Cradle Of Filth – Live Bait For The Dead (2002)

October 27, 2023

I had this live album as a kid because I was obsessed with Cradle and wanted to collect all their CDs. I remember also queuing up at HMV or Virgin Megastore (I forget which) with a copy of 11 Burial Masses in my hand. I was nonchalantly reading the tracklist on the back when I realised: “shit, I already own this!”. I have absolutely no fucking idea why Live Bait For The Dead was rereleased as 11 Burial Masses (sans bonus disc of material). If you throw in the DVD too then this live set has been released three fucking times. Which is a bit much, to be honest.

Looking back now however, after Cradle continued to lose members and evolve into something that is barely recognisable to what is on display here, it is perhaps difficult to not analyse Live Bait through rose tinted glasses. Released in the Succubi… era, when the band were addressing older material anyway (with new-old members lol), Live Bait was the perfect concoction of the Cradle material available at the time. The sound is a bit muddy. but everyone sounds great individually.

The bonus disc contains a whole bunch of stinkers and pointless crap but the Twisted Sister cover is unironically fucking amazing. Dani’s vocals on this thing are outstanding.