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Interviews : “Cradle of Filth is firing on all cylinders, everyone is getting along well” – An Interview With Dani Filth (Cradle Of Filth)

By on June 14, 2015
Cradle of Filth 2015

(image courtesy: Metal Hammer)

Dani Filth – Cradle of Filth

British extreme metal titans Cradle of Filth are back. They are about to release their 11th record on July 10th (via Nuclear Blast), which is entitled ‘Hammer of The Witches’. I phoned up Dani Filth to have a chat about the album, touring and old songs that they might revisit on the upcoming world tour!

Dani: Hello!

Metal Obsession: Hello Dani, how’s it going?

Dani: Good thank you, yeah! Early for me [Laughs]

Metal Obsession: It is a bit, yeah! How are things in the Cradle of Filth camp at the moment? Because you’ve had a bit of a break lately, except the one show in the Philippines a couple months ago.

Dani: Yeah, well, it hasn’t been a break really, we’ve finished the album, press, videos and so on, you name it.

Metal Obsession: Are you excited to get back on the road?

Dani: Yeah, I’m missing it a lot!

Metal Obsession: You’re playing a couple of festival shows in the upcoming months, are you planning on playing any new songs or will you premiere them during the upcoming world tour?

Dani: I think we’ll end up playing one, “Right Wing of the Garden Triptych”, on the festivals. And then, yeah, we’ll be doing some more when we’re in South America and Europe at the end of the year.

Metal Obsession: Alright, that’s awesome! You’ve been a band for so long now and you’ve released quite a few albums, how do you decide on what songs to play live? Do you just play whatever you feel like or do you pay a lot of attention to fan favourites, for example?

Dani: It’s a bit of both really. It’s a bit difficult for us now because obviously we need to consider fan favourites, the ones we’re expected to play, we’ve got to play the ones we want to play. And we have two new guitarists so we can pretty much play anything we want from our back catalogue now. So that’s an extra problem, it was never a case before, we kind of just played things out of necessity. Now we’ve got a little bit more freedom, more talent in the band, so we can revisit whatever songs we want. So that’s added another dilemma to everything. On top of everything else, we want to play some stuff from the new album too. I think we will have to come up with several setlists just to mix things up a bit.

Metal Obsession: I just have to ask now when I have the opportunity. “Malice Through The Looking Glass” is my favourite Cradle of Filth song. Is there any change that it will make it back onto the setlist, or maybe some other a bit rarer songs?

Dani: It will definitely make it back into the setlist! It’s one of the tracks that are shortlisted because we’re big fans of the track, as well. Yeah, we haven’t played it for ages, we used to play it all the time. That’s usually what happens with a lot of our older material, it all comes in waves. We’ve played other tracks like “Haunted Shores”, “A Gothic Romance”, “Heaven Torn Asunder”, “Funeral In Carpathia”.

Metal Obsession: You have released so many albums now, I would imagine that it’s really difficult to decide on what to play from each album?

Dani: Yeah, well, it’s either that or do a 21 hour setlist!

Metal Obsession: Maybe you should!

Dani: Maybe, maybe…

cof hammer of the witches

Hammer of the Witches – out July 10 via Nuclear Blast Records

Metal Obsession: Are there any songs on the new album that you really look forward to playing live? How about older songs?

Dani: We’ve got a second lyrical video coming out for “Deflowering the Maidenhead”, “Displeasuring the Goddess” which I think will be here in a couple weeks. We will be playing that and also our previous single “Right Wing of The Garden Triptych”. But who knows, when we move further into the year and next year. We’re talking about Australia, Asia, and the big American tour that has been building up for a while now. I guess we will be playing a lot more. I’m REALLY looking forward to it! As for older songs, there are a few songs I really want to do. Obviously, as I mentioned before, “Malice Through the Looking Glass” being one of them, “Devil To The Metal”, “Of Dark Blood And Fucking”, there’s fucking loads! We’ve got so many tracks that we’d like to play!

Metal Obsession: It really sounds like you’re excited about getting back on the road again.

