Track Listing

1. A Bruise Upon The Silent Moon
2. The Promise Of Fever
3. Hurt and Virtue
4. An Enemy Led The Tempest
5. Damned In Any Language (A Plague On Words)
6. Better To Reign In Hell
7. Serpent Tounge
8. Carrion
9. The Mordant Liquor Of Tears
10. Presents From The Poison Hearted
11. Doberman (Pharoah)
12. Babalon A.D. (So Glad For The Madness)
13. A Scarlet Witch Lit The Season
14. Mannequin
15. Thank God For The Suffering
16. The Smoke Of Her Burning
17. End Of Daze

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16990 in Music
• Brand: Cradle Of Filth
• Released on: 2003-03-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Album Description
Ninth studio album & first for Sony Music. 17 tracks of furious black metal. 2003.

Amazon.com
Damnation and a Day is the first album from Cradle of Filth that matches the group's monolithic musical ambitions. And it's no disappointment as they use their new-found major label muscle to excessive effect. Accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra and 32-voice choir from Budapest, they've raised their game, coming on like Venom as produced by Danny Elfman. Over 77 thrill-packed minutes in length, Damnation & A Day combines Cradle of Filth's trademark pulverizing riffs, shrieking raps, and monstrous chants with grandiose harmony vocals and portentous voiceovers. Like Black Sabbath, they regularly break their fierce assault with short instrumental interludes ("The Mordant Liquor of Tears"), then rev up again with ever more manic intensity. It seems their intention is to deliver a black-metal alternative to Carmina Burana, and it's to their credit that they come close, producing a series of scorching epics that would fit perfectly as the soundtrack to the extraordinary battle sequences in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. --Dominic Wills

Customer Reviews

for those unsure about buying this one....read this
I will admit, i am not a HUGE cradle of filth fan, nor was i ever. However since roughly 1995 ive kept my eye on COF so to speak. Every album that comes out by COF caught my attention and i always ended up listening to a few songs, but never buying an album. I didnt buy them mostly becasue they were overpriced and hard to find and becasue i just never found a reason to buy one. but ive always enjoyed their odd charm. Recently i saw "damnation..." ..., so i picked it up and after 3 straight through listenings, i can say that COF is a solid band. The first thing that i noticed was dani's banshee'esque screams, which can throw one off upon a first listen, and the excellent song structure that the band posesses. One more thing that throws me off is the opera-like choir singing that at times soungs a little cheezy. However, if you sit down uninteruppted (like in a car ride) and listen to most of the album straight through. You will be taken on a excellent and interesting musical ride. The addition of a full orchestra greatly adds to the sound and the songs which are fair in length take bounds and leaps and are not repetative, keeping the listener enthralled for the whole 77 minutes. So, if you're into metal and are looking for a completly different experience then this album is for you, but i must warn, that this album is not for everyone nor was it written for everyone. This isn't a song to song album, but a full concept connected album covering everything from classical pieces to blastbeats and screams of agony. So if youre not a fan take a chance and you just might find a nice treat for your ears...and if youre a fan of COF this album will meet all your demands. Enjoy.

"I thank God..." for these dark metal masters
There's no doubt about it. From the opening track to the last, "Damnation and a Day" is a furious, 77 minute black metal onslaught. Pausing only briefly for a few interludes (tracks 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17), before picking up where they left off with music and vocals that will shred your speakers. Dani Filth lays down blood curdling shrieks (which do often sound like a girl) against the fast and pummeling (often double bass) drums, and the vengeful, dark and brooding (but still fast) guitars.

But this album also mixes brains with brawn. "Damnation and a Day" is an allegorical concept album, based on the book of Genesis (in the Bible). This album, which is not Cradle's first concept album (2000's "Cruelty and the Beast" was their first), is broken down into four parts: Fantasia Down, Paradise Lost, Sewer Side Up, and The Scented Garden. This is the story, in a nutshell: God banishes Lucifer from Heaven, who then turns away from God and goes to Hell (which he created). After a failed attack on Heaven, Lucifer and his crew turn their attention to converting humans (to Satanism) and bringing about humankind's "End of Daze".

The aforementioned interludes (tracks 1, 5, 9,13, and 17) are transitions from one part of the story to another. Cradle of Filth use a 40 piece orchestra and a 32 piece choir for these interludes. It is necessary to play these tracks only if you want to listen to the C.D. as a whole.

(Other) highlights include:

The orchestra and thunderstorm samples make "A Bruise Upon the Silent Moon" a moody, ominous intro, foreshadowing the darkness to come. Take a deep breath, it's the last one you'll get for a while.
"The Promise of Fever" begins with an angelic sounding female choir, while Dani belts out his lyrics like an evil little fairy while the drummer, Adrian Filth, lays down a strong double bass line. Near the end of the song, Dani's voice shifts to a low grumble. On this album, his vocals switch from the aforementioned girl shriek, to an evil fairy yelling, to a low grumble. I think the low grumbling works better for him, and he should do it more often. Dani ends the song sounding like that same fairy...being suffocated.
"An Enemy..." has great back and forth churning riffs and double bass drum work. The song eventually slows down to a mid-tempo pace, but Adrian's heavy blastbeat remains.
"Better to Rain in Hell" has a small drum intro and dark guitar riffs which groove. Dani squeals, whispers and just about everything in between on this song.
On "Serpent Tongue", it sounds like Dani's grasping for air, whereas on "Carrion", he yells like he's a Girl Scout being tortured (against a wall of machine gun chugging riffs).
"Mannequin" has a rapid tempo change, with fast guitar riffs that almost bob up and down, and keyboards are thrown in this song, too. The keyboards used on this album add spacious textures to the otherwise amelodic black metal. It also helps add more spookiness and eeriness to the theme.
"Thank God for Suffering" has more machine gun double bass work and guitar work that sounds like it's wouldn't be out of place at a funeral. But this song is different due to the violin (which runs throughout) and a creepy spoken word whisper which ends the song.
"The Smoke of Her Burning" is another furious song; full with good, careening guitar and drum work.

The music might not change much from song to song, but at least (with music this unrelentingly dark), you can't accuse them of "shaving their edges off" or "selling-out."
Yes, Cradle of Filth have signed to a major record label, but that has allowed this album to have great production and mixing (something that has been a problem with past Cradle albums). And yes, Cradle of Filth might be mainstream for a black metal band (selling over a million albums worldwide), but it's not up to them how many albums they sell, now is it?

There's more to "Damnation" than what initially meets the ear, so this is not an album to take lightly. In addition, it's long (77 minutes), so you may want to listen to it in stages (more than one listen), but it also takes more than one listen to fully appreciate. It may not be easy to swallow and some parts of it may be a bit cheesy (i.e. "End of Daze"), but once you fully grasp the concept behind this album, you will realize "Damnation and a Day" is genius!

Take this Mainstream America!
People who are into other extreme music, meaning not Korn or Disturbed, will find the utter beuty and sheer delight in listening to this epic album.
This album is well written, well produced and well recorded with no shortcuts taken. You will find it overwhealming from the guitar riffs to the vocal acrobats that Dani Filth puts you through.
The best thing about Cradle of Filth is that it doesn't bore you with the popular and mainstream songwriting form. Songs actually build and have more to them than just an A and B section. the arrangements go beyond just your guitar bass and drums by adding a choir, orchestra and solo female vocals.
So take this album home darken your room (or listen on a stormy night) and kick back with your favorite beer and smoke and enjoy the next 76 minutes for it will take your mind soaring with all the dark imagry it beholds.