Cradle Of Filth - Cryptoriana - The Seductiveness of Decay
Original Version Digipack Version Picture LP Version 1. Exquisite Torments Await 2:15 1. Exquisite Torments Await 2:15 1. Exquisite Torments Await 2:15 2. Heartbreak and Seance 6:24 2. Heartbreak and Seance 6:24 2. Heartbreak and Seance 6:24 3. Achingly Beautiful 7:02 3. Achingly Beautiful 7:02 3. Achingly Beautiful 7:02 4. Wester Vespertine 7:29 4. Wester Vespertine 7:29 4. Wester Vespertine 7:29 5. The Seductiveness of Decay 7:38 5. The Seductiveness of Decay 7:38 5. The Seductiveness of Decay 7:38 6. Vengeful Spirit 6:00 6. Vengeful Spirit 6:00 6. Vengeful Spirit 6:00 7. You Will Know the Lion by His Claw 7:22 7. You Will Know the Lion by His Claw 7:22 7. You Will Know the Lion by His Claw 7:22 8. Death and the Maiden 8:48 8. Death and the Maiden 8:48 8. Death and the Maiden 8:48 9. The Night at Catafalque Manor 7:31 9. The Night at Catafalque Manor 7:31 10. Alison Hell (Annihilator cover) 5:01 10. Alison Hell (Annihilator cover) 5:01 total time 52:58 total time 65:30 total time 65:30
1. Exquisite Torments Await... Abandon hope all ye who enter here For herein lies the path to sadness The poetry of woe set midst the sweet lament of fear Carouses in fantasialike spirits cast to madness Here we pray Severe, the day Dies irae Dies illa Dies tribulationis Et angustiæ Dies calamitatis Et misteriæ Dies tenebarum Et caliginis Dies nebulæ Et turbinis Dies tubæ Et clangoris... Fresh meat now tests these jaws of death 2. Heartbreak and Seance Before the wall is caved, our temple Pressed upon the face of England we were suffering To nothing less than the matter of a socialist test raid Dagger in the peace wicked time disdained Then empires saw much more to gain The crown discounts are lost Like a knot, count the cost These numbers felt like water The dead and dying on route to slaughter Valen-times we've spined entwined I am sorry that i left you here In time i will find, the puppet from the other side So keep a candle burning in your heart that is my shrine Spilling tears fill a laboratory Love's not responding beyond the pyre The portent is promissory Prevalence of this Seance in obeisance To the spirits before Death's victory The crown discounts are lost Like a knot, count the cost These numbers felt like water The death and dying on route to slaughter Valen-times we've spined entwined I am sorry that i left you here In time i will find, the puppet from the other side So please accept my kisses through the whispers in the winter morn' I suffer alone So far from home watching you from a distance A shadow persistent to mourn No time to atone, you vow a renown Beautifully craven you cut the black raven who's tower has flown Spilling tears fill a laboratory Love's not responding beyond the pyre The portent is promissory Prevalence of this Seance in obeisance To the spirits before Death's victory Winter seems far colder Without you by my shoulder now this year I strike at craven thoughts, stood fast Fighter there, belongs to Christ The preacher is over borders And speech will crack upon the order Hell-blessed I see her with no culture This is where it ends how the wretchedness forgets And I'm in the hands of the brat in the blackest night 3. Achingly Beautiful Night That fatal raven alighted On the cusp of my bewitchment The beast in the clouds had swallowed the moon A silverback thundering across the cosmos In silence now stars followed her tune Winking from existence on the brink of chaos I penned an open sonnet To the pearly gates ablaze As I gazed upon this angel Intoxicating everything The ball became her court Her presence there electrifying Candelabra fought To tear themselves away She was a flame, divine My pathic call of duty, irrefutable Her eyes, they paralysed me, froze the flow of time A glimpse, so achingly beautiful Fleeing from the manor In the manner of this crime We sheltered from the pelting Helter-skelter of the skies In the Greek gazebo Speaking tragedian rhyme Death would never settle For one petal at a time He would pluck the fucker! Lo, this malleus eve Is heaving to the pulse of souls She was the game, sublime A knight takes queen in ruby, indisputable Then her eyes, they paralysed me for a second time A glimpse so achingly beautiful Drinking in her flora This Aurora to