CRADLE OF FILTH are ready to tour Europe, while their new album is on the making. Read below our interesting conversation with Dani Filth few days before their visit to Greece, and prepare for the upcoming shows in Athens and Thessaloniki.
CRADLE OF FILTH Live in Greece w/ WEDNESDAY 13 & SICK N BEAUTIFUL.
Saturday, March 2, 2024 || Principal Club Theater , Thessaloniki
Sunday, March 3, 2024 || Fuzz Live Music Club, Athens
RockOverdose: So, Dani, welcome to Rock Overdose Greece. How are you today?
Dani Filth: I’m very well, thank you.
RockOverdose: First of all, we would like your opinion on “Existence is Futile” now that it has come full circle, released almost two and a half years ago. The fans have really embraced it from the beginning, considering it one of your best works. Do you agree with that?
Dani Filth: Wow, is it already two and a half years since then? I love the record, although currently we are halfway through recording the new album. It’s taking a little longer than expected because we’re constantly touring, also Scott Atkins, the producer of the album, recently had a baby and then it was Christmas, and then we had to go back out on a tour, but it’s going to be delivered by the end of May, so we’ll have it released by the end of the year. It’s going very well; I think you’re going to love it, we made sure that every single song of the album is going to be strong. It’s rather hard talking about something that’s in the progress of being recorded; it’s going to be different, but I think it’s going to be a worthy successor to “Existence Is Futile”.
RockOverdose: We’re very sure about that. Hopefully it’s going to be a Cradle of Filth album, because many bands are trying to change directions during their careers; we have plenty of examples for this. Are you planning on releasing the first single in the coming months?
Dani Filth:Yes, although I can’t give you an actual date because I don’t really know. But I presume it’s going to be at the back end of the year, maybe a little earlier, around September. I’m only just speculating now, but I think September or October would be the perfect time to do it.
RockOverdose: And we’re looking forward to it. Usually, when a band releases a new record, it says it’s “their best album yet”.
Dani Filth: Of course, we would never say it’s our “worst album yet” (laughter). It sounds really shit when you say something like that or when you say the tracks are awful, so I don’t think anyone would say that. Every time we write a new record -and that can be said for all bands- you’re so much invested in it in terms of time, money, and soul, so most people presume that you’ve worked really hard on it and in your mind it’s your best work to date, or the best work you could do in that particular time. Everybody moans saying “why did you make that record”; I remember asking Slayer’s Tom Araya “why didn’t you make Reign In Blood Pt.2?” and his answer was “because we are a different band; we’re not 1989 Slayer anymore, things are different”. And now everybody’s looking back on “South Of Heaven”; it’s not a disappointment but a step-up. The same applies with us; I mentioned that this album has “Dusk & Her Embrace” vibes, but people should not expect a “Dusk & Her Embrace Pt.2”. It’s not going to be high-pitched screaming, black metal and all that; it’s got the same vibe, and the lyricism has the same feeling, it invokes to me images of that particular time frame, and the musicianship is on par I would say. It’s going to be very traditional heavy metal, very melodic, very fast and dark, it’s exactly what you imagine a Cradle of Filth record to be. But it’s not going to be “Dusk & Her Embrace Pt.2”, it’s not going to be a “Cruelty & The Beast Pt.2”, hell it’s not even going to be an “Existence Is Futile Pt.2” because these albums have already been made, they’re original, and if you were to repeat them -even the same formula-, it would be contrived, and that’s not a musician’s work.
RockOverdose: So, Dani, without a doubt you are one of the best and most complete lyricists in the industry. How do you manage to have such a vast arsenal of inspiration regarding lyrics? Have you ever come to a point where you got stuck and it wasn’t that easy?
Dani Filth: Yeah, all the time. There is one song in the new album I thought it would literally never get written, and then one day I just took a break over Christmas and then got back to it, and I found that it wrote itself, like literally. I think people get stuck all the time, it’s not just your ideas and ideology that are coming forth, nowadays it’s more like: “I’ve got an idea. Shit, those 30 other bands have already done this idea. So here’s another, oh wait, those 30 other bands have already done this idea”. So you’re actually looking for your own original take on a subject, so for me if I was going to write an album for example about a serial killer, I could easily find inspiration about it in a short amount of time, but coming out with original ideas, that suit the music and don’t drag too much away from the whole ethics and ethos of Cradle of Filth, can be tricky. I’m very pleased with the lyricism of this album, in part it mimics the lyricism of “Dusk & Her Embrace”; it’s got really vampiric tracks. I mean lyricism has always been really important to me, but never to the magazines. I remember the polls in some magazines, they even had one for “Best Haircut”, “Most Stylish Male”, “Most shagable Bottom”. There was never one for “Best Lyricist” or “Best Lyrics”, it was always like “Best Bassist”, “Best Musician”, “Best Drummer”, “Best Looking Drummer”, but never “Best Lyricist”. So, I guess it’s important for some people, but insignificant to others.
RockOverdose: When “Existence…” was released, you completed 30 years of presence. Did you think that you would come this far and become that much accepted when you started the band?
Dani Filth: I believe that when anyone starts a band, they picture themselves performing on stage in front of thousands of people, but I don’t believe that many of them realize that dream. I wanted it very badly, but deep down I didn’t actually believe it. I only thought we would get somewhere but back then, playing third support to Cadaver or third support to Bolt Thrower was like “Yay, we succeeded”. We started the band in 1991 but I never considered ourselves as professionals until we released our first record, and now we reach our thirtieth anniversary. I think I would be impressed in my twenties if someone told me we would last for thirty years, especially at this particular level of extreme music.
