Cradle of Filth’s 14 studio album, The Screaming of the Valkyries, is an epic soundtrack that showcases the bands’ ability to “cook with music.” It is a balanced record that is sonically rooted in the sounds that have kept fans wanting more for over 30 years while still delivering something new, exhibiting how music that is true and comes from the heart will always reign supreme. Frontman Dani Filth shared with mxdwn over a recorded Zoom interview the meaning behind the album’s lyrics, creating atmospheres through a song’s instrumentals, the escapism created by heavy metal that got him hooked on the genre, his long anticipated collaboration with Ed Sheeran, and the band’s upcoming tour.

mxdwn: Hi, I’m Eve Pierpont for mxdwn, and I’m here with Dani Filth from Cradle of Filth. Hi Dani.

Dani Filth: How are you doing?

mxdwn: Pretty good. How are you?

DF: I’m very well, thank you.

mxdwn: Awesome. So, after over 30 years of making music and having cemented your legacy in the metal and music world, what keeps you going as an artist?

DF: Um, very, very, very, very, very strong drugs.

{Both laugh}

DF: No, I wish. Well, I think the pandemic was a bit of a reset button for a lot of people, and that certainly helped me. If I was jaded before about my position in life, which I wasn’t, but, you know, I think maybe every now and then people take things for granted, and I think the COVID lockdown was a firm reminder that I’m a very lucky individual doing what I do, which is something I love, and it’s more of a lifestyle for me because it doesn’t just end with the music. It’s about everything, theater, clothing, nature, just everything. It’s just everything blends into what I do. So, yeah, I think the pandemic was a reassurance that I’m on the right life track and, for a little while there, it looked like it may not even happen again. I think since then I’ve had a new fire and I guess it never, ever went away, but it just needed to be rekindled somewhat.

mxdwn: Yeah, definitely. Totally understandable. “To Live Deliciously” is about being alive and living free in the here and now, going with that theme and sonically speaking, because the intro is just so fitting for an opening song, was it specifically made to be the first song on the album? And what was the driving force behind creating a song with that as a central message?

DF: Well, yes, it was decided it was gonna be the first track on the album. We get a semblance of what we think’s gonna work where well where on the album quite early on. It’s like putting a puzzle together. Um, and as, once you get like the end song, the beginning song, you know, you can just juggle around and just see how they balance out. I mean, it’s an art form in itself. And now that we’re on album 14, and that’s without EPS and that, I should be well versed in it, but I must admit it’s still a bit of a puzzle. But yeah, we knew this was gonna be the intro song and the message behind it really was to start everything with a very positive escapist vibe. The album ends on kind of the bleak notes, and the album itself, the title was a line from the song and the songs called “When Misery was a Stranger” and it’s kind of di Dickensian in respect of it’s about a bad thing, a cataclysmic event, but because it’s written as verse, you’re aware that it’s salvageable, that you are just reading about it. The event hasn’t occurred. But the rest of the album is very positive. And when I say positive, I mean, if you indulge and enjoy in everything you love and pertain to, then you should really indulge and embrace everything that life gives you whilst you have the time. It’s like setting a life code, and that’s really it. I think the song has a very sort of rhythmic charm like quality. So I thought that if you wanna drive a message home, it might as well be for the greater good, rather than singing about dismembering corpses, something which isn’t really that positive and doesn’t have a very good impact on many people’s lives unless you’re a coroner.

mxdwn:

Yeah, that would be true. No, I like that a lot. So, the word demagoguery, also the name of the second song on the album, literally means political activity that seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of people, or winning them over emotionally rather than using rational argument or morally correct ideas. What insights do you hope listeners gained from this song, and what was the importance of having this idea in your music?