the storm I was burning in the furnace Of a love that went to war With ravenous desire Fires lit the heavens for Caressing in the rainfall A less painful metaphor For this hunger… On marbled tomb Breathless, cocooned A long red dress shrouds Like Ophelia, this Goddess Mourning then crawls Black velvet palled To pass fervent lips Betwixt her deliciousness Miserere Mei Diva Forgive me forever my bride But a gift was delivered However perverse On that night you exquisitely died Seraphina rise… Arcane perfection Her legend was etched …to queen demon revised A fell resurrection Unparalleled in this world or next Awaken, forsaken By others soon taken as prey Now you shall stand in the grandeur of love A wonderland in which to play The beast in the clouds spat back the moon And arrayed in a crown of glittering cobwebs She slid to her feet like a prophet of doom Born to immortal darkness As mortality slipped away She was a flame, divine My gnathic call of duty, irrefutable Her eyes imparadised me with their wicked shine A glimpse so achingly beautiful Now she stirs the night just like the perfect Lorelei As she spurs the dark horse foaming in my soul Death is fleet, sweet, oft discreet The beast in beauty’s mask Her skies, bediademed, complete Now freed of days grown overcast 4. Wester Vespertine Today was spent in languor Drifting through the fold As midsummer vent its clamour In cobbled streets a thousandfold I bore cruelty from the sun The jewellery that it hung About me, God it stung Like life’s betrayal Now shadows lengthening Hear the nightside sing The promise of delightful things to come Wester Vespertine When the sun is in decline Reddened skies underlined in purple Exemplify cries, goodbyes are verbal And bats carouse around the tree line Daylight bows out, free and feline Dusk comes so sublime So wester Vespertine Feel the rush of power this magickal hour The heavens blaze, their flames devour The smoke of ruins black against A bled horizon, mystic, incensed Nightfall is dressed in fantasy Ethereal, the end of day enthralls Voyeurs watching from the stalls It enfolds the drear and drab Lifts our hearts to sheer romantic Pyromantic, necromantic heights Of bright sensation Feel the rush of power this magickal hour The Heavens blaze, the angels cower Wisps of sulphur at my lips The abyss at kissed fingertip Nightfall is blessed with majesty This night will see indictment For my needs extol The virtues of excitement This soul reigns uncontrolled Sweet scents, the vents of Mother Earth Have lent to my rebirth Her perfume is perverse And that’s the way I like it Bethlem is opening Her terrifying wings The promise of its frightful things to sperse And Hesperus will shine Out foremost as stars climb Dusk comes so sublime So wester Vespertine Feel the rush of power this magickal hour The moon invades the vestal bower Gas lamps flicker in devotion Like fireflies on an iron ocean Nightfall is best left to telestic needs Crepuscular This theatre is spurred To drive the painted nails home And let man’s blithe desires roam About the city lit to please The pretty bits this August eve Revive our sore and tortured souls Revive my mortared soul Toward the end Toward the splendour Like Lot, the host gives up its ghosts His gorgeous daughters now surrender Lammas glamour Hammered in the dying light Like a glowing hot sabre set to clangour on the anvil We’ll bang destiny to rights now Wester, Vespertine This is our time to taste To chase, to embrace, to lay waste to the vine The cup of fornication is a decadent red wine Wester, Vespertine When the sun is in decline Reddened skies underlined in purple Exemplify cries, goodbyes are verbal And bats carouse about the tree line Daylight bows out, free and feline And dusk comes so sublime So wester Vespertine 5. The Seductiveness of Decay Silked like a ghost in infinite splendour The moon illumes like a madness vendor Lycaning hosts to a coarse surrender Frightening most lest they offend her reign Proletariat enslaved In whoredom with Moloch London run amok is Sodom bathed In an eerie light and a sickening fog This city is a beautiful spider With a poison welling inside her That subdues and loots her prey A web to tarry souls compelling them to Duly stray Fantasmagoriana's on its way This mist, carousing off the Thames