At least, this song is:
To be perfectly honest, that's not a song, it's an image of an album cover: CoF's 2004 album Nymphetamine, on Roadrunner Records (which, incidentally, is Dream Theater's new home).
Wikipedia informs me that the word 'Nymphetamine' is a portmanteau of 'nymphomaniac' and 'methamphetamine' - a woman with sex on the brain and a 'hard' chemical drug. As Dumbledore would say, peering into his pensieve, "A connection I could have made without assistance" -- and I did. I'm crediting Wikipedia because I didn't know that there was a word to describe words made from running other words together!
Wikipedia also lists the genre of music encompassing Cradle of Filth as 'debated.' Ha! Music genres, apart from the very broad ones, are highly subjective. I don't have much use for them. Music is music. Having said that, I would describe CoF as 'Gothic Metal' -- because it's definitely heavy metal music, and there's more than a dash of gothic influence in their dress and makeup.
Another example of what I would call gothic metal is the band Nightwish. Nightwish and Cradle of Filth are similar in that they exhibit the classic gothic metal feature of having a growling male voice juxtaposed with an operatic soprano female one. This is what really attracts me to this sort of music. I also listen to bands that feature only growling male voices, but the combination of heaviness and sweet melody pushes all the right buttons in my brain!
Those of you unaccustomed to listening to this sort of music might have a mental block against any music with growling vocals. I urge you to open your minds! Listen past the growls... listen to the background guitar chord sequence, in conjuction with the backbeat of the drums. Listen to the catchy main riff. And when the drums degenerate into straight double bass, try closing your eyes and focusing on the overall rythm. The guitar changes chords every bar or so, and the double bass forms a continous beat against that background.
Overall, I find the package very attractive! For this sort of music, growls fit much better than normal singing.
It's not as if this song has tremendously unintelligible growling anyway.
But oh - please don't try and focus on the lyrics (Bob Dylan fans, hark!). That's not the point of metal.
For the same reason, it really helps if you listen to this on speakers with depth - anything other than laptop speakers! If you have no other speakers, try earphones.
Cradle of Filth - Nymphetamine (Youtube) (fullscreen recommended)