DF: Well, we’re not a political band, so I use it in respect of throughout history, going all the way back to when Eve was seduced by the serpent, allegedly, and that’s what I’m saying, what demagoguery really means. It’s about fake, well, God, I hate even going there, fake news, fake agendas, misinformation, poisonous speech, hate speech. It’s about corruption. It’s about, um, goading people into actions. It’s very manipulative. And it’s prevalent, and when I say prevalent I mean it’s very obvious and visual, nowadays. It’s like, what was the film with John Carpenter? They live with all the subliminal messages everywhere that he can only see ’cause he’s got these special glasses on. Well, the subliminal messages are literally emblazoned now for all to see, and we really don’t give a fuck about it {laughs}. And obviously with the current state of affairs with, talking of states, Israel and Palestine and Russia and Ukraine, and God knows what North Korea are up to, and now you’ve got the inauguration of Donald Trump and him proving a point. I think you’re only gonna see more of this kind of thing. In the context of the song, it’s used as a metaphor for like a dark creeping malevolence, given a fairytale-esque edge, which all the lyrics have ’cause I never really pertain to modernity. I don’t really sing about sports cars and phones or tablets and skyscrapers and that sort of thing, so henceforth, why there’s a lot of symbolism in lyricism that pertains to, let’s say, biblical genders, biblical times, greater, greater eons prior to ours.

mxdwn: Totally. Yes. I can see that in your lyrics and just the way you speak, you’re very intelligent and well, you get your message out there in a very important way through your lyrics. I think it’s, it’s rather impressive. So going off that, with that song, how did you blend the rather opposing aspects of it so beautifully together?

DF: Together? The what aspects of itself?

mxdwn: Like the music of it, it’s just like opposing, like, there’s so many opposing elements in this song, if that makes sense.

DF: I think I listen to a lot of soundtracks.

mxdwn: Okay. Because it’s so masterfully put together in a way that not many people could do.

DF: Well, I just think we’re a cinematic band. We paint pictures, you know, you could say we cook with music.

{Both Laugh}.

mxdwn: I like that. I like that a lot. I love that.

DF: Yeah, I just think the songs are built in that style. We’ve been doing that for a long while, and we’ve got fresh blood in the band, and I think that they help contribute to that sound as well because, um, as newcomers and fans of the band prior to that suddenly being put into a situation where they’re free to write, I think they wrote what we wanted them to write, if that makes any sense.

mxdwn: Yeah.

DF: And we’ve been playing so many shows post pandemic that they couldn’t help but garner what the band’s about from the amount of tracks we play from right across our back catalog. So I think we’ve always been well versed in writing slightly longer songs, and they meander as well as, as I’m doing the more we’re talking at the moment {laughs}. You know, we have like some very long orchestral middle age, the build, there’s a lot of buildup, a lot of tension.

mxdwn: Yes.

DF: And build ups to that tension and release and energy and yeah, it’s just like, say you’re trying to paint a picture and you’ve gotta have ebb and flow and strong course, et cetera. So we just try our best with what we are given.

mxdwn: Awesome. Yes, there is a lot of tension and release in your music, and I actually have a question later on that actually references that, so that’s funny that you said that. The album blends aspects of many of your previous albums together very well, creating a sound that stays true to the band, but also making it something like different and fresh. How do you think you have accomplished that? Because that can be a tricky thing to do.

DF: Just having one eye on the future and one eye on what we’ve achieved in the past and what we’ve done. And not to stray too far from the path for the fans, but also delivering them something new. So it’s always a balancing act, but if you’re really into it and it’s a lifestyle, then you just live it and nothing’s really fake. It’d be so easy to write an album that was contrived because you just had a wishlist and the checklist and you just went, oh, okay, yeah, now we need one of these. That’s not us, so we’re kind of right from the heart. I think the album’s got amazing production courtesy of Scott Atkins, who we’ve worked with on numerable occasions, and we feel comfortable with him, and he is always pushing us, and I think the fans have him to thank as well for the sheer audacity of the record, the production values, the writing. We dispensed with the idea of delivering special edition tracks. We just wanted to give the audience, our target audience, everything that we wanted to do. We didn’t wanna be goaded into doing remixes for bloody Timbuktu or, you know, special edition tracks for solely Australia. No, we just literally delivered nine very catchy, which was a modus operandi anyway, was to write a very catchy record despite being an extreme metal band by any means necessary.

mxdwn: Yeah, I think you did that and you delivered it very, very well. And that’s important when you feel comfortable with the producer, mixer.

