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| caption = '']''-era lineup:<br>Clockwise from top: Adrian Erlandsson, Paul Allender, Gian Pyres, Dani Filth, Robin Graves, Martin Powell. | caption = '']''-era lineup:<br>Clockwise from top: Adrian Erlandsson, Paul Allender, Gian Pyres, Dani Filth, Robin Graves, Martin Powell.

Revision as of 21:12, 11 May 2006

Cradle of Filth
File:Cradle2 logo.jpgMidian-era lineup:
Clockwise from top: Adrian Erlandsson, Paul Allender, Gian Pyres, Dani Filth, Robin Graves, Martin Powell.
Background information
Years active1991–present
MembersDani Filth
Paul Allender
Dave Pybus
Adrian Erlandsson
Charles Hedger
James Mcilroy

Cradle of Filth is an English band formed in 1991. The subject of their particular subgenre has engendered much discussion and they have been embraced and disowned with equal fervour by various metal communities (see below). Roughly speaking, their sound has gradually evolved from raw, traditional black metal, to a cleaner and more "produced" symphonic tone, and this increased accessibility has brought them coverage by Kerrang! and MTV and in turn, a more commercial image.

Biography

After the band's formation came a period of rapid line-up fluctuation (which has continued ever since) as four demos were recorded. They eventually signed to Cacophonous Records and their debut album, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh was also Cacophonous's first release in 1994. Their relationship with the label was acrimonious however, and the band signed to Music For Nations in 1996 after only one more contractually obligated Cacophonous recording: the hastily written EP V Empire (or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein). Dusk and Her Embrace followed the same year: a critically acclaimed album that greatly expanded the band's fan-base throughout Europe and the rest of the world. As the band became known for increasingly theatrical stage shows, Cruelty and the Beast - a concept album based on the legend of the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Bathory - was released to even greater acclaim, though sales were poor. The following year the band continued primarily to tour, but did put out a video, PanDaemonAeon, and an accompanying EP, From the Cradle to Enslave, featuring the music from the production. The title track of the EP remains one of the band's best-known songs.

The band produced their fourth full-length studio album the following year. Midian was based around the Clive Barker novel Cabal and its subsequent film adaptation Nightbreed, and was fittingly released on Hallowe'en night 2000. Their most accessible album to date, it saw Paul Allender joining the lineup on guitars, but was still by no means mainstream, featuring titles such as "Lord Abortion" and another cult favourite, "Her Ghost in the Fog", which found its way onto the soundtrack of the movie Ginger Snaps. Their sound at this point remained uncompromising but was becoming increasingly melodic, complemented as always by Dani’s verbose lyrics.

Following the moderate success of Midian Cradle released a "transition mini-album" (as lead singer and front man Dani Filth later referred to it) Bitter Suites to Succubi, which included "Born in A Burial Gown". The album was released on the band’s own ‘’Abracadaver’’ label, and was a mixture of four new songs, re-recordings of three songs from The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, two instrumental tracks, and a cover of The Sisters of Mercy's "No Time To Cry." Whilst stylistically similar to Midian the album is regarded as a failure by most critics, though it remains a favourite among fans.

In 2003 they signed with Sony Music and produced their fifth full-length studio album, Damnation and a Day; major label funding finally allowing a real orchestra into the studio (The 80-strong Budapest Film Orchestra and Choir) and thus Cradle's belated gestation into full-blown symphonic metal. Though it disappointed some fans, this concept album - showing the events of the Bible through the eyes of Lucifer and inspired by John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost - featured the band’s most complex compositions to date, and also produced at least two videos on MTV2 - videos and MTV appearances being a rarity for the band ("From the Cradle to Enslave" had been banned from daytime MTV).

Cradle's many detractors claim that they are no longer playing "true" black metal music. The band, however, who left Sony for Roadrunner Records near the beginning of 2004, claim their most recent album Nymphetamine (released summer 2004) as their return to actual black metal. Dani Filth says that it is stylistically half-way between Cruelty and the Beast and their previous full length album Damnation and a Day.

