Cradle of Filth are a heavy metal band formed in Suffolk, England in 1991.

They
have been embraced and disowned with equal fervour by various metal
communities[attribution needed], and their particular subgenre has provoked a
great deal of discussion. The band's sound evolved from black metal to a cleaner
and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic black metal and other
extreme metal styles, while their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily
influenced by gothic literature, poetry, mythology and horror films. The band have
successfully broken free of their original niche by courting mainstream publicity
(often to the chagrin of its early fanbase), and this increased accessibility has
brought coverage by the likes of Kerrang! and MTV, frequent main stage appearances
at major festivals such as Ozzfest and Download, and in turn a more "commercial"
image. They have sometimes been perceived as satanic by casual observers, although
their outright lyrical references to satanism are few and far between, and use of
satanic imagery has arguably always had more to do with the shock value than any
seriously-held beliefs. According to Metal Hammer magazine, they are the most
successful British metal band since Iron Maiden

Early years

Cradle's first three years saw three demos and a rehearsal tape recorded amidst
the sort of rapid line-up fluctuations that have continued ever since (Cradle has
generally had around half a dozen members at any one time, but can boast more than
twenty musicians in its history). The band also recorded an unreleased album
entitled 'Goetia' prior to the third demo and their style shift, which was set for
release on Tombstone records. Tombstone unfortunately went bust and couldn't
afford to buy the recordings from the studio and all tracks were wiped. The band
eventually signed to Cacophonous Records and their debut album, The Principle of
Evil Made Flesh, was also Cacophonous's first release in 1994.[2] A step up in
terms of production from the rehearsal quality of most of their demos, the album
was still nevertheless a sparse and embryonic version of what was to come, with
lead singer Dani Filth's vocals in particular bearing little similarity to the
style he was later to develop. The album was well-received however, and as
recently as June 2006 found its way into Metal Hammer's list of the top ten black
metal albums of the last twenty years.

Cradle's relationship with Cacophonous soon soured; the band accusing the label of
contractual and financial mismanagement. Acrimonious legal proceedings took up
most of 1995,[3] and the band finally signed to Music for Nations in 1996 after
only one more contractually obligated Cacophonous recording: the EP Vempire or
Dark Faerytales in Phallustein which, it has since been conceded, was hastily
written as a Cacophonous escape-plan.[3] Despite the circumstances of its release
however, its handful of tracks are staples of the band's live sets to this day,
and "Queen of Winter, Throned" was listed among twenty-five "essential extreme
metal anthems" in a 2006 issue of Kerrang! magazine.[4] The EP also marked Sarah
Jezebel Deva's debut with the band, replacing Andrea Meyer; Cradle's first female
vocalist and self-styled "satanic advisor".[5] Deva has appeared on every
subsequent Cradle release and tour, but has never been considered a full band
member,[6] having also performed with The Kovenant, Therion and Mortiis, and
fronted her own Angtoria project along with Cradle's current bass player, Dave
Pybus.

Music for Nations era

Dusk...and Her Embrace followed the same year: a critically acclaimed breakthrough
album that greatly expanded the band's fan-base throughout Europe and the rest of
the world.[7] A concept album of sorts based generally on vampirism and
specifically (though loosely) on the writing of Sheridan Le Fanu, Cradle's
inaugural album for Music for Nations set the tone for what was to follow. The
album's production values matched the band's ambition for the first time, whilst
Dani's vocal gymnastics were at their most extreme.

