Do you remember the Heavy Left-Handed And Candid DVD Cradle Of Filth released about three months ago ? The aforementioned object consisted of an eleven burial masses live recording, a bunch of video clips (nasty version and very nasty version of Scorched Earth Erotica and Born In A Burial Gown), a "schlockumentary" called Sifting Through Filth, a trailer of their Cradle Of Fear movie and finally The Blair Twit Project.

With Cradle Of Filth's first official live album release, what you've got is the same gig they have recorded at Rock City in Nottingham (the home of Robin Hood) on April 14th 2001, for the DVD release, but without the images ! Of course many won't agree with me since many don't possess a DVD player, but what's the point of this release ? At least they should have chosen another live recording for this release. I am not fond of live albums, for I think one has to see the images to fully appreciate them. Of course, as I have mentioned, not everyone can afford a DVD player, so the guys probably thought it would be cool for the fans to have a live album version of the DVD. It would also raise more money at the same time.

Anyway… this is of course a must have for all the Cradle Of Filth fans out there, even for those like me who already own the aforementioned DVD release, since this live album comes with a second bonus CD (I'll come to that later). What can one expect with this Live Bait For The Dead album ? An excellent sound of course, since that's the least one can ask for a live release, but what one gets is also a large sampling of what Cradle Of Filth has released over the years. Songs include, The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh and Summer Dying Fast from the first album The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh. Ebony Dressed For Sunset and The Forest Whispers My Name from the second album Vempire Or Dark Faerytales In Phallustein. Dusk And Her Embrace from the third album Dusk… And Her Embrace. Cruelty Brought Three Orchids, unfortunately, is the only song from their fourth and best album so far, Cruelty And The Beast. This live release also contains Lord Abortion, Cthulhu Dawn and Her Ghost In The Fog from their firth album Midian, and of course the number one hit, From The Cradle To Enslave. A total of eleven songs if you don't count the intro and the interlude.

On disc two, you'll find a bunch of extra tracks, remixes and covers. Born In A Burial Gown in a polished coffin mix (what's the difference with the regular mix ?), a techno song called Deleted Scenes Of A Snuff Princess and an under martian rule mix of From The Cradle To Enslave (they are both just unlistenable tracks). You also get Scorched Earth Erotica in it's original demo version (what's so trendy about all those demo version anyway ?), and a couple of soundcheck recordings of Funeral In Carpathia and Nocturnal Supremacy (that are not on the live CD which makes them really interesting). Finally there's also a couple of cover tracks. The first one is a cover of Twisted Sisters' The Fire Still Burns that has never been released before and is just an average cover track (Dimmu Borgir's cover of Twisted Sister's Burn In Hell was a lot better). The second one is another version of Sister Of Mercy's No Time To Cry in a sisters of no mercy mix (the original cover track is present on their Bitter Suites To Succubi release). This second CD also has some CD-ROM extras such as a downloadable Screensaver and tool bar skin, as well as the promo video of their Sisters Of Mercy's cover.

To sum up, it's another buy or die Cradle Of Filth item for fans such as me only. For others, there's really nothing new here for you. Hell, I can't wait for the new album !!!