DF: Yeah, I mean, he’s a very good friend of ours and he’s one of those people that doesn’t mix his words. So if you are underperforming or you’ve written a part, I mean there was one song on this record that we dispensed with because it wasn’t going anywhere, and I was defending it. I felt like it could go somewhere, and I’d quite frankly written some really cracking lyrics for it, but I took him at his word and in hindsight it was a B side, and you don’t want an album with B sides on it, you want an album full of A sides. So, I agree with him and it was tough love, but I can live with it. I’m a big boy

mxdwn: And it is important to have somebody that will tell you that kind of stuff, even when you don’t wanna hear it. Yeah,

DF: Exactly.

mxdwn: Definitely. So, I admire the fact that I saw in one thing that I was sent that you’ve mentioned how fans of a band with a strong identity wanna hear echoes of the past in a band’s record. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been disappointed by an album that went off on a tangent musically. How did that come to be something that you believe in?

DF: I guess from that very thing, being a big fan of bands and then really looking forward to the next, I’m not gonna name people, but immediately it’s about three bands jump hideously to mind, and you know, you just get a bit disappointed with it. And since we’re in the same field of expertise, we’re a band as well, you take note of that sort of thing. And, yeah, it would be frustrating. I think we’ve traveled that path lightly in a few times during our career, just touched upon it and it was noticeable, the fans’ dismay, and I think if you’ve got a strong identity, which I’m led to believe we have as a band, and forged an identity over the years, then I don’t think there’s any harm in a bit of self-plagiarism. I mean, it never hurt the likes of ACDC, did it?

mxdwn: No.

DF: I mean, and there’s a few bands that I absolutely love, like Bad Religion for example, that if Bad Religion didn’t release a Bar Religion album, and they decided they wanted to be very artsy, double the length of their songs and do a bit of jazz fusion. I’d fucking hate it, I really would. I just want Bad Religion doing what Bad Religion do. That being said, they have a lot shorter songs and we are kind of renowned for having quite flamboyantly long, intricate songs, so I guess we’ve painted ourselves into a corner. It’s like, conceptual records, we’ve done five concept records during our career, so every, not you, but most people, unless you’re about to ask, most people are like, so this is a concept record. And I’m like, no, it’s not. Where did you get that idea from? Well, we just assumed it was going to be, well don’t assume

mxdwn: Never, never {laughs}. Yeah. I just like that a lot because it sucks when someone comes out with an album you’re so excited for and it’s nothing like what you’re expecting. “Non Omnis Moriar” is more melancholic than other songs on the album. Can you tell me about the creative process of that song and your experience writing and recording it since it discusses kind of the idea of reassuring a loved one of your own death, but like, meeting them again?

DF: When the song was in its very infant stages, it wasn’t that different from what it is now, to be honest, and it was one of the few songs on the album, well there are about three or four of them that actually you immediately knew what it was gonna be about, it already painted that picture in my mind as to what I was gonna base it on. And yeah, the title, “Not All Of Me Shall Die” is sort of a statement to a loved one. You know, a reassuring gesture to say that I’m not truly gone. There’ll always be a part of me in your heart or in in your life, you know, which is kind of creepy, I guess.

mxdwn: That’s kind of beautiful though, too.

DF: Yeah, and reassuring them that it is not the end that your love will survive the grave. So yeah, it’s a melancholic song, but it’s also again, a positive message.

mxdwn: Yes, exactly.

DF: And talks Avalon, a personal Avalon, the Mythical Island where Arthur King Arthur was supposed to have found his peace which apparently exists in all of us as a sort of Hyperborean paradise. So beyond the veils of death, lies virtue in a secluded island where you can retreat with your loved ones if you’re gonna meet them again, and the song’s literally about bridging that gap. So yeah, it’s melancholic and dark and gothic and doomy, but there’s a real shining light, positive message, that works its way through it.

mxdwn: Yeah, there is, it’s super impressive how you can blend get the two together in such a way. I don’t know, just your lyrics and the music and your voice and everything, it’s so, so enthralling. The way that “White Hellebore” was put together is also something special, and a feat that not many artists could pull off, and you made it not only work, but thrive in the space that it is in. How did you accomplish that and go about making sure that such contrasting sounds in a song flow together so well?

