Cradle of Filth and Heaven 17. It’s a culture thing…

Just caught the enormously entertaining Cradle of Filth cover version of Heaven 17’s Temptation.

Never been very fond of CoF, or most black or doom metal (bar the Napalm Death spin-off Cathederal), apart from a track ‘Her Ghost in the Fog’ on their Midian album in 2000. Dani Davey’s voice tends to two modes, reedy whisper or forced bass bellow. Fine in small doses, but wearing across an entire album.

But this I like. Particularly because it isn’t a straight cover, the chords have been altered slightly on the verses and choruses, nor is a simple Sisters of Mercy style choral Gothfest although there are both female vocals and a choral chorus. It fades out with a flurry of EBM style electronica. But there is something intriguing about the way Davey intones lyrics such as “Adorable creatures…With unacceptable features” or mutters about the ‘High cost of loving’. The conjunction of the original archly love song/anti-consumerist lyrics with CofF’s Goth drama is oddly compelling.

As somebody asked me, ‘I wonder what Heaven 17 think of it?’…
And anyway, why intellectualise it? It’s on some music channel right now. Go on, take a listen you know you probably want to…