Cradle Of Filth – Existence Is Futile (2021)

January 5, 2022

Cradle Of Filth have been on something of a second wind for the last 6 or 7 years. I personally didn’t really enjoy the previous album, Cryptoriana, but it seemed to be generally well recieved by fans. I’m sure this second wind has been facilitated by the relatively stable lineup (the loss of Lindsey Schoolcraft aside), which in itself is a rarity for Cradle.

Existence Is Futile is a surprisingly “meta” offering from Dani and company, who are often away with the fairies and vampires and the odd blood-drinking countess or two. Instead we have themes of existentialism and environmental catastrophe, which I’ll admit, immediately got me worried. However, it was groundless, because all of this is filtered through the usual Cradle pomp and meandering metal madness. Existence… is absolutely on par with Hammer Of The Witches and its super, super cool to see the band maintaining such a high quality of output, especially after a lull around the 2010 years. Heck, some people are saying this is one of the best albums the band has done in their 30 year career, which I don’t agree with personally but it’s exciting to see how relevant and respected Cradle are today, with all the water under the bridge.

If you’ve somehow never heard Cradle Of Filth before, this is a good as any a place to start. They have a ton of albums in this vein and this is a great example of their modern sound. If it’s all a bit polished, or if you crave something a bit wilder, get yourself into their 90s output, which is just indescribably good.