Cradle of Filth review

Download Festival 2004

By Guy Powell | Published: Thu 10th Jun 2004

Download Festival 2004

Saturday 5th to Sunday 6th June 2004
Donington Park, Leics, England MAP
£80 for both days, camping £15 extra, camping upgrade

Cradle of Filth are a love/hate band. A lot of Donington are going to hate them but about 10,000 fans have graced the main stage ready to go mad for their favourite nu-goth rockers.

After being introduced, the band take a couple of minutes to appear – building up the suspense. They walk on to stage and burst straight in to their blend of goth-metal. Fans of goth will insist it’s not goth. Fans of metal will insist its not metal. It definitely lies somewhere in between though.

Nobody could ever say that Danny & the rest of ‘Filth don’t put on a good show – they have immense stage presence and manage to make a dancer on 20 foot high stilts seem perfectly normal.

Cradle of Filth

As they enter the operatic gothic fave “Her Ghost in the Fog” the entire crowd erupt in to a filth-fueled-frenzy. It also gives a PVC-clad lady with red hair that, until this point, has only been involved for about 30 seconds, a chance to utilise her vocal talents.

Saying all this, the set does seem to leave plenty of people bored and other wondering why everything sounds so overdriven and what they have just been witness to. These people certainly do have a point.

An interesting set for sure. I’ve heard many people describe it as “an experience”. Whether the set is anything else, however, is a different story.
review by: Guy Powell

photos by: Luke Seagrave


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