A RANT OF RAVENS - the Damnation and a Day studio report.
Hell-o!
This is the first time I've been asked to write something for the official
website (and possibly the last...) so I'm sure you can understand how excited I
am to be able to let you all know that the new Cradle album is coming together
like some Neolithic beast amalgam. I'm positively pissing myself in sexual
trepidation at even the merest mention...
The studio is akin to a buzzy hive of activity right now, with several recording
processes' going on at the same time. In addition to the main recording room
we've got our own studios B and C set up for development of everyone's integral
musical parts. Once a drum take has been finalised we re-demo each track with
guitars, bass, keyboards and even vocals before the 'final take' in the main
control room, pushing our outlet for ideas to the limit and saving us a lot of
time in wasted experimentation in a studio that is costing the best part of a
grand a day. Nothing is spared (obviously including expense). Every avenue is
explored, each of us adding our own ingredients right up to the last minute. And
it doesn't stop there. Ideas are still encouraged and developed during the final
recording phase and captured there and then for everyone to hear, helping the
songs become even more dynamic, streamlined and complete. At least that is the
general intention!
Each track is hugely varied. Some, fast and brutal, others, mid-paced and heavy
with majestic keyboard parts and crushing melodic guitars. There's even a slow
song in the vein of Bathory Aria/ Beauty Slept At Sodom entitled 'Thank God For
The Suffering' which will incorporate full use of real life orchestration! We've
got lots of ideas sonically to keep each track surprising, with many new and
interesting layers, helping the album become a huge piece of work to take in all
at once. All done in the usual 'over the top' Cradle of Filth style, of course.
Plenty of influence from late night bonfire sessions induced with alcohol and
agricultural explosives put to varying degrees of misuse (we've been blowing a
lot of shit out of milk churns for our own jaded amusement including basket
balls, bin bags and nail clusters- don't worry there will undoubtedly be plenty
of footage for everyone to salivate over at a later date!).
It's been very creative since day one, well actually day one saw us celebrating
the fact that we'd made it as far as the studio with a massive drinking spree,
so at least since day two. Writing began in October 2001 at Springvale studios
in Ipswich and by February the band was well into its stride and able to demo
the first thatch of songs. Two pre-production sessions followed in May and June
in a secret hidden location in deepest, darkest Wales, (the somewhat rustic
Windings) resulting in all 12 songs being recorded at a high standard, giving us
the confidence to enter Parkgate Studio, Hastings (battle site of the Midian
opus) in mid-July with machinegun-toting engineer Doug Cook (Midian/Bitter
Suites/Live Bait For The Dead) guiding the chaos and peppering underachievers in
the band with a hail of gas-propelled Uzi pellets.
I can't give away much in song titles yet (as well as the aforementioned 'Thank
God....' confirmed track titles include 'Presents From The Poison-Hearted',
'Mannequin' and 'Horror Epic') but I can tell you the album will be 17 tracks in
total! Including: Intro, Outro, 12 songs and 3 instrumental links, which have
been written by Martin and will be recorded with a full philharmonic orchestra,
with the help of one Dan Presley, who is in the process of scoring all the parts
we need in order to take it over to Budapest in Hungary, where the choirs and
thirty-six piece orchestra suitable to our 'special' needs are based.
We are recording the album in two separate, 6 song sections, although on the
album these will be further split again to provide four quarters or acts. This
will be a huge advantage later as the first six tracks can be listened to while
the other six are being recorded, meaning that we have more time to develop
ideas and make important changes right up to the time the whole composite can be
mixed.
Right now everyone wants to know what the hell this new album is all about, this
will be explained by Dani in the next exciting instalment which you will receive
sometime soon; when the moon hangs in the ether like a rotted wedge of cheese.
Until then, stay hungry....
Yours, wallowing in filth and as thick as pigshit.....
David Pubis (C.O.F spassist).
P.S: Other things worthy of note are firstly the new promo for 'No Time To Cry'
(the Sisters Of No Mercy remix), which should be showing on cable and
satellite as soon as the final edit is approved); the 'Live Bait For The Dead'
release scheduled for mid-August I believe and last, but not least, a full
colour poster supplement to the current issue of the British magazine Metal
Hammer, which features ten glossy pull outs of the band as taken by top
photographer Fin Costello, responsible for such infamous album covers as Ozzy's
'Bark at the Moon' and Twisted Sister's 'Under the Blade'.
To be continued......
http://www.theorderofthedragon.com 
