Cradle Of Filth, Devildriver @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 14/7/2026
Some men, dressed like outlaws on the run in the Texas desert, slinging guitars instead of guns, storm the stage with whisky fuelled, stylish groove metal. The night is set.
Or so it seems, as vampires and demons eclipse the venue, turning the the place into a bloodbath of curdling screams, cinematic atmospherics and rapid guitar attacks.
I could be recounting the plot line of the film From Dusk Till Dawn. I’m not. It’s the double header of DevilDriver and Cradle Of Filth storming Hindley Street, not the Titty Twister, instead.
What seems on the surface a conflicting duo of styles is nothing more than garnish. Both bands musicianship is pristine, the riffs shuddering – just some faster than others – and they both have frontmen who know that their performance is more than just singing.
DevilDriver come out first. Dirty, gritty and a sound that seeps into each nook and cranny in the building, they sound big and muscular. Clouds Over California and Not All Who Wander Are Lost sound so good it’s like being on a vibrating massage chair. Those vibrations of the riffs are blissful.
Frontman Dez Fafara stalks the stage, eyes wide and cajoling all. His chatter with the crowd engaging you enough that you feel he is playing to just for you.
The pit is bristling with enthusiasm throughout as Grinfucked gets middle fingers in the air, My Night Sky clapping and hands waving for Sail.
The outlaws don’t waste anytime though. Storming the gates with thirteen songs in an hour, it’s all grooves, head banging, vocal roars and stiff necks on offer from DevilDriver, as the band finish with End Of The Line to the approving Fight Club participants in the pit.
The ambience turns dark, the chill descends upon the crowd. A Gollum like grim reaper stalks the stage, gone rogue, looking for its next victim, the audience. The audience scream as To Live Deliciously pours from the stage like blood red wine into a golden goblet. Dani Filth unveil himself and brings the screams of horror.
Cradle Of Filth are the modern version of hammer horror. The theatre, vaudeville even, of the bands soundtrack to the Dracula posturing of Dani, hypnotising and entrancing, is compelling viewing.
Backed by vocal harmonies and orchestration from the keyboards of Kelsey Peters, who offers angelic yet demonic wails sonically, and the searing solos from the dual guitar attack, they are traditional heavy metal. Grooves, riffs and head twirls. Yet decorated in red veils, face paint and speed up, it’s becomes something else entirely that has cocooned into a wretched and sordid monster.
Nocturnal Supremacy is a blur of skill, Dani Filth’s vocals ranging across spectrums, as he floats across the stage, making sure everyone one of us is possessed.
He doesn’t stop with his devils sermon as the band tear through Malignant Perfection, Nymphetamine and the extraordinary Bathory Aria to a crowd stunned by the visual and sonic blur of bat wings and fangs.
The band play like master chess players, carefully plotting their next stage position to take your queen and they eventually succeed during an encore that ends with Her Ghost In The Fog.
A night bathed in blood red lights, a sound that throbs like a ripped jugular vein, and a vampire that got its kills for their coven. Cradle Of Filth have been fed after DevilDriver got us suitably relaxed and partying. While it may sound like From Dusk Till Dawn, this soundtrack is more Evil Dead: 2 and we are all dead by dawn.
Live Review By Iain McCallum