{"id":6341,"date":"2012-04-21T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=6341"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:13:56","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:13:56","slug":"album-review-cradle-of-filth-midnight-in-the-labyrinth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-cradle-of-filth-midnight-in-the-labyrinth\/","title":{"rendered":"CRADLE OF FILTH – Midnight In The Labyrinth (2012) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRADLE OF FILTH
Midnight In The Labyrinth<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nPeaceville (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 3\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Ah yes, the much maligned Midnight In The Labyrinth<\/em>. This very talked about album features orchestral versions of some of Cradle Of Filth\u2019s fans\u2019 most loved works (ie the first four albums; 1994\u2019s The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh<\/em>, 1996 EP V Empire<\/em>, 1996\u2019s Dusk… And Her Embrace<\/em> and 1998\u2019s Cruelty And The Beast<\/em>). It features a lot of the band\u2019s early work and follows the format surprisingly closely but, notably, replacing the main instruments with orchestral ones. The set includes \u2018The Rape And Ruin Of Angels (Hosannas In Extremis)\u2019, \u2018Dusk And Her Embrace\u2019, \u2018The Twisted Nails of Faith\u2019, and more as well as one all new track, \u2018Goetia (Invoking the Unclean)\u2019.<\/p>\n

As a bigger fan of the UK band\u2019s post-major label work than their early ones, I considered myself a lot more open to this idea than many of the diehard fans. Even for a latecomer like myself, Midnight In The Labyrinth<\/em> is a pretty mighty let down, despite being a very cool idea.<\/p>\n

Realistically, the only disc worth talking about here is the first one, which features snippets of narration \/ kanoodling from Dani Filth and Sarah Jezebel Deva. Disc two features basically the same songs as complete instrumentals. It\u2019s not that these interpretations are bad, it\u2019s just that they go nowhere, with some mild exceptions. Without a proper vocal or an accompanying visual, it\u2019s hard to wrap your mind around any of this.<\/p>\n

There are a few bright spots though. For example, \u2018Funeral In Carpathia\u2019 is gorgeous as an orchestration and the band give you just enough extra to allow you to feel where they are taking it. It\u2019s a twisted take that is almost better than the original. \u2018The Forest Whispers My Name\u2019 is another notable exception with its spoken word journey that clues you in just enough to the journeyman\u2019s mind that you can understand why the music is as it is.<\/p>\n

On the other side of that coin, \u2018Dusk And Her Embrace\u2019 falls flat on its face, losing all the power of the original due to the keyboard heavy instrumentation, and \u2018The Rape And Ruin Of Angels (Hosannas In Extremis)\u2019 starts off strong but becomes redundant and so brooding that it loses your attention by mid-song.<\/p>\n

The lone new song, \u2018Goetia (Invoking The Unclean)\u2019, is subpar at best, starting off in a rather interesting way but failing to capitalize on what it has going by turning into a self-proclaimed \u201caural s\u00e9ance\u201d that makes little, if any, sense. <\/p>\n

All in all, this album is a mammoth two-disc set that drowns you in its soundtrack approach. Without a proper movie for it to follow, it just becomes a bit of a muddled mess after the fifth or sixth track. I am a huge fan of orchestral scores but this just doesn\u2019t do it for me. If Cradle Of Filth had chosen a half dozen songs and set it to an animated story or a short film this could have been something truly special. Without an aid however, the songs just wander the labyrinth searching for a home that they never find. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CRADLE OF FILTHMidnight In The Labyrinth Peaceville (2012)Rating: 3\/10 Ah yes, the much maligned Midnight In The Labyrinth. This very talked about album features orchestral versions of some of Cradle Of Filth\u2019s fans\u2019 most loved works (ie the first four albums; 1994\u2019s The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh, 1996 EP V Empire, 1996\u2019s Dusk… And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,317],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-cradle-of-filth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11997,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6341\/revisions\/11997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}