CRADLE OF FILTH // Howling Moon, Blackest Night

CRADLE OF FILTH with Lavidius
The Triffid, Brisbane
Thursday 10 May , 2018 

The only thing more intense than a Cradle Of Filth live-show is the gathering of overly-dedicated Cradle Of Filth fans around a well-stocked bar.

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We’re in The Triffid beer garden on this Thursday evening with our friend Geoff, trying to enjoy a quiet beverage before the goth show, when we’re quickly exposed to a barrage of life stories and emphatic questions from a raucous and well-inebriated couple. At one-point, old love delivers several variations on the same ‘I like your tattoos’ sentence, while her partner-in-crime declares that he can lick his elbow before daring anyone in the vicinity with a beer to see him try. Naturally our journalistic curiosity must be sated, however, while this does result in an amusing display, it also leads to spilled beers which is lamentable for obvious reasons. Sensing an opportunity to bail unscathed, we cajole Geoff and quickly rush downstairs to meet our friend Georgia at the door, spying someone along the way with the now-standard ‘JESUS IS A CUNT’ t-shirt, signifying that it’s now officially a metal gig.

Tasked with being the only support band this evening, local groove metallers Lavidius take to the stage amid a warm bathing of house lights and seem determined to give it a red-hot crack. With Cradle’s live show having a reputation for undeniable spectacle, there’s really no point in trying to one-up that shit, the only real alternative being to play it straight down the middle. Thankfully, the Brissy five-piece are cognisant of this fact, setting up power-stances within the first 30 seconds of their set and immediately taking care of business. It’s all headbang riffs and clean melodic licks, closely aligned to your Lamb Of God/Bullet For My Valentine/Trivium school of ‘meat and potatoes’ metal, but the Triffid crowd are certainly digging it and the group receive some enthusiastic cheers and timid horns between songs.

Lavidius // By Bec Reid

Vocalist Nathan Stiffel growls his way through tracks like single Cold and Alone, with his hair flowing behind him due to the curious placement of a fan/wind machine near the stage monitors. It’s certainly not the first time we’ve noticed this Fabio-esque effect at a Triffid gig–nor do we suspect it will be the last–but we’re totally cool with it. Guitarists Jon Shedden and Marcus Glover are deep in concentration during the Opeth-like bridge of another track, with not-so-subtle nods to each other regarding their stage positions and choreographed headbanging. Drummer Ben Bowen delivers an admirable effort, even if at times it feels like he’s being measured not out of deliberate restraint, but more a willingness to keep up with his bandmates and not let the wheels fall off the performance bus. All in all, it’s a solid showing for Lavidius tonight and just the thing this booze-thirsty crowd needs to get primed for tonight’s main event.

While we wait for the stage-swap, we venture back out into the beer-garden wilderness for some naturalist goth gawking. Geoff ponders how many women here tonight prefer to go by ‘Raven’ and who might still have their VampireFreaks account active. Georgia returns from the Ladies room to advise that there’s been some wardrobe malfunctions with a bunch of girls wrapped in multi-coloured PVC outfits, and we can barely contain our surprise at this delightful little tidbit. The rowdy couple from before are still on the upstairs balcony running amok, only this time they’ve levelled-up to just outright pouring drinks on unsuspecting patrons leaving the bathrooms below. Objectively funny, yes; however, security doesn’t appear to take kindly to this behaviour and we have a complete lack of surprise here also.

Danni Filth’s stage persona is actually just a curious mix of satanic court jester and distinguished English gent.

Swinging back in to the live room, we’re just in time for the dim of the lights and a fresh round of drinks before Cradle Of Filth grace the stage with their sacrilegious presence. Even if you came in to this gig completely unware of what was about to unfold, the stage banner adorned with the suitably grim Cryptoriana album cover–a naked and bleeding virginal visage–would certainly be enough to tip you in the right direction. Theatrically, the opening combo of tracks titled Ave Satani and Gilded Cunt serve this purpose as well, with epic strings and swelling orchestral moments, all before vocalist and one-man hype machine Danni Filth emerges, draped in a black, ominous hood, ready to rip his larynx open with a great big satanic bellow and piercing shriek.

Cradle Of Filth // By Bec Reid

This being their first performance Down Under in five years, the band seem revitalised and quite energetic, perhaps due to the injection of new blood in membership. During a rousing performance of Beneath the Howling Stars from their 1998 Cruelty and the Beast record, guitarists Richard Shaw and Marek ‘Ashok’ Smerda exchange bemused expressions with the roaring crowd, their fingers seemingly possessed by demonic will as they explore and caress their respective frets. As he pauses briefly for some witty banter, we decide that Danni Filth’s stage persona is actually just a curious mix of satanic court jester and distinguished English gent. Adorned in costume and make-up, Danni thanks the crowd for coming, admits that he’s nostalgic for our ‘drop bears’ and repeatedly uses “anywho” between sentences. It’s as endearing as it is bizarre, but shock value aside, when the band launches back in to Blackest Magick in Practice, it’s clear that we’re witnessing a very well-oiled machine at work.

When Cradle whip out Heartbreak and Seance from 2017’s well-received Cryptoriana (which Danni humourously and self-effacingly refers to as “their latest musical excretion”), Smerda leans in to the crowd gripping his axe like some kind phallic divining rod, gesturing at patrons in apparent need of lust and appreciation. Keyboardist and vocal songstress Lindsay Schoolcraft lends her feminine charm to tonight’s gothic atmosphere, waving her arms around like she’s channelling energy from some distant ethereal plane. It’s hard to see drummer Martin ‘Marthus’ Skaroupka from behind his off-centre barrier cage, but we do witness his head and headphones bobbing up and down furiously with every cracking snare and frenetic blast-beat. Right before the impossibly titled Bathory Aria: Benighted Like Usher / A Murder of Ravens in Fugue / Eyes That Witnessed Madness (yeah cheers, Edgar Allan Poe), Danni gives a shout to “all the evil fucking women in Brisbane” and unsurprisingly, the female contingent here tonight are definitely stoked on this accolade. Be it any other show and such a declaration might illicit some solid jeering, but not tonight and not on Danni’s watch.

Cradle Of Filth // By Bec Reid

When the band reaches Dusk and Her Embrace, Danni remarks that we’ve all survived up until now in 2018 and that life hasn’t been reduced to a Planet of The Apes-style apocalypse just yet, which for this reviewer, wearing a tee emblazoned with the slogan ‘The Only Good Human Is A Dead Human’, gives us a little goth heart flutter from the back of the room. There’s a huge response for new track You Will Know the Lion by His Claw, with dudes in the crowd holding up their mits in response, and one bloke is so psyched on this that he stands in front of us flipping off the band for the whole song, smiling drunkenly the entire time. It’s here that we reach the encore, which is essentially just a lack of lights and more orchestral interludes, before Cradle return to throwdown the high school nostalgia portion of the evening, with epic tracks like A Bruise Upon the Silent Moon and The Promise of Fever from their stellar Damnation and a Day record, followed by the glorious Nymphetamine (Fix). Closing with an odd choice of From the Cradle to Enslave, the Triffid send Cradle off with one last cheer before the show is over, but you best believe that the bar is still open and Brisbane is more than keen to howl at the moon long in to the blackest night.

Catch Cradle Of Filth at the following dates:

Friday 11 May // 170 Russell // Melbourne (18+)
Saturday 12 May // Metro Theatre // Sydney (18+)
Monday 14 May // Capitol // Perth (18+)

Tickets available here.