The history, importance, and impact of "Cruelty and the Beast" cannot be overstated.  Originally released on April 27, 1998, I vividly remember the day I bought this.  It was a present from a friend.  Because I was strapped for cash, I asked if I could cash in on an early birthday present, and, despite the fact my birthday wasn't for another seven months, she went in the record store, that once-fabled repository of so many classic firsts for me in Metal including ENTOMBED, CARCASS, and even MISFITS, and paid for it.  I had been turned on to the band via their second full-length, "Dusk and Her Embrace," a nocturnal, decadently-debauched, demonic affair that showed off the band's penchant for crafting majestically epic Metal.  "Cruelty and the Beast" took the sound the band had developed and refined it.  The listener can audibly detail the difference experience made for the band.  A full eleven tracks are focused on the lyrical subject of the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, the infamous relative of Vlad the Impaler whose preclusion for aging was in the form of ritually bathing in the blood of virgins.  Obviously, this not a new subject for Metal even twenty years ago with Quorthon's BATHORY and the VENOM song being two readily apparent examples, but CRADLE OF FILTH took the topic and made it their own symphony of sorts.

By the time the band set out to prepare for the recording of this album, they had already gained permanent residential status in the conversations of those in the Metal world.  There has always been a line of sorts between those who appreciate the band for what they are and those that want to denigrate them based upon image and quite honestly, their popularity.  The band gained quite a fan base combining blackened riffs with traditional Metal tropes and possibly the most vividly explicit merchandise that had ever been massively released for a band.  The band has always claimed in interviews that they are a Heavy Metal band and not specifically Black Metal.  Truly, they initially fit neatly into that box, but as time went by, they started to incorporate more traditional Metal-flavored elements like a stark MERCYFUL FATE influence and an IRON MAIDEN influence that permeated throughout.  It was with "Cruelty and the Beast" that CRADLE OF FILTH would release their mission statement to the world.  Lengthy songs expose a unique enterprise built upon combining haunting keyboards reminiscent of the classic British Hammer Horror movies with twin guitar harmonies and intricately blazing drums.  It is the drum mix that has always nagged at the band since the album's release.  As meticulously-detailed as the '98 version was, the drums originally came out sounding rather timid.  It wasn't the patterns themselves for Nick Barker is a true legend but instead, the tone was weak.  Unfortunately, that flaw caused the album to sound far thinner than ever intended.  Well, they fixed it.  Seriously.

After the instrumental opener, "Once Upon Atrocity," the band comes in with "Thirteen Autumns and a Widow," and one can already hear the difference a fresh take on the mix has made.  That initial missing girth has been injected completing the most necessary of tasks, but it is on the third and best track, "Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids," that one can finally hear the album as it was intended to be heard.  When the break comes and the band launches into that double-picked mayhem of a breakdown, it hits hard.  Hearing this version hearkened me back to the first time I heard the original.  It was obvious at that time that this would be the album to make or break the band and as would be attested seeing them live at Tramps in Manhattan that following October, it was thankfully the former, not the latter.

As the record plods along with the token pomp and circumstance (i.e. long instrument and keyboard passages and the reticent Dani Filth vocal style - the latter being the official "make or break" element for potential listeners), one recognizes that even those who love to hate the band cannot downplay the album's impact.  Perhaps there has not been a better time for the band to take such action for it has been over twenty years and though the band has built a career that will enable them to do this indefinitely, it may be a prime moment for them to reevaluate things and what better way to launch a new Metal campaign than by fixing what could be seen as their "Master of Puppets"?

Fourth track, "Beneath the Howling Stars," "Desire in Violent Overture," the sixth, and the tenth and originally final track, "Lustmord and Wargasm (The Lick of Carnivorous Winds)," round out the highlights of the album.  Each track within combines blasting sections with soaring guitar harmonies and blood-curdling vocals.  This is a band that proved their confident stride with such an album that was adorned with finely-crafted riffs and hauntingly elegant melodic passages.  The band was at their creative peak and it can certainly be heard on the bonus track, their regal rendering of the IRON MAIDEN classic, "Hallowed Be Thy Name".  There have been few covers that have caused my jaw to drop so hard.  They managed to make one of the best Metal songs ever penned into a legitimate CRADLE OF FILTH staple, a slightly amped-up, rebelliously pissed-off version.

This is one of those albums that should be included in everyone's collection whether you are mainly into Death Metal, Black Metal, or even Power Metal!  It really is that good and is without a doubt the peak of the band's catalog.  Though I sentimentally may prefer "Dusk and Her Embrace," it is with "Cruelty and the Beast" that the band staked their claim firmly as being truly legendary.  If it were possible to give this album a 9.5, I would.