After Joan of Arc's death, he slid into a life of debauchery, which ended up with him trying to reclaim his fortune through alchemy and witchcraft. This led him to murder and kidnapping. He was eventually arrested by the Catholic Church and tried. It's a great gothic sort of fairytale story, because he's a very pious man at the beginning, turns extremely evil... The story runs concurrently throughout the album, it's not just vague ideas orbiting a main satellite. It's a story, and the narrative is actually taken from trial transcripts that were taken down in secular court at the time of his judgement. [6]
The title of the album derives from a valediction vocalist Dani Filth once used to sign a letter. [5]
Once again, Doug Bradley provides narration for the album (as with Midian , Nymphetamine and Thornography ). The actor Tony Todd had initially been approached, but had quit the recording sessions over discomfort with the material. [7]
Promotion and release
On 21 July 2008, the band revealed the title and track listing of the new album. [8] The track "Tragic Kingdom", was made available for free download by Roadrunner Records on 27 August, [9] while 30-second samples of each track on the album were made available on Amazon.de on 27 September. [10] The track "Honey and Sulphur" was the album's first single, and has been made available for purchase on the iTunes Store. A music video for the song was filmed at the Chislehurst Caves of Kent. [11] [12] In addition, "Midnight Shadows Crawl to Darken Counsel with Life" was available for streaming on the band's official website. [13]
Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder was released on 28 October. The album peaked at number 48 on the Billboard 200 chart, [14] with sales of a little over 11,000 copies. [15] It reached number 73 in the UK Albums Chart. [16] A special edition containing a bonus disc was also released. [17]
A video for "The Death of Love" was released on 31 July 2009. [18] Andy Sneap has mixed a new version of the song for the video.
Critical reception
| Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover art by David Ho | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 28 October 2008 | |||
| Recorded | March–June 2008 at Backstage Studios, Derbyshire, England | |||
| Genre | Extreme metal | |||
| Length | 71:22 | |||
| Label | Roadrunner | |||
| Producer |
| |||
| Cradle of Filth chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [19] |
| Blabbermouth.net |   [20] |
| Blistering | [21] |
| ChartAttack | mixed [22] |
| Chronicles of Chaos | 7/10 [23] |
| IGN | 7.2/10 [24] |
| Kerrang! | [25] |
| Metal Storm | [26] |
| PopMatters | [27] |
| Terrorizer | [28] |
Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder has been generally well received by critics. Terrorizer called it "A much more cohesive, consistent and convincing album than Cradle have made for ages... Too samey to justify 71 minutes, but ultimately this is cracking..." [28] Kerrang! called it "Grandiose, epic but still feral... eclipses the relatively weak Thornography... mixes scorching dynamics, atmosphere and overblown theatrics..." [25] Metal Hammer wrote that it "Ticks all the band's usual boxes, while also boasting genuine narrative depth and real emotional resonance... Cradle's heaviest album yet and their strongest set of songs..." [29]
