The album was produced by Sabbat guitarist Andy Sneap, who had previously worked with Cradle of Filth while mixing the band's 2006 album, Thornography. Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder is Cradle of Filth's first album as a four-piece, rather than its usual six-man staple. It is also the last album to feature backing vocalist Sarah Jezebel Deva (although she briefly returned for Midnight in the Labyrinth in 2012) and the first to feature drummer Martin Škaroupka, replacing Adrian Erlandsson.
The band's official message boards revealed parts of an interview with guitarist Paul Allender, conducted by Média Matin Québec: "We already have four new songs ready and I have to say that they are... much faster than the songs on Thornography. [They] sound like old Cradle of Filth... A mixture of Midian and Dusk...." The interview goes on to state that the album will be followed by a European and American tour. Dani Filth has described the album as, "our most extreme, dramatic and deeply disturbing album to date. The legend of Gilles de Rais has been given fresh, vampyrical life in this conceptual meisterwerk, swathed in pitch-black magic and a viciousness unsurpassed in the annals of Cradle history. Screw what our detractors say, everyone who has heard this album has bruised their jaws on the pentagram-bejewelled floor."[4]
In an interview with Blistering magazine, Filth revealed that three additional songs were recorded during the album sessions, among them an instrumental piece and a cover of Celtic Frost's "Into the Crypts of Rays".[5] On the topic of their absence from the album, Filth has stated that they "were taken out so that the album wasn't too long. They'll turn up somewhere."[5] They were ultimately included on the special edition.
Content
In an interview published in February 2009, Dani talked about Gilles de Rais, and how his story manifests on Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder:
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.
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]
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