Dani: Yeah, for sure, very excited. I think, when you listen to the new album, it has that excitement to it. You can tell that the band is firing on all cylinders, everyone is getting along well. That vibe is back. We entered the studio with more songs than actually appeared on the album. There are two tracks to the special edition, both were recorded at the same time. We actually didn’t decide on the final tracklisting until about a week before the actual masters were delivered. So there’s no loss in quality, we just didn’t know what was going on where. And like I said, it was three more songs aside from that that had to be dropped which will probably be released in the near future because they were good as well. It’s not short either! I think with the bonus tracks we’re looking at 72 minutes. It’s harking back to stuff like “Cruelty and the Beast”, “Dusk and Her Embrace”, where you might be getting sixteen or seventeen riff changes in one track.

Metal Obsession: You recently signed with Nuclear Blast. Was there any particular reason for choosing them and has there been any differences in the album making process compared to earlier?

Dani: We looked at some labels, Spinefarm and Century Media. I think we’ve covered bases with the other labels. Nuclear Blast had been trying to sign us fourteen years previously and they’ve been trying to get hold of us ever since. It was during the co-headline tour with Behemoth in Europe last year and Markus Staiger, the managing director, he signed my other band Devilment. It just seemed like a natural thing to bring everything into the same housing. Nuclear Blast have done a fantastic job.

Metal Obsession: You mentioned Devilment before, has that project somehow made an impact on this upcoming Cradle of Filth album?

Dani: In fact, I think it instigated a change toward the more aggressive with Cradle of Filth. Devilment is a bit more straightforward, a bit more rocky. Cradle of Filth is a bit more intricate. Devilment got something out of my system. In fact, Devilment has just shot a new video for “Sanity Hits A (Perfect) Zero” which will be coming out about a month after the Cradle album. We’re also working on a new album together. We’re also playing Graspop as Cradle and Devilment on the same day. So it’s not a project anymore, it never really was. It’s another band and they are very local to me, whereas Cradle is spread across the planet. Devilment enabled me to go back to the roots of Cradle. Now with Paul’s departure we’re able to do things how we really wanted to do them, how the fans wanted us to do it. Both of the new guitarists have been fans of the band. Like I said, on the previous tour with Behemoth we played a lot of older material. I think that blends onto the new album as well. I’m in the position now where I want to be old school, but obviously with a new lineup, and it has really thrust us forward in that respect. I can only speak on behalf of what journalists has told me, because they are the only ones I’ve spoken to and nobody else has heard it thankfully. They seem to be thinking that it’s a return to glory days. It’s a modern Cradle but with distinctive older Cradle attributes. So I’m happy with that diagnosis!

Metal Obsession: I just have to ask, because your lyrics are truly outstanding, can you name some literary works that has influenced your writings in general the most?

Dani: Oh god, loads of stuff! I’m reading and collecting a lot of classics. I’m a big fan of late 19th century and early 20th century, obviously Lovecraft, August Derleth, Arthur Machen, Louis Stevenson, Saki, Baudelaire.

Metal Obsession:  Thanks Dani, I believe our time is up now! Do you want to say anything to the Australian fans?

Dani: Thanks for your support! Buy the new album. You can visit my Facebook page or the Cradle Facebook page. The videos will be and are on Youtube for the new record. The album comes out on July the 10th. I don’t think anyone will be disappointed by it. It’s a real celebration of Cradle of Filth and metal in general. Make sure we come back to Australia because your voice makes us come… that sounds awful! [Laughs] That’s perfect!

Metal Obsession: Thank you very much for talking to me today, Dani. Good luck with your other phone calls!

Dani: Thank you so much! Have a listen to the record and let us know what you think!

Metal Obsession: I will for sure! Have a good day!

Dani: You too! Cheerio! Bye!

About

Martin is an aspiring music photographer/videographer. He is originally from the southern parts of Sweden and now he's living in Sydney, Australia. Thanks to his older sister, he got into Rammstein at the age of 9, and since then he's been into all types of metal/rock. He loves to combine photography and music, but also filming concerts and produce live material. Follow him on Twitter and check out his website.