Opening nights of a tour must surely be a nerve-wracking ordeal, hoping that all of the prep work pays off and all of the required pieces fall into place in time for the tour to get off on the right foot. Sadly for the first UK date of Cradle Of Filth's By Order Of The Dragon Tour, things did not quite go as smoothly as they would have liked on Sunday evening.
As the masses gathered in the queue snaking up Frogmore Street outside Bristol's O2 Academy word was spreading that doors were being pushed back as technical issues meant that sound checks were overrunning, but despite the corpse paint and smattering of "Jesus Is A Cunt" t-shirts, the Bristol metal community are a civil bunch and took the news on the chin without much issue. By the time we all made it into the venue, it was getting on for an hour later than the published door time, meaning that unfortunately opening act Black Satellite had to sacrifice their slot.
But, with that noted, there could be no better way to kick off the week of spooky season than a night with Cradle Of Filth.
Fronted by My Dying Bride's Aaron Stainthorpe and sporting a very fetching all-white suit for the occasion (which contrasted with the dark appearance of mysterious bassist Tombs), High Parasite were the unexpected opener of the evening. With Stainthorpe and his work with My Dying Bride standing as arguably one of the forefathers of 'Death Doom/Gothic Metal', it's quite fitting that this new project is seeing him at the birth of 'Death Pop' a seemingly more up-tempo form of the 'Doom Metal' we are accustomed to from him.
Due to the late running of the night; chit-chat between tracks is seemingly limited but we are treated to a tightly put together, if brisk romp, through material from High Parasite's debut album Forever We Burn. "Grave Intentions" is a gloomy highlight for me with their set coming to a close with 'groovy' drum-heavy titular track "Forever We Burn".
Next out onto the Bristol stage and from the other side of the pond are LA's own 'Groove-Metalcore' outfit Butcher Babies, which currently sees Heidi Shepherd flying solo following the departure of former co-vocalist Carla Harvey. Despite running vocals on her own, Heidi has the energy for more than two; she is a headbanging blur of energy whipping her way from one side of the stage to the other with brief visits to the barrier, and during "Spittin' Teeth" out into the crowd and into the centre of an admirably sized circle pit.
Midway through the set, we are all treated to a brand new yet-to-be-released single "Serenity" (if the set list that I glimpsed at is true), Bristol had the honour of being the first live crowd to hear the new track.
Heidi's vocals are savagely fierce throughout the majority of the set with the only real showing of her (actually really solid) clean vocals during ...'Til The World's Blind's anthemic ballad "Last December", a song filled with emotion, talking about a difficult time in her life in December of 2019, Heidi described the song as "about a time in life I thought I didn't deserve to be here anymore, didn't deserve to live anymore.....but it was thinking about moments like this, with fans like you, that saved me".
The frenetic set comes to a close with Goliath's heavy-hitting "Magnolia Blvd." and based on the crowd's reaction it surely won't be long before Butcher Babies are back in Bristol.
On to the main event and after another slight technical delay, a hooded Dani Filth and his merry band of misfits and oddities emerge onto the stage covered with ivy-decked railings and flanked by some sort of skeletal alien/terminator-esque glowing-eyed creatures; the theatrics are in full force as we kick into "The Fate Of The World" we are undeniably at a Cradle Of Filth gig.
What follows is a faultless performance, fitting of a band of their pedigree, with fans treated to a plethora of tracks from practically the entire Filth back catalogue stretching all the way back to 1994's The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh.
Dani's signature mixture of shrieks and growls are on point (I'm still baffled and in awe with how people are able to produce such phenomenal sounds and still retain the ability to speak normally), along with the slick shadow boxing and bouncy moves that we are all accustomed to from him; there is even the odd zombie shamble thrown in for good measure just to keep us all on our toes.
It's a night full of firsts for the Bristol crowd as tonight sees the debut live outing of recent release; "A Homage to All Hallows Eve"; the Halloween-themed "Malignant Perfection" (spooky season baby).
During one of the brief interludes between tracks, guitar tech "Necromantic" Anthony is wished a happy 26th birthday, cake and candles, the whole nine yards as band and fans are in full voice singing happy birthday. Dani would later comment that the band nearly had to do tonight's performance in their underwear. The series of unfortunate events started earlier in the day, with the band and all of their kit locked out of the tour bus, and the bus driver stuck inside, unable to reconnect for a few hours.
The show continues its way through the 'Extreme Metal' back catalogue; Crowd favourite "Nymphetamine Fix" has the front-of-house security put to work coaxing a steady stream of surfers over the barrier. This also sees guitarists Marek Šmerda and Donny Burbage at their best sharing the lead duties; with Zoe Marie Federoff allowed to shine on both clean (almost operatic) vocals and keys.
The first helping of the show comes to a close with Dani apologising to Black Satellite for not being able to get them out on stage tonight and thanking both High Parasite and Butcher Babies for their efforts earlier in the evening, dedicating "Born In A Burial Ground" to the latter two.
Pushing to (and probably a bit beyond) the curfew for the venue, following a lengthy instrumental piece the band returned for a three-song flourish of an encore, closing out with Midian's "Her Ghost In The Fog".
Cradle Of Filth continue their "By Order of The Dragon" tour with Butcher Babies, High Parasite and Black Satellite in tow around the UK until November 8th before hopping across to the rest of Europe subbing in Mental Cruelty for High Parasite for a run that takes them to December 8th; hopefully with all of the technical gremlins worked out with the remaining shows running smoothly.