The increasingly theatrical stage shows of the 1997 European tour helped keep
Cradle in the public eye, as did a burgeoning line of controversial merchandise;
not least the notorious[attribution needed] t-shirt depicting a masturbating nun
on the front and the slogan "Jesus is a cunt" in large letters on the back. A
handful of fans have faced court appearances and fines for wearing the shirt in
public, and some band members themselves attracted a certain amount of hostile
attention when they wore similar "I Love Satan" shirts to the Vatican.[8] Alex
Mosson, the Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1999-2003, called the shirts (and by
implication the band) "sick and offensive". The band obviously approved, using the
quote on the back cover of the 2005 DVD Peace Through Superior Firepower.
In 1998, Dani began his long-running "Dani's Inferno" column for Metal Hammer, and
the band appeared in the BBC documentary series Living With the Enemy (on tour
with a fan and his disapproving mother and sister)[9] and released its third full-
length album Cruelty and the Beast. A fully-realised concept album based on the
legend of the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Bathory, the album boasted the casting
coup of Ingrid Pitt providing guest narration as the Countess: a role she first
played in Hammer's 1971 film Countess Dracula. The album led to Cradle's U.S
debut,[10] and Dani claimed it in 2003 as the Cradle album of which he was most
proud, although he conceded dissatisfaction with its sound quality.[11]

The following year the band continued primarily to tour, but did release its first
music video, PanDaemonAeon, and an accompanying EP, From the Cradle to Enslave,
featuring the music from the production. Replete with graphic nudity and gore, the
video was directed by Alex Chandon, who would go on to produce further Cradle
promo clips and DVD documentaries, as well as the full-length feature film Cradle
of Fear. The band released their fourth full-length studio album on Hallowe'en,
2000. Midian was based around the Clive Barker novel Cabal and its subsequent film
adaptation Nightbreed.[12] Like Cruelty and the Beast, Midian featured a guest
narrator, this time Doug Bradley, who starred in Nightbreed but remains best known
for playing Pinhead in the Hellraiser films. Bradley's line "Oh, no tears please"
from the song "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...")[13] and Bradley
would reappear on later albums Nymphetamine and Thornography. The video for "Her
Ghost in the Fog" received heavy rotation on MTV2 and other metal channels, and
the track also found its way onto the soundtrack of the werewolf movie Ginger
Snaps. Midian created a rift in fan opinion which has only increased with time:
whilst taking the band to new heights of commercial popularity, it also provoked
cries of "sell-out" from die-hard fans of the early albums.[14]

Sony interlude
The longest-ever interim period between full-length Cradle albums was nevertheless
a busy time for the band. Bitter Suites to Succubi 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." Stylistically similar to Midian, the
album is unique among Cradle albums in featuring exactly the same band members as
its predecessor, but is generally regarded as an EP and often overlooked in the
band's canon.[15] Further stop-gap releases followed in the form of the "best of"
package Lovecraft and Witch Hearts and a live album; Live Bait for the Dead.
Finally, the band (principally Dani) also found time to appear in Cradle of Fear
while they negotiated their first major-label signing with Sony Music. Damnation
and a Day arrived in 2003; Sony's heavyweight funding underwriting Cradle's
undiminished ambition[16] by finally bringing a real orchestra into the studio
(the 80-strong Budapest Film Orchestra and Choir replacing the increasingly
sophisticated synthesisers of previous albums) and thus marking the band's belated
gestation - for one album only - into full-blown symphonic metal. Damnation
featured the band�s most complex compositions to date, outran its predecessors by
a good twenty minutes, and produced two more popular videos: the �vankmajer-
influenced Mannequin, and Babalon AD (So Glad For The Madness), based on
Pasolini's infamous Sal�. Roughly half the album trod the conceptual territory of
John Milton's Paradise Lost - showing the events of the Fall of Man through the
eyes of Lucifer[10] - while the remainder comprised stand-alone tracks such as the
Nile tribute "Doberman Pharaoh"[17] and the aforementioned "Babalon AD"; a
reference to Aleister Crowley. "Babalon AD" was the first DVD-only single to reach
the U.K. top 40, according to the Guinness Book of Records of British Hit Singles
and Albums. Feeling that Sony's enthusiasm quickly palled however, Cradle jumped
ship to Roadrunner Records after barely a year.[18]

Roadrunner
2004's Nymphetamine was the band's first full album since The Principle of Evil
Made Flesh to not be based around any sort of overarching concept (although
references to the works of H. P. Lovecraft are made more than once). Cradle's
bassist Dave Pybus described it as an "eclectic mix between the group's Damnation
and Cruelty albums with a renewed vigour for melody, songmanship [sic] and plain
fucking weirdness spat into the smelting bowl."[19] Cradle's growing acceptance by
the mainstream was confirmed when the album's title track was nominated for a
Grammy award,[20] but the band's cover version of Cliff Richard's "Devil Woman"
for the Nymphetamine special edition did little to convince its detractors of the
band's integrity.[14]

