At last, after more than 20 years, Total Fucking Darkness, the infamous third demo from the U.K.'s notorious Cradle of Filth, is being officially released. Featuring artwork from the twisted visions of Radio One Presenter and Occult Artist, Daniel Carter, the release will include some tracks previously unreleased by the band. Frater Nihil, the founder of Cacophonous Records, the label that first signed Cradle of Filth, got together with Dani Filth and Paul Ryan (former guitarist and now in The King is Blind) to bring fans of the band, both old and new, a remastered version of the demo along with material that had been sitting in the vaults for 20 years. They entered Turan Studio in Oxford and with the help of the engineer (who has worked on everything from Emperor to Thin Lizzy) brought the old recordings a new lease of life.
The album kicks off with the track Spattered in Faeces, the only surviving track from the now mythical Goetia sessions, followed on Side A and the rest of Side B with the recordings from Total Fucking Darkness. Side C begins with another previously unreleased track, Devil Mayfair (Advocatus Diaboli), recorded at Samhain 1992, the rest of the side and the next feature the other three tracks from that session, along with two short instrumental pieces from the band's former keyboardist, Ben Ryan.