CRADLE OF FILTH's 'Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa' Cracks U.S. Top 100

"Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa", the new album from British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH, sold 5,800 copies in its first week of release to debut at position No. 99 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's previous CD, "Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder", opened with a little over 11,000 copies back in November 2008 to debut at position No. 48 on The Billboard 200 chart. This was slightly less than the first-week tally registered by 2006's "Thornography", which shifted nearly 13,000 copies the first week out to enter The Billboard chart at No. 66, and "Nymphetamine", which premiered with almost 14,000 copies back in October 2004.

The special fan edition of "Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa", is only available at this location and will be strictly limited; once they sell out they will never be re-pressed.

As vocalist Dani Filth stated, this is will be "the best CRADLE OF FILTH release that we have ever created, the ultimate version of our ultimate album. For you, our loyal mortal appreciators."

"Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa" was released on November 1 through Peaceville Records on the band's own AbraCadaver imprint (November 9 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records).

"Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa" is, in the words of CRADLE's infamous frontman Dani Filth, "without doubt the fastest and most brutal album we've created to date. As an acquaintance of the band so aptly noted, this is like 'IRON MAIDEN on crack in a graveyard of angels!' This album is CRADLE at our most sinister and darkened fairytale," continues Dani. "A gothic horror themed slay-ride of fervour and perversion; yet amidst the orchestral melodrama and lush, cinematic production, there sits stalwart a ravening beast of furious riffing, flesh ripping vocals and monstrous, unstoppable percussion."

CRADLE OF FILTH — consisting of Dani Filth on vocals, Paul Allender and James McIlroy on guitar, David Pybus on bass, Martin Skaroupka on drums and Ashley Ellyllon on keyboards — recorded the follow-up to 2008's "Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder" at Monkey Puzzle studios near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. The bandmembers remain stalwarts to the satanic horror ethos by again composing a fully blown concept album, this time based on Adam's first wife, the lascivious Demoness Lilith; throwing Medieval nuns, Knights Templars, Greek mythology and lashings of sex, occult lore and violent bloodshed into the smelting pot, to create a darkly erotic nightmare set to their unique scope of supreme vampyric metal. And with an as-near-as-dammit release date of All Hallow's Eve 2010, CRADLE OF FILTH are snarling at the leash to get out to all of their fans across the world. "We can't wait to play this shit live," admits Dani.

For this release, the band wanted mastery of their own destiny, choosing to release the album on their very own AbraCadaver label in conjunction with Peaceville Records, home to such illicit luminaries as DARKTHRONE, KATATONIA, MY DYING BRIDE, BLOODBATH and GALLHAMMER, among many others. Vocalist Dani Filth has described the move as being "a choice to move away from the artistic restrictions/mindless inhibitions imposed by dwelling on a major label" and cites the current financial clime as "the perfect opportunity to start doing things our own way again, with the added benefit of being a far bigger fish in a proverbial pool, surrounded by people who have been handpicked to get the job best done. And more importantly... who still are hungry for the taste of music."