Year: 2019
Total Time: 66:00
Label: Music For Nations
What do we have here? One of CRADLE OF FILTH’s most excellent albums, the magnificent “Cruelty And The Beast”, re-mixed and re-mastered. Although this album is now classic and much-loved, it is well known that it had many issues with its sound, which mostly came from Dani’s disagreement with their then-drummer Nick Barker. So, years later, 21 years later to be exact, Mr. Dani Filth or Daniel Lloyd Davey, if you prefer, decided to re-release the album as it should have been released back then. Fast forward in October 30, 2019 (for Japan) and November 1 (for the rest of the world) and the album is released again, with new artwork, re-mixed and re-mastered, titled “Cruelty And The Beast: Re-Mistressed”. Let’s dive into it…
To begin with, as a drummer myself, I must admit that the new drum sound is amazing. We can finally hear the marvelous drums that Mr. Barker played and especially his drum rolls, which I am very fond of. It was time to give them the proper weight (metaphorically and literally). As for the guitars, they got the volume they deserved and the album finally comes like a stone wall in our ears. Regarding the vocals, the truth is that I didn’t notice something very different, except that they sound clearer and better than the original. Moving on to bass, its combination with the drums now shows how tight and powerful this rhythm section was. It is well known that Robin Graves was not a bass player to take lightly. Now, as everything sounds too good to be true, there is something that at least for me, was a bit off, but not throughout the whole album. The keyboards. While the new sound gave a whole new atmosphere to the album, I can’t help noticing that in some parts, it sounds like a child’s synthesizer. You know what I mean, the keyboards we once had as kids. It might just be me, but take a listen to the intro of the “Thirteen Autumns And A Widow” and you’ll probably know what I mean.
Reaching the end of this “review”, I will say this: Yes, the new sound, finally gives justice to the album that has been waiting so long for to sound right, but let’s be realistic. I don’t personally change the original thing for nothing. That’s how we first listened to it, that’s how we loved it, and that cannot change. We have many examples of such albums, one of them being, let’s say “… And Justice For All”. Of course it is very good with bass, but the original is what we know and like. Long story short, I agree with this re-release, I’ve listened to it several times because I really like it, but I do end up listening to the 1998 version.
Rating: N/A
Editor: Nikos Samios
Related Link: CRADLE OF FILTH – Official Page