DF: I dunno, I think that was it. It was the fact of trying to marry some strange {laughs} because it’s like some black metal, new wave of British heavy metal, and then it’s like full out sort of gothic rock chorus. Yeah, it’s just a weird juxtaposition, but then we like juxtapositions, you know, the marriage of extremes, sex and death. It wouldn’t work for Cradle of Filth to do this on every track. And indeed s didn’t suggest that anyway, but this sort of call and response, which I guess is more like a duet with our singer Zoe. If we did it every song, it really would be very contrived, but I think it really works here and I think the fact that it comes out of very distinctly different atmospheres just makes it a bit more surprising. I dunno, I like the song. It’s probably the, I mean it’s got about eight riffs in it, but it’s probably the simplest, most straightforward song on the record, and obviously the subject of our latest video in which, people read lyrics and they may have a strong message, a very decided message, or they may be a little bit more vague and up for interpretation, but either way, I like the directors had their own interpretation of it, as I did with the artist who did all the artwork for the album as well. So with this video, “White Hellebore,” the director decided that he would love, and we kind of discussed this and bounced some ideas off, about this Hollywood starlet who was kind of infamous for, I dunno, being a wild child or whatever, dead on the mortuary slab, and this kind of questionable moment with the assistant there where he starts peeling his clothes off and you’re like, have I put the wrong video on here? Or they really gonna go that way? But then you realize he’s sort of in love with this woman and he finds these marks on her, which he’s confused about. It kind of leads you to the thought that maybe she’s sold her soul in some way for this wealth and power and fame and fortune, and indeed, yeah, she’s done some kind of Lovecraftian deal with the devil or some untoward forces and comes back from the dead using his life force. So yeah, I was like, yeah, that sounds cool {laughs}. Go for it.

mxdwn:

That’s awesome. There is an indescribable kind of tension that can be felt in “Malignant Perfection,” one that’s also met with moments of release and back to tension, and it kind of creates an emotional journey throughout the song which I feel like matches the title “Malignant Perfection.” Where did the idea for this song come from? And just kind of the title and the lyrics and everything that goes into it with the reference of All Hallows’ Eve? [It’s] a very, very Autumn song, Halloween song, I feel that can be felt in it.

DF: Well, we dragged the release forward by about three or four weeks. I really had to badger the record company for that because when I first heard it had that autumnal vibe, totally goth the sort of drop down, which we expanded upon as well, we were like, yeah, we should expand upon that, have a bit more of a vast-uos momentum going so it’s vast, then we can build up on it. It sounds big, using the mandate that less is more. But yeah it instantly suggested the subject matter and I wanted it to come out for the celebration of All Hallows’ Eve because it just was to be a fine chance missed. A song about All Hallows’ Eve coming out at Christmas or even Easter, you’d be like, you’re missing the point here. So, we dragged the release forward a bit to incorporate that. I was hoping I would get on like Halloween playlists. I’ve got Halloween playlist.

mxdwn: I was just gonna say it would be like the perfect song for a Halloween playlist.

DF: And I thought, why, if we’re gonna embrace this ideology, we might as well embrace it fully and then integrate that into the video as well where the other two videos “To Live Deliciously” and White Hellebore” are observations and interpretations of lyricism. I think the video for “Malignant Perfection” is probably a mirror of the lyricism in various forms and guises, it’s not exactly the same, but it is indeed about the personification of All Hallows’ Eve as a deity, asan autumnal witch figure. The video was the least expensive because we wanted it to be a celebration. I wanted people to watch it and go, oh my God, yeah, this is great. This really gives me goosebumps, gives you the vibe. And like I said about escapism, when I first got into heavy metal when I was the tender age of 13, that was the first thing that really got me, was the artwork, the music and if there were lyrics, ’cause sometimes the imports just didn’t even have a lyrics sheet, which point I’d make the lyrics up in my mind, which would then color the story even more in my favor. I just thought the marriage of all those things was just totally escapism. I’d be at school or I’d be working and my mind would wander to these scenarios that these albums painted and I’d lose myself in that, and hasn’t done me any harm, and I’ve never had a proper job since. But yeah, that’s what I wanted to do with this song. Well, the album in general, to be honest this is just a macrocosm of the greater picture. It’s all about escapism and being totally absorbed by it, and what better way than to introduce that by something that everybody could relate to, a great big Witch’s Sabbath.

mxdwn: Yeah, no, definitely. That’s awesome. So, anything you can tell us about maybe the collaboration song with Ed Sheeran, when that may be released, or if there are any other future collaborations in the works?

