Cradle of Filth births destruction

By Nolan Lewis

Cradle of Filth, England’s figurehead of metal, is coming. And if you were to look up on a night lit by a pouty moon, you might expect to see figures swarthed in black and buckles swoop over head. But of course, that would be silly. They may not be free, but they’re not here to terrorize.

Don’t be afraid of this black metal band of Vampyres as they would like to do nothing more than invite you to their ball, along with a crew of metal’s brightest, MTV’s Headbangers Ball.

After walking from their contract with major record label Sony, Cradle of Filth makes a swift and triumphant return to the top of the metal world, gaining new fans with every malevolent masterpiece of metallic genius.

“They are good at throwing money around and giving bands lots and lots of money and they’re good at spending the bands money for them as well,” recounts Allender concerning Cradle’s days with Sony. “But, when it comes to knowing how to treat the band they just haven’t got a fucking clue.”

Now making their home in the more metal powered Roadrunner Records, Cradle of Filth set out to shroud the world with darkness with their seventh studio album, the brilliantly brutal Nymphetamine. Coming only 18 months after the band’s last epic opus Damnation and a Day, it’s a concept album foretelling the old testaments version of the fall of Lucifer and Satan’s manipulations on Earth.

“Secret? It’s just putting your head down and getting on with working,” admits Allender regarding the band’s furious pace of producing albums. “And luckily Cradle at the moment is such a unit together, that the stuff we come up with at the moment is really quite good, hopefully this line up will stick around for awhile.”

For the new album Cradle enlisted the aid of Anthrax guitarist and metal legend, Rob Caggiano to produce their album. Caggiano started off mastering Damnation and when looking for a producer for Nyphetamine, Rob was more than eager to step up to the plate.

“Rob was constantly on the phone with us coming up with new ideas, so he was the obvious choice.”

Working with the legend comes across on Nyphetamine as his incredible ear for creating a finely tuned album, making it into a masterpiece. Rumors circulated about Cradle collaborating with another living legend of darkness, the Evil Elvis himself, Danzig. Danzig was set to provide the vocals on the cover track of Samhain’s “Halloween 2” for the special edition of Nyphetamine, but as Allender explained it did not exactly pan out as planned.

“It was all prepared for him do it but, on the pay side of things, unfortunately the decimal point got moved in the wrong direction.”

Cradle of Filth plan on maintaining their surge for world domination without losing a step, after this tour and some concert dates set in Europe, they plan on heading back to the studio to create what is sure to be another malevolent masterpiece. With the pace they have set for themselves, look to see Cradle of Filth to make a triumphant return to Calgary around the same time next year, with an ever-growing fan base to boot.