Its sallow tendrils bend The will of many men To morbid fascination How, the full asylums howl With madness on the prowl And all the maidens bow To the skeletal Squalor King Cholera Here the age grows more unholier Careered, with fear Beneath the veil of melancholia Now the smoke stacks darken skies The caress of death is on the rise Its choking breath, romanticised And dressed in gothic veneration Funereal this bride Wedded to the dead insid Blackest magick, Whitechapel paved Penny Bloods delight in The tragic splay of rifled graves And suicided spirit guides the circle is inviting Evil dances under many guises Pristine masks shadow terrible vices Sins enhanced, Lucifer entices near Here the age grows more unholier Careered, with fear Beneath the veil of melancholia Now the smoke stacks darken skies The caress of death is on the rise Its choking breath, romanticised And dressed in greatest expectations Thin wings lay on the ground Bound for the pound Of the beckoning reckoning Infatuation with the mysterious Frights are writing better chapter and verse Intoxication, hearts are not averse To circus freaks and black waxworks Those that the grace of God denied Become divertissement to curb The bitter taste from glittered lives Modernity perturbs Horror Victorianorum Syphilitic, spiritualistic Rot is set to stay Horror Victorianorum Phantasmogenic, psychogenic Sotted minds are bled astray (solo: Richard Shaw, Ashok) Behind the grind of Imperialistic overkill Industrious teeth sank deep into the red map Workhouses, grist for Satanic treadmills Spew offspring back intact In fact far closer to collapse And the pooling lamp of science in defiance of the Lord Its hallowed tallow burning with discord Is born of midnight trysts with Ressurectionists Body snatchers, child catchers The Necropolis built on top of this Is an Empire fit for ghouls Is an Empire fit for ghouls Here the age grows more unholier Careered, with fear Beneath the veil of melancholia Now the smoke stacks darken skies The caress of death is on the rise Its choking breath, romanticised And dressed in cloaked ambition Aberration A mourning nation cries 6. Vengeful Spirit A storm to break steeples is nigh I feel it in my deviant pathology The Autumn leaves no longer sigh But instead hiss an virulent cacophany Stricken in the dead of night Fear quickens me to flee or fight This otherworldly parasite Who stalks my very dreams Sickened by this atmosphere Blood's slickening everything in here Nightmares are hers to commandeer And furnish with my screams She seeks control So disaster will follow me Please free my soul Before her darkness can swallow me I tasted betrayal I was a fool I will never relent I am agony sent Vengeance in the still hungry sights of a ghoul The snow and roses Of youth have passed away Yet still she haunts me In truth I stay her prey Further down the rabbit hole I fall, feigning greater escapology But drugs do nothing but extol The here and now And not her venomous ghostology I was hers but chose Another for my own And everybody knows Suicide is for the solo... (Solos: Ashok, Shaw, Ashok, Shaw) My loved ones swoon to her embrace For them a tomb will soon encase Their spilled remains, the cursed chase Begins for me afresh Adverse Venus of these rites Hearse of perverse appetites Her thirst, it worsens and invites A creeping of the flesh She seeks control So disaster will follow me Please free my soul Before her darkness can swallow me I tasted betrayal I was a fool I will never relent I am agony sent Vengeance in the still hungry sights of a ghoul I tasted betrayal Misplaced and cruel I will never reltn I am agony sent Vengeance in the still hungry sights of a ghoul In the still hungry sights of a ghoul First a gelid whisper Then the candlelight cavorts in sympathy For where once it was murder to resist her Paralysis of terror stills the urge to flee The demon enters Swathed in a fell bestiality She, this vengeful wraith tormentor I pray the time has come for Hell to set me free 7. You Will Know the Lion by His Claw Purring, the sweet-tempered soughing Of lucrative savannah wind Stirs the great flotsam of clouds that are vowing To usher the evening in Affecting the set of the reckoning sun From burnished gold to crimson hue Before this night is quite sorely undone The