Genre controversy

While many view the subject as an irrelevance, Cradle of Filth’s "true" black metal status has been in hot debate since near the time they became popular. Their format differs somewhat from most Norwegian black metal - which has led to them being deemed melodic black metal - and the Norwegian black metal community generally shuns them along with bands such as Dimmu Borgir, whose pseudo-mainstream success followed in Cradle’s wake. Some critics have labelled them and similar bands "extreme gothic metal" (although the term is not widely accepted) as their music draws inspiration from gothic metal, gothic rock and deathrock.

However, the band's evolving sound has allowed them to continue resisting definitive categorisation. They are audibly influenced by Iron Maiden, have collaborated on projects like Christian Death's Born Again Anti-Christian album (on the track "Peek-A-Boo"), and have even dabbled outside of metal music with their controversial dance remixes ("Twisting Further Nails", "Pervert's Church" etc), although these have fallen by the wayside in recent years. Cradle’s drummer Adrian Erlandsson disagrees with the black metal categorization and describes Cradle of Filth as extreme metal, due to the fact they sound nothing like bands such as Darkthrone, Immortal, Bathory, etc. Dani Filth’s position on the band’s genre is that "Cradle of Filth is Cradle of Filth."

Trivia

  • Sarah Jezebel Deva, though she has been with the band since 1996, has never been considered a band member. She has also performed with a variety of other bands, such as The Kovenant, Therion and Mortiis, and has her own solo project called Angtoria.
  • Cruelty and the Beast features guest narration by Ingrid Pitt in character as Elizabeth Bathory; a role she first played in Hammer's 1971 film Countess Dracula.
  • The opening sample of the Midian song "Lord Abortion" ("care for a little necrophilia?") is from Terry Gilliam's Brazil. The torture room scene in the "From the Cradle to Enslave" video is also a homage to that film.
  • Midian and Nymphetamine both feature guest vocals by Doug Bradley; best known for playing Pinhead in the Hellraiser films. Bradley's line "Oh, no tears please" from "Her Ghost in the Fog" is a quote of Pinhead's from the first Hellraiser: "No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering...".
  • Dani had a column in the British metal magazine Metal Hammer called "Dani's Inferno"
  • Cradle were described by The Guardian as proving that "the devil doesn't always have the best music".
  • The Lord Provost of Glasgow called Cradle "sick and offensive". The band obviously approved, using the quote on the back cover of their 2005 DVD Peace Through Superior Firepower.
  • "Dinner at a Deviant's Palace", from Bitter Suites to Succubi is actually The Lord's Prayer played backwards.
  • Cradle of Filth's cover of Samhain's song "Hallowe'en 2" for the Underworld: Evolution soundtrack is their first to feature clean vocals by Dani.
  • A live review in the February 2006 Metal Hammer described Cradle as "one part Satanic to three parts sarcastic".
  • Two tracks, erroneously attributed to Cradle of Filth, are widely distributed on internet file sharing sites and programmes. The first, a cover of Iron Maiden's "Fear of the Dark" is actually by Graveworm. The second purports to be a collaboration with Sepultura called "Fucked Up Life". Cradle have never recorded with Sepultura, although the two bands have toured together, and the song in question is really "Sewn Mouth Secrets" by Soilent Green. Similarly, Cradle's cover of Venom's "Black Metal" is often mis-labelled as a cover of Slayer's "Angel of Death". Cradle have covered Slayer's "Hell Awaits", but their version of "Angel of Death" is a myth.
  • Episode 4 of The IT Crowd ("The Red Door") revolves around the goth Richmond; once an up-and-coming professional until his transformation into a Dracula-esque Cradle fan. At the funeral of his boss's father he handed the widow a giftwrapped CD, recommending she listen to track four, "Coffin Fodder" (actually track nine on Nymphetamine). Ever since then he has been forced to work hidden in a cupboard. Richmond is played by Noel Fielding of The Mighty Boosh. He also turns up in part six, but not as the focus of the episode.
  • A tongue-in-cheek answerphone message by Dani Filth is available to download on most peer-to-peer file-sharing networks (listed under several different names). The message is one of a series from the British magazine Metal Hammer's cover-mounted CDs, dating from the late 1990s / early 2000s. It features sound effects of thunder, lightning and creaking doors, and promises that "someone... or something will get back to you... later... much later...".

Line-up

Current band members

Former band members

Discography

Albums and EPs

Special editions

DVDs

Movies

Miscellaneous releases

Related artists

Bands covered

Tour partners

External links

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