Hecate Enthroned "Virulent Rapture [Italy, Crank Music Group, CRK-003]"

Virulent Rapture is the fifth studio album by British band Hecate Enthroned, and their first album of new material since 2004's Redimus. It was released on 25 November 2013 via Crank Music Group, being their first album to be so, as well as their only release with vocalist Elliot Beaver and first with drummer Gareth Hardy on the line-up, who replaced long-time vocalist and drummer Dean Seddon and Robert Kendrick, respectively (both were fired in 2012).

The album was initially announced on a 21 January 2013 interview with webzine RoarRock.

The band announced on their official Twitter on 8 July 2013 that the new album was finished, "aside from some mixing and mastering issues", and that they were "looking at a self-release in the next few months". According to the band by then, the album was scheduled to be released on late November or early December 2013.

On 18 September 2013, Hecate announced they signed to a new label, Crank Music Group, and that it would release their album circa November.

On 23 October 2013, the artwork for Virulent Rapture was unveiled via Blabbermouth.net, and its release date was revealed as being on 25 November 2013. On the same day, a small, 21-second teaser of the track "Unchained" was posted by Crank Music Group on their official YouTube channel.

The track "To Wield the Hand of Perdition" was released online (via Crank Music Group's YouTube channel) on 19 November 2013.

Sarah Jezebel Deva, famous for her work with Angtoria and Cradle of Filth, provides additional vocals for the album's self-titled track.

On 20 June 2014, a music video was made for "Abyssal March". It is Hecate Enthroned's first music video since "An Ode for a Haunted Wood", made in 1995.

Track listing

The album's track listing was unveiled by Crank Music Group on their official website on 28 October 2013.

1. "Thrones of Shadow" 4:46
2. "Unchained" 4:37
3. "Abyssal March" 4:08
4. "Plagued by Black Death" 7:59
5. "Euphoria" 4:43
6. "Virulent Rapture" (feat. Sarah Jezebel Deva) 5:30
7. "Life" 5:19
8. "To Wield the Hand of Perdition" 3:05
9. "Of Witchery and the Blood Moon" 5:33
10. "Immateria" (instrumental) 3:05
11. "Paths of Silence" 6:43

Time:  55:28

All music written by Hecate Enthroned.

Recording information:

Recorded during 2013 "in a never ending hell" at Velocity Raptor Studios, Birkenhead UK.

Co-produced/engineered by Hecate Enthroned.

Mastered at KKDigital recording studio.

Mike Smith – production, engineering, mixing

Kami Kopat – mixing, mastering, graphic layout

Néstor Avalos – cover art

Cradle Of Filth "Midian"

Midian is the fourth studio album by English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth. It was released on 30 October 2000, through Music for Nations. The album marks the return of guitarist Paul Allender to the band, as well as the introduction of drummer Adrian Erlandsson (At the Gates, The Haunted) and keyboard player Martin Powell (My Dying Bride, Anathema).

Midian is inspired by English author Clive Barker's novel Cabal and his subsequent film version Nightbreed. Dani Filth explained to the magazine Empire in September 2012:

We loved Cabal, The Damnation Game and The Books of Blood, and we liked that everything had "Clive Barker presents..." on it before people even knew who he was. That gave it an air of mystery: you should know who this is, but you don't. Midian kind of is and isn't a concept album: as a title, it just made perfect sense. The central song, "Tortured Soul Asylum", is about Midian, and the characters in the rest [of the album] made up a sort of collective from this mythical place where the monsters live.

Doug Bradley, who played the role of Lylesberg in Nightbreed (but is better known as Pinhead from Barker's Hellraiser and its sequels), provides narration on some tracks.

In the Bible, the "Midianites" are an Arab tribe descended from Abraham, and Midian itself is where Moses spent his forty-year exile from Egypt. The biblical Midianites take their name from Midian, a son of Abraham, and one of his concubines. Today, the former territory of Midian is found through small portions of western Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, southern Israel and the Sinai. The people of Midian are also mentioned extensively in the Qur'an, where the name appears in Arabic as Madyan. The Midian of Cabal and Nightbreed is a hidden city west of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, offering shelter for monsters away from humanity.

The song "Cthulhu Dawn" invokes the character from horror writer H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

The opening line of "Lord Abortion" ("Care for a little necrophilia?") is a quote from Terry Gilliam's film Brazil (voiced by Kim Greist in the film, but delivered here by Toni King, frontman Dani Filth's wife).

