Cradle of Filth's last release on their music for nations record deal, Midian, is possibly there darkest and most gothic release to date, with some pretty sick artwork tossed in for good measure. The album is a gothic marriage of sex and death, the marriage being conducted by the devil, the songs range from touching and epic instrumentals such as creatures that kissed in cold mirrors, to thrashy death metal riffery and blast beat drumming of tracks like cuthulu dawn. This album was released on Halloween, and rightly so, there are songs on this album that will haunt you until the day you die.

Track 1: At the gates of Midian.
The albums opening instrumental, begins with a eerie whispering, and then the violins kick in and creates an incredibly evil atmosphere, and then, what sounds like some Gregorian monks chanting, and the keyboards break into epic inspiring euphoria, this track really puts you in front of the forbidden city of its namesake with its grandeur. Then the organ kicks in, and the piece breaks straight into the next track.

Track 2: Cuthulu dawn
The heaviest track on the album, the grinding guitars, and the blast beats backed by a choir, Dani's first scream of the album sounds so painful, you cringe listening to it, the song talks about the second coming of h.p. lovecrafts demon deity, and how the world will be thrown into chaos, an intensely heavy song, but strangely it doesn't set the tone of the album that well, the song is very panicked and chaotic, whereas the rest of the album seems to be morbid and melancholy.

Track 3: Saffrons curse.
This song does the job of setting the tone of the record, with the twinkling keyboards and the ambient chanting, this track mixes the epic with the heavy as hell, which is what Midian is all about, more grinding thrashy riffs and more blastbeats, but this is by no means a bad thing, the concept of the album being what it is, it gives the band the perfect opportunity to show of their new members Paul Allender on guitar (Paul was previously in Cradle from the first demos, to the end of the principle of evil era) on drums Adrian Erlandsson ( brother of arch enemys Daniel Erlandsson, also a drummer) and the phenomenal new keyboard player Martin Powell (previously of my dying bride).

Track 4: Death magick for adepts.
A slightly more heavy metal track with Iron Maiden style dual riffing, but the song is still laced with those gothic keyboards and the blast beat drumming, one of my least favourite tracks on the album, it is definitely not as epic as some of the others, still a mile a minute speed wise.

Track 5: Lord Abortion.
Of a similar vein to death magick for adepts, not epic at all, yet more heavy riffs and blast beats, cradle of filth are really on to a winning formula here, I'll just take a moment to note that lyrically, this album is streets ahead of all the other death puking underground acts, the quality of the song writing, is phenomenal, and the delivery, Dani's vocals range from light whispers to piercing screams, from deep, broad voicing to death metal growling, also the band employ the talents of Sarah Jezebel Deva, their female vocalist who can be heard in the background of most of the songs.

Track 6: Amor E Morte.
Cradle now pick up where they left of with the beautiful, ballad type tracks, Amor E Morte, is haunting gothic track, where Ms. Deva truly shines, less of the blast beats, here, and the riffs aren't quite as grinding, but Dani's still screaming, also, there's an interesting addition to this song, a rarely heard cradle of filth guitar solo!

Track 7: Creatures that kissed in cold mirrors.
The second instrumental, a very dark and sinister sounding affair that showcases the incredible talents of Martin Powell, this eerily haunting instrumental leads perfectly onto the main track of the album, the track the whole album is based around.

Track 8: Her ghost in the fog.
Of all the haunting, epic, and beautiful tracks on this classic album this is the most haunting, epic, and beautiful of them all, a pained and melodic ballad, littered with sadness and tragedy, laced with gothic morbid keyboards, and more blast beats and grinding riffs than you can shake an inverted crucifix at.

Track 9: Satanic mantra.
A ridiculous, pointless and annoying vocal arrangement, it really is a shame, because this complete failure of a recording creates the perfect anticlimax to an otherwise perfect album.

Track 10: Tearing the veil from grace.
One of two rather long tracks, this one begins, with an inspiring keyboard opening, no blast beats, it really is a nice experimental Cradle song, some wonderful guitar work on this song, with extensive use of feedback, also used a lot more female vocals, this song exerts an air of vampiric evil, more epic use of keyboards add to the intentional beauty of this graceful evil, making it almost desirable.

Track 11: Tortured soul asylum.
Another long winded song, with an air of evil, with this track cradle mix tearing the veil from grace and cuthulu dawn music wise, the sound is slow and heavy, with blastbeats grinding riffs, screaming, the standard cradle affair, with some nice keyboard parts and some good use of female vocals.

Another stunning album from Cradle of Filth, the high points are the good instrumentals and her ghost in the fog followed by cuthulu dawn and saffrons curse, the low points of the album is definitely the satanic mantra, it truly ruins the album, it makes you wonder what other gothic metal gem could have been in its place, something to rival her ghost in the fog maybe?