The Manticore and Other Horrors

It appeared on 29 October 2012 in Europe on Peaceville and on 30 October in the United States on Nuclear Blast. It was recorded between April and June 2012 at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk and Springvale Studios in Ipswich, and produced by Scott Atkins with Dani Filth, Paul Allender and Martin Škaroupka. A band that had been six people for most of its life made this one as three, and it is the only Cradle of Filth album of which that is true. It is also the last with the guitarist Paul Allender, who left for the second time in April 2014. The manticore of the title is the Persian monster with a man's face and a lion's body, and the songs stand beside it like a set of short stories, each about a different horror. The standard release holds eleven songs and 51 minutes 37 seconds; the limited edition adds "Nightmares of an Ether Drinker" and "Death, the Great Adventure" for thirteen.