CRADLE OF FILTH 'Virtual Vinyl' Now Available

British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH are inviting fans to remember the good old days of vinyl, when you'd listen to a new album released by one of your metal heroes while spending countless hours leafing through the gatefold sleeve, enjoying the artwork and pouring through the lyrics while immersing yourself in the whole album experience. Ahh, memories! Maybe you are too young to have had such an experience. Perhaps not. Regardless, take our word for it: that was how an album was meant to be enjoyed. Nowadays, releases with many sonic layers are referred to as "headphone records," while during the vinyl days, headphones weren't quite so necessary in order to pick up the nuances of sound.

While the onset of digital music and the changing ways in which consumers interact with musical products has made such an engagement more difficult, the always forward-thinking black metal masters CRADLE OF FILTH have come up with an ingenious way to replicate some of that lost magic via "Virtual Vinyl," which enhances the listening experience through better visuals, access to lyrics (if you can find the embedded Easter Eggs) and has a unique way of capturing the macabre, menacing essence of their latest wickedly delightful effort, "Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder". The "Virtual Vinyl" also allows the album's stunning, bold and uniquely CRADLE-esque artwork to take center stage, as well.

Check it out now at this location.

"Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder" entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 37. The CD also sold a little over 11,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 48 on The Billboard 200 chart.

"Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder" is the follow-up to "Thornography", which shifted nearly 13,000 copies in the U.S. the first week out to enter The Billboard chart at No. 66. This was roughly in line with the performance of its predecessor, "Nymphetamine", which premiered with almost 14,000 copies back in October 2004.

"Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder" is conceptual and is based on the well-documented, true-life fall from grace of a shadowy historical figure named Gilles de Rais, a wealthy French nobleman who was one of Joan of Arc's brothers-in-arms. He was best known, however, as a prolific serial killer who mixed prayers with his nightly murders as well as an aspiring alchemist. He was accused of a panoply of crimes, among them heresy, demonology and kidnapping. There's even an extreme fringe sect of historians who question de Rais' true status, with some convinced he was framed.

CRADLE OF FILTH will make its much-anticipated return to U.S. soil this winter for their first headline tour since the Viva La Bands tour in fall 2007. SATYRICON will serve as main support, while Greek metallers SEPTICFLESH (no written as one word) will open the show. The tour runs for six weeks.

"Honey And Sulphur", the new video from CRADLE OF FILTH, can be viewed below.