On this day · 11 years ago · 2015
11 Years Ago Today: Cradle of Filth Release Hammer of the Witches, a New Lineup's Debut
Two new guitarists, a new label, and a concept lifted from a 15th-century witch-hunting manual. Cradle of Filth's eleventh album turned a reputation for lineup chaos into what critics called the band's strongest record in years.
By Jaxon, Metal desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Cradle of Filth released Hammer of the Witches, their eleventh studio album, on July 10, 2015, their first for Nuclear Blast and the debut for new guitarists Richard Shaw and Marek 'Ashok' Smerda, who replaced Paul Allender and James McIlroy. Frontman Dani Filth has described it as a return to the twin-lead grandiloquence of 1990s albums like Dusk and Her Embrace. Critics widely called it the band's best work since 1998's Cruelty and the Beast.
A new guitar pair, and a label debut
Cradle of Filth built a reputation over two decades for cycling through lineups, and Hammer of the Witches, released July 10, 2015, arrived on the back of another shakeup: guitarists Paul Allender and James McIlroy were out, replaced by Richard Shaw and Marek "Ashok" Smerda. Per Nuclear Blast's own album page, it was also the English extreme-metal band's eleventh studio album and their first release for the label, joining frontman Dani Filth, bassist Daniel Firth, keyboardist and vocalist Lindsay Schoolcraft, and drummer Martin Skaroupka.
A hammer for the witches
The album takes its title and concept from the Malleus Maleficarum, the 15th-century text used to justify the torture and prosecution of accused witches across Europe. "That dreadful book... it's about the torture and persecution of witches and how to legally punish them. That was the church's militant hammer against the witches," Dani Filth told Nuclear Blast. "Our interpretation is a hammer for the witches, so the album title is about payback for decades of torment." The record's artwork, by Latvian illustrator Arthur Berzinsh, carries that same neo-classical, pre-Renaissance theme across the whole release.
Twin leads, 90s touchstones
Filth has described the new lineup finding its footing by leaning on the band's own history. "Not only are the musicians who've recently joined the band fans of the band as well, but we really sat down and listened to what the fans wanted and expected from a new album," he said, per the same Nuclear Blast interview. Per Wikipedia's account of the album, the result balances the twin-lead guitar style of 1996's Dusk and Her Embrace and 1998's Cruelty and the Beast against the tougher textures of more recent records like Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder and Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa.
The best-reviewed Cradle of Filth record in years
The reception backed that framing up. Per Wikipedia's account, the album drew a more positive fan and critical response than the band's recent prior releases, with many reviewers calling it Cradle of Filth's best work since Cruelty and the Beast. For a band whose lineup turnover had become almost a running joke, Hammer of the Witches reset the conversation back onto the music.
Chasing that UK extreme-metal rhythm tone today
Neither Shaw's nor Ashok's documented string gauge or tuning from these sessions is sourced well enough to cite as fact. But a heavier Light Top/Heavy Bottom nickel-wound set is a reliable modern starting point for that kind of dense, fast metal rhythm work.
NYXL1052 Nickel Wound (.010–.052)
Why this one: A heavier Light Top/Heavy Bottom nickel-wound set built for aggressive rhythm playing, a general starting point rather than a documented claim about this lineup's own gear.
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