DF: Well, we have this big thing with a big fashion company, Vitamins. We’re doing a capsule with them. They did a trial, they did some mismatch designs of ours turned to fashion accessories and what have you, which they debuted in Paris last year and fashion buyers and fashion goers loved it. So, they’ve decided to work with us in a bit more of a professional context, which is exciting and it’s out of the sort of bounds of what is expected of bands. And we’ll probably be called sellouts but I don’t give a flying fuck, honestly, to be with people who can’t see the potential in things. What was the question again? {Laughs}.

mxdwn:

That’s okay {laughs}. The collaboration song with Ed Sheeran.

DF: Okay, sorry, yeah. Okay, well that was describing that. The Ed Sheeran thing, obviously, we are not gonna bring it out while one of the albums sort of in orbit because it’s gonna overshadow.

mxdwn: Totally. That’s what I figured too.

DF: And also I think he has a sort of blast radius coming around soon, which I only could presume is a new album, so when there’s a bit of clean air and we can release it safely without any sort of repercussions or overshadowing because I know his management would not put up with it.

mxdwn:

Yeah, I could see that too.

DF: So yeah, it is all good. It’s recorded. It sounds amazing.

mxdwn: I cannot wait.

DF: Yeah, and it’s, you know, it’s a collaboration so it does sound like Ed Sheeran and it does sound like Cradle of Filth and it’s not a comedy song. It’s very deep. It’s timeless. So unless another band of our ilk gets together with Megan the Stallion and literally does something of similar vein, which I doubt it, and it doesn’t matter even if it did, I think it’s still gonna be very original when people get to hear it, even if it’s like a year from now, which in all probability could well be.

mxdwn:

Yeah, no, that’s understandable. Definitely don’t want it to be overshadowed and I cannot wait. It’s gonna be, I can tell it’s gonna be good. It’s gonna be, I don’t know, I just cannot wait to hear it, your two voices are just so, you know, different, I don’t wanna say opposite in a bad way, but I could see them going together so well in such a unique way that I feel like when the song comes out, people are just gonna be blown away, honestly. You have an upcoming tour, Chaos and Carnage, with Dying Fetus and numerous other bands. What are you looking forward to the most when it comes to that tour?

DF: I wanted to change the meet and greet.

mxdwn: {Laughs}.

DF: I want to change it to dying to meet us.

mxdwn: Oh, that’s good.

DF: I missed a trick with that one. Well, no, I’m just looking forward to coming back to America again. We always have a great time when we tour America. It’s like a tour of Walmarts with some gigs sprinkled in-between.

mxdwn: That’s so funny.

DF: No, it’s a really good lineup as well, seven bands. And you know what, test my memory. I’m gonna remember ’em all right now. Undeath, Corpse Pile, Vomit Forth, Ne Obliviscaris, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Cradle of Filth, Dying Fetus. Yes.

mxdwn: Impressive.

DF: Are coming and playing that. Then we do have five headline shows at the end as well.

mxdwn: That’s awesome. Yeah, I was seeing, I’m in Florida now, but your last stop I think, I lived in Colorado for a bit, was Fillmore in Denver. That’s a really cool place.

DF: Yeah, cool venue.

mxdwn: Yes, it is such a cool venue. When I saw that, I was like, oh, that’s gonna be such a great concert just ’cause of the venue, and you guys, of course. Well thank you so much for your time.

DF: My pleasure.

mxdwn: I really appreciate it. The album was amazing and your voice, I’ve always never been able to get over your voice, but like really sitting there to listen to it as intensely as to interview somebody, the creator of it, it’s just like your lyrics and everything are so well thought out. It’s just super impressive. Not every artist does that and maybe probably why you guys are so, you know, who you are and have been around for so long.

DF: Thank you. Well, that’s just not falling under a bus. I dunno if that’s anything to do with music.

mxdwn:

No, no, no. Give yourself some more credit.

DF: Anyway, thank you for the interview.

mxdwn: Of course. No, thank you for your time.