We edited the colours of the image to create what we felt was an otherworldly feel, we find it interesting how some swift sleight of some technological hand can transform a picture and its character.
In this case we felt only some minor adjustments were needed as we deemed the original image so striking",[7] the same photograph was used for the back of the album as well.
[1] Allmusic's Heather Phares said that "Nearly all of their songs come swooping in on chilly, swirling guitars and Rachel Davies' feverish vocals" and later stated "While there are a few moments where Violet Cries' potent atmosphere turns meandering and atonal, this is still a promising and often captivating debut from a band with a bold sound.
"[18] David Edwards of Drowned in Sound said that "Immersing your mind into the depths of Violet Cries, the debut album from Esben and the Witch is to experience transportation to an alternate reality.
Whether you happen to be listening at home, in the car on a frozen morning or caught between twin headphones on a bustling commute, you are suddenly relocated to a bleak and blasted heath; smoke and mist rushing by your ears as the sun disappears behind the line of the horizon and the spirits begin to stir" later noting that "Violet Cries is a record of exceptional class and calibre, a band doing things in a comprehensively new way: blending poetry, sounds and obscure textures together into an intoxicating draught.
"[13] Ben Hewitt of NME commented "No doubt there’ll be some impatient souls who clamour for more tunes with immediate impact (especially since singles ‘Skeleton Swoon’ and ‘Lucia, At The Precipice’ were deemed superfluous), but demanding such fare from ‘Violet Cries’ would be like asking Gordon Ramsay to serve you up some beans on toast: there’s a far richer and more refined set of treats on display here than any of the band’s contemporaries could rustle up.
"[2] Pitchfork had a mixed review of the album, Jayson Greene commented on the song writing saying "Violet Cries gets so many of these little details right that it's perplexing that it isn't more compelling.
The songs are frustratingly drowsy, a series of interludes with the surrounding meat seemingly excised," later noting that "Violet Cries never delivers on its promise, though-- in order to deliver, goth needs to be pitched at some sort of extreme, to risk ridiculousness through abandon, and the members of Esben and the Witch are too tasteful and careful to take the plunge.
"[3] The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan said that "Despite a tendency to drift formlessly, there's true beauty in some of their desolate soundscapes, which get eerier as the album crawls along.
[14] Clash concluded their short review of Violet Cries saying it was "Layered, expansive and driven by the kind of shadowy dynamics Portishead might call their own, Esben And The Witch display an effortless aptitude for creating a sense of drama and intrigue.