CRADLE OF FILTH Frontman Talks 'Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder'

Simon Milburn of Australia's The Metal Forge recently conducted an interview with vocalist Dani "Filth" Davey of British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the fact that the band's new LP, "Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder", was not intended as a concept album initially:

"It wasn't until we'd written probably half the music that we decided that that would be a good idea that the music was going in that direction. It had a big feel to it, very atmospheric, and that kind of what turned me on to pursuing the Gilles de Rais idea because to me, a lot of the atmospheres were very reminiscent of some of our earlier work and henceforth, I went back through some old notebooks, lyrical notebooks, that I've kept since the 'Cruelty And The Beast' days and this is ten years on from 'Cruelty And The Beast', so it just seemed that the stars were right. We'd already decided who we were gonna do the album with — we decided that Andy Sneap was the guy. He had spoken to us about how he wanted to record the record. So everything else was prepared. But only until about half way through, like I say, the writing of the music did we decide to make this a concept record about Gilles de Rais. . . I'd done some research on him in the past and I thought, 'Well, it's been ten years since 'Cruelty And The Beast' and I know it's another medieval aristocratic prolific serial killer but it's something that can be the basis for a dark fairytale and it's been ten years.' So, I approached a friend of mine, Gavin Badley, who is an occult historian, and asked him the best books to read in particular that would elevate us above the usual person's understanding of the subject and it just went from there really."

On whether there are any plans to perform the album in its entirety at some point in time:

"Perhaps, yeah. Maybe. I went to see [IRON] MAIDEN do the same thing with 'A Matter Of Life And Death' and it was completely boring and most of the audience were (bored) as well. So, I don't know really. When we come to Australia, people expect us to play the set they want to hear — the hits, really. I mean, it would be an idea, yeah, and there's been some talk of doing it, but it's an early stage and we haven't even started touring for this album yet but it may be something we come across, yeah."

On various lineup changes the band has undergone over the years:

"Yeah, it can be very distracting. But it's just one of those things that you get on with. I do think that people seem to forget that we work constantly throughout the year, and people say, 'Oh but you've got a new drummer on this album,' and we say, 'Well, no, he's actually been in the band for two and a half years.' It's an awful long time when you've been doing show after show after show and in the studios and press trips and everything else that goes around with the band. Sometimes I guess it's like when people work at magazines. The magazine still has the same title, the same outlook, doing what the magazine does in whatever genre it happens to fall in. But, along the way, there'll be different editors, different press people and it's just the same here, and unfortunately these are things that happen. Sometimes, people aren't good enough to carry on, other times people find the work too hard or want to spend time with families or to go back to university — it's just one of those things that happen to ensure that the engine runs smoothly continually."

On the band's relationship with its record label, Roadrunner Records:

"Yeah, (it's) cool. I mean, it has the same flaws as every other record label I guess but we seem to be sitting very well with them. It's actually our third and theoretically last record, if that is the case, which we haven't even begun to talk about yet. We have the next year and a half worth of touring to undertake, so, it's just something for us and our management to address when the time arises."

Read the entire interview from The Metal Forge.