RockOverdose: We were very lucky to see you on fire in your last gig in Athens’ Release Festival. It was a tremendous performance, and we know that metal god Rob Halford himself was there to see you.
Dani Filth:Oh yeah, I loved that. They were so good, the few days we had there. And then we spent some hours with the Priest guys, especially with Andy Sneap, who is a good friend of mine. Yeah, it was brilliant, I absolutely loved it, it was one of the best shows we had in ages. It was a really good area, great lineup, great weather, great fans. The day before we went and ate by the mountain, brilliant food, it was just great.
RockOverdose: So, your latest tour starts from Poland right?
Dani Filth:Yes, that’s correct.
RockOverdose: And you have a lot of gigs in many countries, and some shows are even sold out from what I saw.
Dani Filth:Yes, we’ve been very fortunate on this tour. I appreciate the fact that we’re enjoying a little recession at the moment, but we are very pleased with our shows, some are even close to sell out as well. It’s going to be a great show, it’s very eclectic, with a mixture of bands like Sick N Beautiful and Wednesday 13. It’s going to be very visual, all the bands are very visual, so it’s going to be more like an event than an actual gig. I think we’ve already played in some these clubs before; they’re good clubs, good people and GOOD FOOD (laughter). So yeah, we’re very much looking forward to it. And since we’re coming there in March, we will be coming there from colder climates like Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, so we will be much appreciative of the better weather you have in Greece.
RockOverdose: So, in regards to your upcoming gig, you’re playing Athens on March 3, which happens to be the anniversary of “Master Of Puppets”. Do you remember your first reaction when you first listened to it, and which familiar record like this gave you the motive to become a musician?
Dani Filth: Actually, “Kill ‘Em All” was the first for me. I even used some of the music from “Hit The Lights” when I was at school, I had to direct a play and I used the opening riff for the intro of the play, not that it needed an intro, I just wanted to play this song really loud in front of everyone in the school. When “Master Of Puppets” came out, it had on shock for a little while, I just couldn’t believe just how heavy that album was, it was actually a quite terrifying album. The lyricism on it is very deep and dark, it’s definitely the darkest record and it really inspired me because at that time I was listening to Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Slayer, Venom and some other extreme bands for that time, like Celtic Frost and Bathory. But Metallica, it was just the level of catchiness and heaviness with a brilliant production all mixed together, it was just cataclysmic and so much heavier than most of the bands at the time. Who could have known that it would become even bigger than the likes of Iron Maiden or Ozzy Osbourne, the literal godfather of metal, Black Sabbath literally invented all of metal here in England, but I think Metallica surpassed them all.
RockOverdose: I think that as of now, it is the greatest metal band of them all.
Dani Filth:I don’t really have a favorite you know, there are even some Metallica albums that I haven’t even listened to, but recently the last records they’ve done and of course the covers albums, which were really really good, have been great records. I personally really enjoyed the last record. They may not have the depth of “Master Of Puppets”, but I definitely enjoyed both “Hardwired” and “18 Seasons” it was called? I don’t really remember how many seasons there were (laughter).
RockOverdose: So, what about the Greek metal bands?
Dani Filth:Obviously, there are a few really great Greek metal bands. Rotting Christ, Varathron, Necromantia, I’m definitely missing some from the top of my head. SepticFlesh also, we toured together, best support we had in America, great guys as well. Forgive me, it’s just like when people ask me of my favorite album, I literally forget everything. There are tons of great bands in the mediterranean, Rotting Christ is obviously a fantastic bands, we also used to be pen pals with Magus Vambyr Daoloth of Necromantia way back, even before our first album. So yeah, many pillars of mediterranean metal come from Greece, Diamanda Galas is also Greek as far as I remember. She appeared with Rotting Christ, as well as the “Dracula” soundtrack.
RockOverdose: So, about your upcoming gig. Are you playing something unexpected?
Dani Filth:Oh no we’re not playing anything, we already got too much stuff to play anyway. Obviously, this is an “Existence is Futile” tour, so we’re probably playing three songs from there, the rest of the material is going to be right across the back catalogue, so we’re having the early stuff, the later stuff, the in-between, you know.
RockOverdose: Would you like to add anything else in this interview that we didn’t mention?
Dani Filth: I think we covered most facets. I just want to say to our Greek fans: Thank you for being great supporters to the Cradle of Filth cause. We threw you out in force when we played with Priest a few summers ago, it was amazing. I’m very very much looking forward to coming back, and hopefully not just this time but soon in the future. Obviously, there’s been some distance between this show and the last show we played, which I believe it was in 2018, but the corona virus took away two years of our lives, so come and see us in March 2nd and 3rd, the shows are going to be amazing, no question about that and hopefully I’ll be back to your country even though I haven’t even come yet, so I hope we will be coming back to Greece with more frequency in the future.
RockOverdose: Τhank you very much for your time and I hope I will meet you personally in your show in Thessaloniki.
Dani Filth:Yes absolutely, do come and say hello. I’m looking forward to coming to your country, it’s not that very long until then. My girlfriend’s flying regularly to Greece, her brother’s a dentist in Athens, so I got one more reason to be looking forward to that show.
RockOverdose: Of course. Thank you very much, take care, have a good day!
Dani Filth:Thanks a lot! Bye bye!
On behalf of Rockoverdose.gr
Interview: Ζήσης Πετκανάς
Questions: Άγγελος Κατσούρας
Transcript: Άγγελος Χατζηγιάννης
photo credits: John Metalman Livanos Photography (Cradle Of Filth Release Athens Festival 2022)
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