CRADLE OF FILTH Commence Recording "Damnation And A Day"

CRADLE OF FILTH have entered Parkgate Studio in Hastings, England to record their much-anticipated Damnation And A Day CD for a late 2002/early 2003 release through Sony Music.

"The studio is akin to a buzzy hive of activity right now, with several recording processes' going on at the same time," bassist Dave Pybus (ex-ANATHEMA, DREAMBREED) explained in the official CRADLE OF FILTH newsletter. "In addition to the main recording room we've got our own studios B and C set up for development of everyone's integral musical parts. Once a drum take has been finalised, we re-demo each track with guitars, bass, keyboards and even vocals before the 'final take' in the main control room, pushing our outlet for ideas to the limit and saving us a lot of time in wasted experimentation in a studio that is costing the best part of a grand a day. Nothing is spared (obviously including expense). Every avenue is explored, each of us adding our own ingredients right up to the last minute. And it doesn't stop there. Ideas are still encouraged and developed during the final recording phase and captured there and then for everyone to hear, helping the songs become even more dynamic, streamlined and complete. At least that is the general intention!

"Each track is hugely varied. Some fast and brutal, others mid-paced and heavy with majestic keyboard parts and crushing melodic guitars. There's even a slow song in the vein of BATHORY's 'Aria/Beauty Slept At Sodom' entitled 'Thank God For The Suffering', which will incorporate full use of real life orchestration! We've got lots of ideas sonically to keep each track surprising, with many new and interesting layers, helping the album become a huge piece of work to take in all at once. All done in the usual 'over the top' CRADLE OF FILTH style, of course. Plenty of influence from late night bonfire sessions induced with alcohol and agricultural explosives put to varying degrees of misuse.

"It's been very creative since day one. Well, actually, day one saw us celebrating the fact that we'd made it as far as the studio with a massive drinking spree, so at least since day two. Writing began in October 2001 at Springvale Studios in Ipswich and by February the band was well into its stride and able to demo the first thatch of songs. Two pre-production sessions followed in May and June in a secret hidden location in deepest, darkest Wales, (the somewhat rustic Windings) resulting in all 12 songs being recorded at a high standard, giving us the confidence to enter Parkgate Studio, Hastings (battle site of the Midian opus) in mid-July with machinegun-toting engineer Doug Cook (Midian/Bitter Suites/Live Bait For The Dead) guiding the chaos and peppering underachievers in the band with a hail of gas-propelled Uzi pellets.

"I can't give away much in song titles yet (as well as the aforementioned 'Thank God...', confirmed track titles include 'Presents From The Poison-Hearted', 'Mannequin' and 'Horror Epic') but I can tell you the album will be 17 tracks in total! Including: Intro, outro, 12 songs and 3 instrumental links, which have been written by Martin and will be recorded with a full philharmonic orchestra, with the help of one Dan Presley, who is in the process of scoring all the parts we need in order to take it over to Budapest in Hungary, where the choirs and thirty-six piece orchestra suitable to our 'special' needs are based.

"We are recording the album in two separate, 6 song sections, although on the album these will be further split again to provide four quarters or acts. This will be a huge advantage later as the first six tracks can be listened to while the other six are being recorded, meaning that we have more time to develop ideas and make important changes right up to the time the whole composite can be mixed.

"Right now everyone wants to know what the hell this new album is all about, this will be explained by Dani in the next exciting installment which you will receive sometime soon when the moon hangs in the ether like a rotted wedge of cheese. Until then, stay hungry...."