Cradle of Filth have revealed details on their 13th album, Existence Is Futile, out October 22nd. What’s more, the UK extreme metallers released the music video for lead single “Crawling King Chaos.”
The band had previously teased the album title for the upcoming LP back in February, though few other details were revealed at the time. We now have a release date, tracklist, artwork, and a single from the 12-song offering.
Setting the tone for what’s to come, “Crawling King Chaos” is a cinematic slice of symphonic extreme metal. Dani Filth’s harsh vocals are in fine form, remaining both intense and distinguishable, and band provide a pummeling onslaught of blasting beats and fierce instrumentation.
As the frontman revealed in a press release, the new album doesn’t have the happiest title, but it reflects deeper philosophical sentiments regarding existentialism and occultism.
“The album is about existentialism, existential dread, and fear of the unknown,” frontman Dani Filth explained. “The concept wasn’t created by the pandemic. We’d written it long before that began, but the pandemic is the tip of the cotton-bud as far as the way the world is headed, you know? I guess the title, Existence Is Futile, does sound a little morbid.”
He continued: “But again, it’s more about recognizing that truth and saying that everything is permitted because nothing really matters, which mimics the occultist Aleister Crowley’s maxim. We all know we’re going to die, so we might as well indulge life while we possess it. The final track on the album — ‘Us, Dark, Invincible’ — really drives that point home. Also, the artwork for this record was created by the Latvian visionary Arthur Berzinsh, who also dressed the last two albums, and that reeks of the exceedingly beautiful yet apocalyptic, too.”
Existence Is Futile was recorded during lockdown periods in 2020 and “pieced together in isolation” with Scott Atkins at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk, UK.
The album will be available on CD, multiple vinyl variants, cassette tape, and digitally. You can pre-order Existence Is Futile via Nuclear Blast.
Stream “Crawling King Chaos” and see the artwork and tracklist below.
Existence Is Futile Artwork:
Existence Is Futile Tracklist:
01. The Fate of the World on Our Shoulders
02. Existential Terror
03. Necromantic Fantasies
04. Crawling King Chaos
05. Here Comes A Candle… (Infernal Lullaby)
06. Black Smoke Curling From the Lips of War
07. Discourse Between a Man and His Soul
08. The Dying of the Embers
09. Ashen Mortality
10. How Many Tears to Nurture a Rose?
11. Suffer Our Dominion
12. Us, Dark, Invincible
13. Sisters of the Mist (Bonus track)
14. Unleash the Hellion (Bonus track)
