jeeesus. At one point the remaining Butcher Baby asked the crowd if they know what time it is (in that dreadful 'faux-Death Metal' voice that these clueless fucks adopt when trying to make themselves sound 'METAL') to which my reply was... 'Time for you to fuck off back to America'.

JUST GOD AWFUL! At least I got to sit down.... that's the main thing. 🤣

And so it was finally time for Cradle of Filth, so I made my way down to the main hall and found a place to stand to the left of stage. Dani is hilariously odd, jumping up and down like an excitable dwarf, but at least he performs with conviction... his stage raps are a bit shit though. The sound was odd too, when they started playing it almost sounded like an intro tape. Very clean and strangely lacking bollocks and volume. Actually, judging by the ringing in my ears at the end of the night there was plenty of volume, but it sounded a bit 'hollow', kind of like the sound you sometimes get at larger venues where the sound doesn't feel like it's actually coming from the stage. I don't know if this was because the drums had plexi glass in front of them and I'm not sure there was any amps actually on the stage, but it was a bit strange and off putting. 

The band put in a good performance though and I would go and see them again, but I'd really like to be more familiar with their back catalogue first, and ideally I wouldn't have to endure Butcher Babies either. Not the best gig I've seen this year, that was always going to be Cloven Hoof, but a solid entry all the same. Next up is Agent Steel in London in December!