Devil is coming for you Like a ghost haunting the darkness Stalking the veldt Where many kings were felled A savage growling rakes this grassy vastness Halting you in the tracks you've laid To rule this fulsome world Now silent as a wisp of smoke Terror grips you by the throat You will know the lion by his claw Mistaking fake demeanour Was your first and fatal flaw Never will the hunter Ever be the hunted Here or evermore Taking my arena Brought this courted slaughter to your door I am nature's great restorer First order Carnivora Fate and foe, no time to implore Mercy for she has fled Tail tucked between her legs Circled prey, recant and beg To me alone, this powder keg Of teeth and jaws together In a riot of adventure I am Leonine and ten commandments Cut deep for your death Damnatio ad bestias Through limitless whispering seas Of redolent tropical plains Whereupon mystery's blistery frieze A silvering gibbous moon reigns Aggressive, obsessive to snuff out your lights I come a cold virulent grue Blighting your guides and delighting inside On the pride that is tiding for you As a beast feasting its hunger Under this spell Rifles and fire shall not repel Industrious machinations rent asunder No miring me in traps well-laid I'll not pale to unveil my Hell You will know the lion by his claw This violence is a plague of flame Licking the brush to flush out game A bellow of rage caged in yellow eyes Sees evil life seized, unleashed reprisal You will know the lion by his claw Mistaking fake demeanour Was your first and fatal flaw Never will the hunter Ever be the hunted Here or evermore Taking my arena Brought this courted slaughter to your door You will know the lion by his claw Now hear the growing thunder roar Damnatio ad bestias The walls of brackish thorn have fallen Batterfang and chaos Quick to marshal, maul the fools Who stand by shattered loss Your shadow scatters westward Toward the fleeing stars As a new dawn feeds upon the skies Hearldic, rampant, battle-scarred Damnatio ad bestias 8. Death and the Maiden I spy the spreading fear That crawls wormlike beneath This ageing mask of time That grasps to call itself belief So down here in the Valley of the Shadow of Death To the best denomination I have taken To show just what faith-tested means Never seen the sun Never been undone Never thought her feeble screams Would court such fascination Never in a thousand years I am the lord of the bored underworld Her hand is pleasured in mine Together we will climb Past the pearly castellations A wealth of treasures to find We'll fly crows of ill-omen Across a leaden sky To red squares of Holy Roman Catholicism in an eye To deeply sow, where sorrow rose Having all tomorrow For our wedded union to impose The world in misery succumbs to frost Without her here I'm lost The seasons absorb the cost Together our paths crossed Eros and Thanatos One by one Love's raised horns sound their sweet surrender And one by one Her defences fall, debris My will be done I shall storm the gates where fates defend her And once I've won Her heart shall belong to me I saw her there Gathering despair By the light of the moon On the Vale of Nysa I walked the endless night Before she pressed from me The swallowed seed of winter's bite Undressed Persephone So down here in the Valley of Kings Let this sticky situation spur on fertility Come be my perennial Queen Never seen the sun Never been undone Never thought her velvet ports Would wean such masturbation Never in a thousand years Without her here I'm lost The seasons absorb the cost Together our paths crossed Eros and Thanatos One by one Love's raised horns sound their sweet surrender And one by one Her defences fall, debris My will be done I shall storm the gates where fates defend her And once I've won Her heart shall belong to me Hades I've slept delightfully within these open arms Plucked, I'm a magnet to your charms Lost in a skeletal dance I rent the meadow's earth To embed her as my bride This wond'drous light of life That right the wrongs I've bred inside Her mouth no longer plaintive Those lips no longer dry We waltz the great halls naked Candlelit and oft obliged To deeply sow, where sorrow froze Having all tomorrows To bathe in the savoured afterglows To slave at the favoured crafts we know Lyrics in plain text format