Midian was released on 30 October 2000 by record label Music for Nations. It reached number 63 in the UK Albums Chart. The cover was by the artist J.K. Potter. It was subsequently also used as the jacket for Potter's 2002 horror fiction anthology Embrace the Mutation.

"Her Ghost in the Fog" spawned a music video, which received heavy rotation on MTV2 and other rock channels, and was directed by Alex Chandon (who also directed the 2001 horror film Cradle of Fear in which Dani Filth appeared). "Her Ghost in the Fog" appeared on the soundtrack for Ginger Snaps in 2000 and in the video game Brütal Legend in 2009.

The album was reissued in 2012 by The End.

NME called it "one of the most ludicrous records you'll ever hear", though their review was favourable.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Dani Filth; all music is composed by Cradle of Filth, except "For Those Who Died" written by Andy Sneap and Martin Walkyier.

1. "At the Gates of Midian" 2:21
2. "Cthulhu Dawn" 4:17
3. "Saffron's Curse" 6:32
4. "Death Magick for Adepts" 5:53
5. "Lord Abortion" 6:51
6. "Amor e Morte" 6:44
7. "Creatures That Kissed in Cold Mirrors" 3:00
8. "Her Ghost in the Fog" 6:24
9. "Satanic Mantra" 0:51
10. "Tearing the Veil from Grace" 8:13
11. "Tortured Soul Asylum" 7:46

Limited leather "digibook"/Japanese edition

1. "For Those Who Died" (Sabbat cover, featuring Martin Walkyier – mis-titled "For Those Who Have Died" on Japanese CD liner) 6:16

Recording information:

Recorded at Parkgate Studios, Battle, Sussex, 2000.

Mastered at Whitfield Street, London.

Cradle Of Filth "V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein (EP)"

V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein is an EP by English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth, and the first release following their 1994 debut studio album The Principle of Evil Made Flesh. It was released on 22 April 1996, and was the band's final release for Cacophonous Records.

V Empire was hastily written and recorded for Cacophonous Records as a contractual obligation before the band jumped ship to Music for Nations. As such, it is the first of two albums released in 1996, the other being Dusk... and Her Embrace. Half of the band was replaced for this recording, with Stuart Anstis replacing guitarists Paul Allender and Paul Ryan and Damien Gregori replacing keyboardist Benjamin Ryan. All the guitars on V Empire were performed by Anstis. The name "Jared Demeter" listed as a second guitarist in the liner notes included in the booklet of the EP is just a made-up name to give the impression that there were two guitarists on the EP. Also, all keyboard duties on V Empire were handled by Keith Appleton. V Empire is the first recording to feature backing vocalist Sarah Jezebel Deva.

V Empire sees a step up in production from the band's debut and introduces the fast, highly technical instrumentation that would be the hallmark of the band's next few releases.[1] It includes a re-recorded version of "The Forest Whispers My Name" from the band's first album, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh.

The Gospel of Filth, a definitive history of the band and its influences, written by Gavin Baddeley and Dani Filth and published in 2010, refers to this record throughout as V Empire. Due to the typographic sizing and spacing of the record's cover art, however, it has been widely read as Vempire in the years since its release. References like AllMusic and Discogs continue to retain the latter spelling, while some recent interviews appear to indicate that the band also pronounce it "Vempire" in conversation.

V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein was released on 22 April 1996. It was reissued in 2012 by record label The End.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Dani Filth; all music is composed by Cradle of Filth (Filth, Stuart Anstis, Robin Graves, Damien Gregori, Nicholas Barker).

1. "Ebony Dressed for Sunset" 2:49
2. "The Forest Whispers My Name" 4:41
3. "Queen of Winter, Throned" 10:27
4. "Nocturnal Supremacy" 5:53
5. "She Mourns a Lengthening Shadow" (instrumental) 3:42
6. "The Rape and Ruin of Angels (Hosannas in Extremis)" 8:52

Total length: 36:24

Distributed in Germany by Nuclear Blast / East West.

Distributed in the U.K. by Draconis.

Comes with a 12-page booklet.

Recording information:

Recorded in winter 1995/1996 at Academy Studios, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, UK.

Mastered at The Exchange.

Stuart Anstis recorded all guitars for this release. The name "Jared Demeter" is credited in the liner notes to make it seem like two guitarists played on the EP.

From the liner notes of the booklet: "Jared Demeter appears as session musician on this recording courtesy of December Moon." Although December Moon is a real band that were based in Suffolk, they of course never included any member of the name "Jared Demeter".