★★★★★
Cradle of Filth releasing a concept record is like Tim Burton casting Johnny Depp in his next movie. Of course that's what they're going to do, why bother acting surprised? It's what's expected of them. Hammer of the Witches is Cradle of Filth's 5th concept record and their 11th overall. Despite numerous lineup changes, the band stands firm in their execution. This album features more of the same, with Dani Filth drenching razorblade guitars and orchestral swells with his wispy screams...
- www.punknews.org
2015-08-05
★★★★★
Hammer Of The Witches follows a lull in the fortunes of one of the UK's most notorious extreme metal bands, but, to their credit, Cradle Of Filth have spent the last decade or so avoiding the "symphonic black metal" pigeonhole that they're most associated with.
- recordcollectormag.com
2015-07-16
★★★★★
For a band best known for gimmicks -- Dani Filth's ghastly shriek, the oft-obnoxious keyboards and the infamous "JESUS IS A CUNT" shirt come to mind -- Cradle of Filth sure have built a lengthy career. is the 11th album by Dani and his rotating crew; perhaps the most recent line-up shuffle has invigorated the group, as it might be their most lively full-length in a decade. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm comes with pros and cons...
- exclaim.ca
2015-07-10
★★★★★
"This twelfth full-length studio album from the Filth hits all the expected notes, but it doesn't really knock any of them out of the park." Let's face it: Cradle Of Filth is never going to fully recapture the blasphemous evil of "Cruelty and the Beast" (and it's doubtful any band in the modern era could - that was a very different time)...
- www.metalunderground.com
2015-07-31
★★★★★
Cradle of Filth have been operating without a firm direction for the better part of fifteen years. Ever since , they have been trying to figure out how to blend their goth-inspired black metal with a more mainstream, guitar-dominated, approach - and they've never quite got it right. This revelation shouldn't come as a surprise; if we're being honest, none of Cradle of Filth's guitarists have ever been gifted riff-writers...
- www.sputnikmusic.com
2015-07-10
★★★★★
hile there is little chance that will ever seem as subversive and untamed as they did during their first flush of infamy two decades ago, Suffolk's leading purveyors of wildly theatrical extreme metal are still on excellent form. Hammer of the Witches offers the first fruits of a rejuvenated line-up, and pulls off the neat trick of being both a joyous nod towards past glories and a significant creative rebirth...
- www.theguardian.com
2015-07-10
★★★★★
"It was a simpler time back in '93, with shittier riffs, cheesier synths, godawful recording quality, and muffled proto-metal vocals that would make today's one-man basement black metal bands cringe in embarrassment." Looking back into the band's far past before moving forward with new material, the infamous Cradle of Filth decided to dig deep into the archives and unearth its final self-released demo prior to the first proper full-length, "The Principle of Evil Made Flesh...
- www.metalunderground.com
2014-06-05
★★★★★
Suffolk black metal legends Cradle Of Filth have reached and gone beyond the point of no return for most metal bands. Their last album, an orchestral self-indulgence from last year whose title this reviewer has forgotten like everyone else, was an error of judgment, so the quintet have to prove this time around that they've still got what it takes to compete...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-02
★★★★★
Beautifully executed, sensitively packaged but unlikely to be essential listening for any Cradle Of Filth fan, Midnight In The Labyrinth is a step into self-indulgent territory for the Suffolk metallers. Normally, Cradle's stock in trade is an expert combination of black metal, thrash metal and trad metal with a very British flavour, juiced-up with gothic sound effects, keyboards and symphonic elements - most of which are deliberately absent here...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-02