Last we heard from British Dracula-worshiping black metallers Cradle of Filth was their epic livestream show back in May. Now, the band have announced their 13th album, and have celebrated this glorious news with the release of their first single via an appropriately over-the-top music video.
Cradle of Filth’s new album Existence Is Futile will drop October 22nd, 2021. The record was recorded during the 2020 lockdown, and features the return of Doug Bradley, better known to movie fans as Pinhead in the horror classic Hellraiser, who lent his talents to Cradle on such previous albums as 2000’s Midian.
According to frontman Dani Filth, “The album is about existentialism, existential dread and fear of the unknown. The concept wasn’t created by the pandemic. We’d written it long before that began, but the pandemic is the tip of the cotton-bud as far as the way the world is headed, you know? I guess the title, Existence Is Futile, does sound a little morbid. But again, it’s more about recognizing that truth and saying that everything is permitted because nothing really matters, which mimics the occultist Aleister Crowley’s maxim. We all know we’re going to die, so we might as well indulge life while we possess it. The final track on the album – ‘Us, Dark, Invincible’ – really drives that point home. Also, the artwork for this record was created by the Latvian visionary Arthur Berzinsh, who also dressed the last two albums, and that reeks of the exceedingly beautiful yet apocalyptic too.”
The album’s first single, “Crawling King Chaos,” takes a thrashier approach across the board, relying as much on its driving riffs as it does on its synths. The video, meanwhile, is ultra-cinematic, depicting the band bathed in red and performing to an undying tribunal of sorts. Also interesting is that Dani Filth has changed up his Halloween costume this time around, going with a red devil look rather than his usual vampire jack o’lantern make-up.
Watch “Crawling King Chaos” below:
Cradle of Filth’s Existence Is Futile drops October 22nd via Nuclear Blast, and is available for preorder. Check out the tracklisting and cover art below:
- The Fate Of The World On Our Shoulders
- Existential Terror
- Necromantic Fantasies
- Crawling King Chaos
- Here Comes A Candle… (Infernal Lullaby)
- Black Smoke Curling From The Lips Of War
- Discourse Between A Man And His Soul
- The Dying Of The Embers
- Ashen Mortality
- How Many Tears To Nurture A Rose?
- Suffer Our Dominion
- Us, Dark, Invincible
- Sisters Of The Mist (Bonus track)
- Unleash The Hellion (Bonus track)
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Words by Chris Krovatin
