Goetia (partially found Cradle of Filth debut album; 1992)

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Totalfuckingdarkness.jpg

The cover art for the remastered release of Total Fucking Darkness.

Status: Partially Found

Goetia was the first album by English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth. Recorded at Springvale Studios on the outskirts of Ipswich (a location the band would later use regularly for rehearsals) in 1992, the album would have been the band's debut. However, because of bills not being paid to the label Tombstone Records, all the tracks were wiped with the label going under not long afterwards.[1] Due to this, the band's debut album would instead be The Principle of Evil Made Flesh in 1994.

In an interview with American metal magazine Loudwire in 2019, Danni Filth, the band's lead singer, played "Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?", a game where he would confirm whether or not information in the Cradle of Filth Wikipedia page was factually correct. In the interview, Filth stated that while the tracks were wiped due to not being paid for, it was due to the band simply not wanting to pursue a career with Tombstone, whom he described as a "rubbish" label. He then went on to describe the wiped album as being a "blessing in disguise", as had they paid the bills to Tombstone, they would have been tied to them for seven albums which would have been the death of the band.[2]

Availability

In 2007, on the Cradle of Filth forums, user johnandsara1982 uploaded two mp3 files that they stated to be a song possibly from the Goetia recordings.[3] They had stated that they had sourced the track from the end of a demo tape for Orgiastic Pleasures Foul which they had acquired from someone who was close to the band in the past who had stated that the track was recorded onto the tape by "Paul" (the name of two guitarists in the band, Paul Ryan and Paul Allender) to present to Tombstone. While the original hosting for the files has long gone offline, the mp3s were re-uploaded to YouTube in 2008. In 2009, YouTube channel TorturedShallowGrave uploaded a live performance of the band from 1992, in which they performed the same song.

In 2014, Cradle of Filth released a remaster of their 1992 demo Total Fucking Darkness. In the remaster they included four new tracks from their old recording sessions, one of these, Spattered in Faeces, being confirmed by the band as being the only surviving song from the Goetia recordings.[4] This song was the same song as the one from both johnandsara1982 and TorturedShallowGrave.

Reception

Upon the release of Spattered in Faeces in the Total Fucking Darkness remaster, metalheads expressed their excitement in hearing the song for the first time. Some saw the track as having a sense of devastation one would think the band was "incapable" of, criticizing the lack of arrangement and believing the band wouldn't have taken off as much if the album had replaced The Principle of Evil Made Flesh as their debut.[5] Others stated that the style felt similar to that of their album Dusk... and Her Embrace, and that the track alone made the remastered demo worth the money.[6] In the 2008 YouTube re-upload, some commenters mentioned that they could hear the snow keyboard from the band's later song A Dream of Wolves in the Snow.

Gallery

Dani Filth's interview on Loudwire in 2019. Goetia is talked about starting around the 2:05 mark.

The re-uploaded mp3s from the Cradle of Filth forums post.

Cradle of Filth's live performance of the song Spattered in Faeces in 1992.

The remastered release of Spattered in Faeces uploaded to the official Cradle of Filth YouTube channel by Virtual Label LLC.

References