Back for an impressive fourteenth album, it's been a pleasantly enjoyable run as of late for Dani Filth and co, leaning perhaps a little more towards the band's symphonic side but doing enough in terms of songwriting to keep faithful ears more than peeled. And although The Screaming of the Valkyries is by no means the best thing that Cradle have produced, it's a competent set of songs that will do much for fans and shows their solid spree is not over yet, even though there are warning signs here and there. Although the line-up is still more than powerful and competent, with new guitarist Donny Burbage (ex-Æther Realm) and keyboardist Zoe Marie Federoff (recently married to current Cradle guitarist Ashok in all too cute news) holding up their ends well, the keys often have more complexity going on than the sometimes overly chug-happy guitars. This is good for the band's atmospheric, pompous side, but not so great for the heavy metal side and those of us who loved the dips into extreme metal of the Hammer of the Witches era.

Fortunately the band remain expert songwriters. Opener To Live Deliciously may rely on repeating its title a little too much as a hook but the symphonic thrash approach generally is a keen-edged knife at the listener's throat, highly effective and a great introduction to the album with some lovely lead guitar. The surging, propulsive The Trinity of Shadows has a lot of dark energy to its sped-up gothic metal assault, having some of the best riffing of the album too, and White Hellebore isn't far behind in quality with touches of both Maiden-esque gallop and blackened dramatics, as well as the catchiest chorus on the album thanks to Zoe Federoff. And although You Are My Nautilus is a little on the long side it makes up for it with a thrashy break at the mid-point leading to up-tempo lead guitar-led intensity in the, again, Maiden-influenced passages.

Elsewhere, things can seem to drag a little. There seems to be a slight bias in favour of ballads, with Nautilus, Non Omnis Moriar, and Malignant Perfection all having parts that read as balladic and all going on a little long - as do the songs generally on the album with none under five minutes. Sure, all are also decent enough on their own with more beautiful vocal contributions from Zoe Federoff (easily in contention for the album MVP) but this does lean things a little too much in that direction, which can make the listen as a whole seem a little dreary and airless. More of the likes of Ex Sanguine Draculae which although having more of a straightforwardly doomy tone mixes it up with plenty of speed and viciousness, would have been much appreciated, as would more variety in general.

For some, too, the usual criticisms will apply. Dani Filth seems to have generally settled in a choked snarl that makes much of the lyrical output more than understandable but he still has plenty of the earscraping howls and screams of yore - if you were previously a fan you'll remain so, yet those put off in the past should consider giving it another try even so as age is clearly having a sobering effect, however slowly. Of course, few would deny that in instrumental terms Cradle of Filth remain a top-tier act and The Screaming of the Valkyries is more proof of their skills, if not quite the best depiction of them in recent years.