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When you sit and think about the bands that have had the greatest impact on the world over the bast few decades you may consider the metal icons such as METALLICA, IRON MAIDEN, and SLAYER, but a band that never seems to get the credit that is rightfully deserved is CRADLE OF FILTH. Since the inception of the group and the deliciously evil, downright superb debut album The Principles Of Evil Made Flesh the Suffolk–forged, now multinational and generational machine that is CRADLE OF FILTH has surpassed the norms of what is expected of a leading extreme band and have crossed into other genres and indeed forms of media.
We have seen appearances on popular television panel shows as Never Mind The Buzzcocks over here and Viva Lam Bam in the States and more recently we have seen collaborations with multi-platinum selling acts such BRING ME THE HORIZON, and a long-awaited single with pop artist ED SHEERAN (the latter has been in the works for almost a year at the time of writing).
This year we have been blessed with yet another offering from the extreme metal legends in the form of The Screaming Of The Valkyries. The group’s fourteenth full-length studio effort and the first to feature writing contributions from keyboardist/vocalist Zoe Marie Federoff and guitarist Donny Burbage. We managed to catch up with the founding member, lead vocalist and lyricist of the band, Dani Filth, to talk to him about the new album, his illustrious career to date and what the future holds for the titans of the extreme, perverse and downright evil.
“The addition of Zoe and Donny injected fresh blood into the band when we came to write for this album,” Explains Dani. “We found them we were at a bit of disposition because we had lost two thirds of the band within a few weeks of an opening slot for DANZIG in the States.” The band would then tour relentlessly for more than three years with sporadic spells in the rehearsal studio writing the new material. “By the time that we came to record the album they had become fully broken in, road-hardened members of the band and were ready to contribute to the writing process”.
When it comes to the new material for the album, there are plenty of musical references to previous incarnations and time periods of the band. It takes a certain level of conscious songwriting to nod back to previous works, without retreading the same old ground and simply rehashing old ideas. “It’s not about self-plagiarism or digging up the past. It’s more a case of bringing in fresh members who aspire to different albums from our catalogue musically make for a wonderful revisit of times past,” tells Dani. “We didn’t pander to the idea of releasing bonus tracks or special editions. We decided to go straight forward with our delivery, and it felt like we were blazing forward creatively, whilst keeping a weathered eye on the past as that is where some of our finest moments lie.”
It is in that kind of deadpan, English honesty that the charm of Dani Filth lies and why the metal world has found him so endearing over the past three decades.
CRADLE OF FILTH have always been a band that wear their collective influences on their sleeves and when you listen to tracks such as Trinity Of Shadows from the new album, it has an undeniable nod to the some of the great bands of the NWOBHM era. “I have always loved that sound,” concedes Dani. “And not just the English groups, Don’t Break The Oath by MERCYFUL FATE was a real gateway album for me and despite the fact that a vast majority of the band these days are not British, we still lean into that style of songwriting heavily and of course, put our own dark twist on things. Like IRON MAIDEN on crack!” He laughs.
With a gap of three and a half years between The Screaming Of The Valkyries and the band’s last studio effort Existence Is Futile you could be mistaken for thinking that the veterans were taking things easy or resting on their laurels. However, as has been previously explained this could not have been farther from the truth. “Believe it or not with already started writing for the next album, and don’t forget we’ve already got that new song with ED SHEERAN to release at some point, we also put out a double live album and re-recorded a couple of bits with some cover versions of songs thrown in for good measure,” tells Dani. “I feel like it’s a prolific time for the band at the moment, and let’s be honest we are all still playing catch up after the pandemic. We managed to stay productive enough to keep people interested and that’s about all we could ask for!”
With a release this early in the year it leaves the rest of 2025 wide open for the band and they have decided to use their time in the way that they always have. By hitting the road. The band heads out to America in April to co-headline the Chaos & Carnage tour alongside death metal legends DYING FETUS before heading off around the entirety of Europe and the UK for their own solo headlining tour (along with some festival appearances), where they play some venues that some (including Dani) were not expecting, but welcome. “We’d never have thought we’d have played places like Margate and Torquay,” laughs Dani. “Places such as Norwich and Southampton we have played a few times before, but to throw in a couple of new places at this stage in our career is something of an anomaly!”
With such an exciting year for CRADLE OF FILTH and seemingly so much in the pipeline, it is a truly exciting time to be a fan of the band. And with the way that they so seamless manage to bridge the gap between the popular and the extreme without ever compromising their musical style it seems that they are showing no signs of slowing up in the foreseeable future, a nor should they when they still have so much to offer.
The Screaming Of The Valkyries is out now via Napalm Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS119 here:
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