Cradle of Filth don’t do things by half, that’s for sure, and with ‘Existence…‘ raising the benchmark yet again, we wanted to know a little bit more about what guitarist Richard Shaw had to say about the LP…
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‘Existence Is Futile‘ is plainly the darkest and most unsettling album CRADLE OF FILTH have made in a while.
Eschewing the band’s trademark twisted storytelling in favour of horrifying glimpses into the mortal void and ruminations on the inevitable destruction of life on Earth, its poignancy and relevance to the cluster of nightmares facing humanity in 2021 is impossible to ignore, even if Dani Filth insists, not unreasonably, that he didn’t anticipate a global pandemic when the news songs were being written.
“The album is about existentialism, existential dread, and fear of the unknown. The concept wasn’t created by the pandemic. We’d written it all before that began, but the pandemic is the tip of the cotton-bud as far as the way the world’s going, you know? I guess the title, »Existence Is Futile«, does sound a little morbid. But again, it’s more about recognising that and saying that everything is permitted because nothing really matters, which mimics Aleister Crowley’s maxim.
We all know we’re going to die, so we might as well indulge life while we have it. The final track on the album – ‘Us, Dark, Invincible’ – really emphasises that. Also, the artwork for this record was created by the Latvian visionary Arthur Berzinsh, who also dressed the last two albums, and that is exceedingly beautiful yet apocalyptic too.”
Order your copy today via this link.