The band's most recent album, Thornography, was released in October 2006.
According to Dani Filth, the title "represents mankind's obsession with sin and
self... An addiction to self-punishment or something equally poisonous... A
mania."[21] On the subject of the album's musical direction, Filth told Revolver
magazine, "I'm not saying it's 'experimental', but we're definitely testing the
limits of what we can do... A lot of the songs are really rhythmical - thrashy,
almost - but they're all also really catchy."[22] A flurry of pre-release
controversy saw Samuel Araya's original cover artwork scrapped and replaced in May
2006, although numerous CD booklets had already been printed with the original
image.[18] Thornography received a similar reception to Nymphetamine, garnering
generally positive reviews, but raising a few eyebrows with the inclusion of a
cover of Heaven 17's "Temptation"[23] (featuring guest vocals from Dirty Harry),
which was released as a digital single and accompanying video shortly before the
album.

Long-term drummer Adrian Erlandsson departed the band in November 2006. According
to an official Roadrunner press release, Erlandsson left with the intention of
devoting his energies to his two side projects Needleye and Nemhain (the former of
which is now defunct): "I have enjoyed my time with Cradle but it is now time to
move on. I feel I am going out on a high as Thornography is definitely our best
album to date".[21] On July 1st, 2007, the German band Samsas Traum stated that
Erlandsson would be playing drums on the new album, Heiliges Herz�Das Schwert der
Sonne, and its subsequent tour.

The band's official message boards recently revealed parts of an interview with
Paul Allender, conducted by M�diaMatinQu�bec: "We already have four new songs
ready and I have to say that they are... much faster than the songs on
Thornography. [They] sound like old Cradle of Filth..."
[edit] Genre
Cradle of Filth's first three demos bore a death metal feel, with occasional
symphonic elements.[24] However, when they released their fourth demo, Total
Fucking Darkness, their genre became more akin to black metal. Their "true" black
metal status however, has been in debate since near the time they became
popular.[25] Dani, in a 1998 interview for BBC Radio 5 for example, said "I use
the term heavy metal, rather than black metal, because I think that's a bit of a
fad now. Call it what you like: death metal, black metal, any kind of
metal...",[26] while Gavin Baddeley's 2006 Terrorizer interview states that "few
folk, the band included, call Cradle black metal these days."[27]

Their format differs from most black metal, and they have thus, at one time or
another, been labeled symphonic black metal;[28] extreme gothic metal;[29] melodic
black metal;[30] satanic metal;[31] vampyric metal;[32] speed metal;[33] death
metal;[34] brutal death metal;[35] melodic death metal;[36] horror metal;[37] and
dark metal,[38] some of which are regarded by critics and fans alike as entirely
apocryphal categories.

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
dance remixes ("Twisting Further Nails", "Pervert's Church" etc), although these
have fallen by the wayside in recent years. In a 2006 interview with Terrorizer
magazine, current guitarist Paul Allender said "We were never a black metal band.
The only thing that catered to that was the make-up. Even when The Principle of
Evil Made Flesh came out � you look at Emperor and Burzum and all that stuff � we
didn't sound anything like that. The way that I see it is that we were, and still
are now, an extreme metal band."[21]

Appearing on the BBC music quiz Never Mind the Buzzcocks on April 9 2001, Dani
jokingly claimed Cradle's sound as "heavy funk", and in an October 2006 interview
stated "We'd rather be known as solely 'Cradle of Filth', I think, rather than be
hampered by stupid genre barriers."[

Album for 2008

The band has issued the following update:

"The world tour for the 'Thornography' album, which last saw COF in Russia,
Ukraine, UK, Romania, Slovakia and North America with GWAR is now complete. The
band has now returned home to start writing for a new record over the dark months
in the rehearsal room. The new album, which is not yet titled, will be released
some time in 2008 via Roadrunner Records."[40]