Cradle of Filth whore image, when your listening to cradle your not hearing art, your listening to the perpetuation of image, as such most people will listen to this music because of the way it makes them feel, as opposed to the artistic appreciation one may derive from something like Burzum.
Have you ever seen the retarded teenagers on forums, telling people not to mess with them because they are extreme and listen to slipknot? Cradle is slipknot is linkin park is crap. The music is ego masturbation, what an intelligent person might call individualism.
lyrically,
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/cradleoffilth/theprincipleofevilmadeflesh.html#9Errant references to the self, screaming individualism. At the end of the song out of the blue comes lyrics of lost love. I can't discern the link between the god bashing and the "i'm so gothique and tragic". The lyrics read like a checklist or 'how to be goth F.A.Q' It's a product, and this is the bands first full length, cradle have never aspired to art.
Musically CoF sound like a melange of BM technique applied to pop esque progressions (1, 4, 5, anyone?) and all warmed over with keyboards, sounding like a thousand other terrible bands. Vocals are the driving force of this music, "filth has an impressive vocal range, holy wowsers its so novel, this music must be excellent." Challenge a cradle fan on a forum and their general reaction will be that the vocals and keyboards are like so awesome dude. It sounds novel, it is crap.
Being a product, the songs inspire the one dimension of the product (which in cradle's case is image) in the listener. One experienced with metal will shun this music; each and every listen will yield the exact, static, product. Which cradle have been flogging for the entirety of their career.
Something like burzum, true art, is an attempt to express the eternal. Repeated listens will not yield the same experience, there is a world of depth and complexity contained within, one can connect with the music, not the image presented.
Blitzkrieg you have brought image into your argument, your equating the image of the bands with the art they make? You've found this site, so your probably on the right track. Reevaluating ones musical tastes and more importantly, values, takes time. Keep exploring ANUS, you will hopefully come to understand the beauty of high art and why Cradle is utterly worthless.