Gig report: Cradle of Filth, Zagreb, Croatia 27.07.2024.

After 15 long years Dani and The Filths had finally ungraced the capital city of Croatia with their presence.  The reason for their long absence, well, perhaps had a good reason; this is being their third coming in Croatia, the first one was in 2006 during their Thornography era which is horridly divisive record, and back in 2009 where their newest release was Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder what in all aspects is a far superior album, but the second coming was not a glorious one.

Moonspell, their supporting act, in all leagues stole the show that night and Cradles set was around 45 minutes long accompanied with a dreadful sound in half empty venue which as Boogaloo at the time. I remember that a lot of local sites were throwing verbal faeces in review of their show that year and for a good reason. It was lacklustre, by the numbers performance in all accounts.

To be honest, those years were not kind to the band and were bit of a laughing stock with a very divisive fan base.  Dani’s vocals since the early 2000s were becoming worse and worse, albums like Nymphetamine  and Thornography  all but alienated the old fans that stood by them even in the Midian era.  In short, it was not easy being a Cradle of Filth fan.

But something interesting happened, while everyone was bitching how they “sold out”, Dani and the gang released six more albums which I like to call “The Apology” records. Of course, nowhere near the glorious vampiric days of Dusk… and Her Embrace or Cruelty and the Beast but still captured that essence of the Midian-like era with elbowing with their older material from time to time. There some really good material there for those willing to look.

But back to the gig, no support acts who paid their way to annoy us with their mediocre material for 40 something minutes, it was just Cradle of Filth, so everything was on them that night.

The doors were opening in 20:00 and even before that there was a steady line of fans forming to get in there and occupy the desired position. Stuff like this I had not seen in a while so that’s a promising start, as well a sure indication that we will be well squeezed in a size for everyone goth sandwich. Similar situation with Steel Panther, Tvornica Kulture is not that well known for not having the best AC, if any.

Crew from Cradle probably knew that so the stage was decorated, besides your usual Filth aesthetics, with huge fans on which dear little Dani will stumble from time to time, leaving a big fellow from the crew popping on the stage to rearrange the metal fans. This is actually their first date of the second leg of Necromantic Fantasies (Beyond the Pale 2024)  tour so we had a pleasure of seeing a very professional and well played line up having their “warm up show”, finding their footing with some clumsy moments and minor technical difficulties which they will surely grind out in the coming dates.

The show was a bit late, some 15 minutes, with starting with an intro and opening track Existential Terror  the newest well praised album Existence is Futile, although not one of mine favourites of the latter releases it does sound very solid live, especially Crawling King Chaos which is a fucking beast of a song on its own.

Speaking of beasts, Dani”s voice is as vicious and dominant as it can be at this point. Plainly speaking, he is performing tracks like Nymphetamine and The Promise of Fever way better then in that year those tracks were recorded.  You had your usual jumping around and him running to the sound guy complaining about his wireless microphone. That’s nothing new in his department, same thing goes with his witty crowd interactions and puns thrown in for a good measure, which is always welcome. Now that I mentioned it, the whole bands performance is stellar; especially Ashok (who sports a cool Pinhead look, Lament Configuration and all) that comfortably took the position as the main string guy after Richard Shaw unfortunately left the band some years ago.  Same amount of praise goes to the drummer Marthus, the poor guy was probably dying from the heat up there but still delivered in the hammering department.

The setlist is quite impressive as well, with a few surprises like Saffron’s Curse and Born in a Burial Gown, it is obvious that the band is trying to appeal to every demographic which can sound a bit hectic at times. It is still quite annoying that a track like Nymphetamine gets a bigger crowd reaction then cult classics like Dusk and Her Embrace and The Principle of Evil Made Flesh.  Maybe that just me being an old geezer.

Besides a few technical issues (keyboards were practically inaudible) and this their first date of the tour, Cradle of Filth finally gave Croatia a performance worth seeing, lasting almost an hour and a half. Third time is the charm I guess.

 

SETLIST:

The Fate of the World on Our Shoulders

1. Existential Terror
2. Saffron’s Curse
3. She Is a Fire
4. The Principle of Evil Made Flesh
5. Crawling King Chaos
6. Nymphetamine
7. Dusk and Her Embrace
8. Necromantic Fantasies
9. Born in a Burial Gown

Creatures That Kissed in Cold Mirrors

Encore:

A Bruise Upon The Silent Moon

1. The Promise of Fever
2. Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids
3. Her Ghost in the Fog
4. From the Cradle to Enslave

Blooding the Hounds of Hell