Cradle of Filth – Existence Is Futile

Cradle of Filth – Existence Is Futile, October 22nd, 2021 via Nuclear Blast

It’s always a bit pain and pleasure to get to review a new album from one of my favourite bands. Pain because of the high expectations and pleasure because, well, it’s my favourite band yay! Now, since Hammer of the Witches Cradle of Filth has been putting out great albums so expectations are certainly high. So what about this new one?

Existence is Futile is a great album, no denying that. But the greatness didn’t come easily. I had to work this album hard to make it reveal it’s true colours. The problem was partially in me because I expected something breathtaking. The album isn’t breathtaking, it’s basically the same CoF that has been for some time now. What makes the album great though, is the band’s ability to dress the it’s music to new clothes, depending on the current thematical framework. This time around the band has adopted more melancholic approach but it doesn’t alter or take anything away from the essence of CoF. It’s still extreme and aggressive and yet, very subtle and elegant. The band’s newest member, keyboardist Anabelle has really brought some new energy to the band and I like how she has managed to bring some old CoF vibes to the mix. Alltogether, Existence is Futile somehow reminds me of CoF of olde, with Anabelle’s singing and some of the guitarwork too.

Maybe it’s wrong for me to expect them too much but that’s just because I love the band. But a band with such experience, the ability to stay consistent and relevant, are the most important traits here. They don’t need to impress anyone anymore. But the ability to create consistent line of albums, can be considered a strenght. And Cradle of Filth is strong. Thank you for a yet another great album.

ARTIST: Cradle of Filth
ALBUM: Existence is Futile
Origin: United Kingdom
Genre: Symphonic black metal/gothic metal
Release date: October 22nd, 2021
Label: Nuclear Blast
Rating: 8.2/10 (great ?)

https://www.cradleoffilth.com

The Beginning of Project Beardman

Do you want to know how Beadman first came to be? No? Well I’ll tell you anyway, it may sound like an ordinary and everyday story to you but it does carry a tone of significance to me as an introvert person and afraid to voice out my opinion, it was the ultimate challenge to have my opinion out in the open, exposed to criticism and subjective debate. I have always been knowingly avoiding confrontations because I’m not good at it. And now, here I was, giving my take on things, how did it come to this?


The seeds of project Beardman were planted long before I actually got the guts to post anything online. The first time I was toying with the idea to start reviewing metal music albums was roughly ten years ago. It was a cautious, fragile and frankly, a rather distant dream at the time and I found myself short of courage and any decent platform to start, or that’s how I justified the desicion to myself anyway. Now, in retrospective, it might have been the right call, maybe not. But the dream didn’t wither, it was left to cook and mature when the time was ripe.And as time went by, the idea was evolving, getting more meat around it’s growing bones. And as I got older and more mature, so did the dream started materializing to something more tangible. I found myself so full of thoughts when listening to music and the need to get them out in the open was getting dire. It was however my persona that still fought against that need, I was still hesitant and in honest, reluctant to start putting anything out. My then current life situation didn’t really speak for the desicion to start making reviews. I had only just begun my life as a family man and the reality didn’t exacty meet with the dream so I found myself postponing things once again, sounds a bit like an excuse right? Perhaps it was but the dream survived…

My first review, April 20th, 2019 Hexed by Chilren of Bodom


Then, finally, in 2019 the time was right to begin. My life was going on steady and with relative ease and my favourite activities were starting to appear back into my life once more. My plans and visions regarding the project weren’t exactly ambitious. I was to start with my favourite albums and share my thoughts about them, I didn’t put out much thought to layouts and profile design, it was all about getting my thoughts out of my tiny but stubborn head. Instagram provided me with an ideal platform for this as it offered me a simple and rather quick way to post my reviews. The firs reviews were kind of modest ones because I was just trying to learn the language as English is not my native tongue and I was still figuring out how was I to do all this. But I soon got the hang of it pretty decently and things started to run smoothier.

Soon three years has passed and things have progressed quite a bit. Few months passed quickly, I was doing my reviews and not realluy expecting anything else, I was just happy to do what I was doing because I had the guts to start doing reviews and so far no-one had shot me down. Then, out of the blue skies I was tasked my with my very first review request and I was overwhelmed and, well, happy as a hippo, someone had noted my undertakings in a positive light. The band was called Target, a proggressive death metal band from Chile. So from there on my “hobby” took quite a big leap forward and I was poised to rethink my whole operation, the layouts and reviews needed some better design an structuring and at that point the first idea of putting up a blog or website started bouncing in my head and here I am dear reader, writing my first article on my very own website =). It took a couple of years to realise that idea but here I am, once again happy as a hippo. Review requests are coming in steady and balancing between them and my own album interests is starting to feel awful lot like a job. But I love it, I’m still the master of my own schedules and I don’t let the stress creep into my skull, not anymore hopefully. So, welcome aboard and I hope you like the ride too.

My first review request, July 12th, 2019 Target – Deep Water Flames

BeardMan Main