50 Best Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Albums Of 2017

Cradle of Filth are an act so controversial that to label them with the clichéd mantle of a “marmite band” would be a disservice. For every metalhead that loves the Dani Filth-helmed, gothic juggernauts for their ability to create a haunting, Victorian atmosphere and their eye-catching, horror film-inspired imagery, there’s another that will dismiss the band as laughably silly, style-over-substance and a disservice to the legitimacy of extreme metal (yes, I’ve really heard people go that far).

However, as the presence of the band’s twelfth album Cryptoriana: The Seductiveness of Decay on this list will attest to, I love a bit of Cradle. And many others have started to recently as well, with both this album and its predecessor Hammer of the Witches (2015) being hailed as among the group’s best work.

Both records are masters of crafting a dark atmosphere while possessing thrashing – and sometimes melodic – death metal riffing. For every powerhouse guitar shred that Richard Shaw and Ashok bust out, Dani Filth and keyboardist/backing vocalist Lindsay Schoolcraft find time to lay down a deliciously weighty supply of the choral and operatic. It is that balance that makes for a deeply enjoyable record, at times over-the-top but always having so much fun and self-awareness with it that you don’t really care.

No matter who you are, it’s more than worth blasting Cryptoriana out as loud as possible. Who knows, it might just seduce you into its brilliantly dark world of Hammer horror movies and demonic chanting in the process.