Ramon Martos Garcia of PureGrainAudio.com recently conducted an interview with guitarist Paul Allender of British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
PureGrainAudio.com: I know it’s probably too soon to say, but in your opinion, how important do you think this new album ["The Manticore And Other Horrors"] will be for CRADLE OF FILTH‘s career?
Paul: I think it will be really important. It got an injection of groove, and there’s a punk aspect that we put back into it that the band had lost since the first album, “Principle Of Evil Made Flesh”. That album had that vibe. It had that real aggressive, metal-punky vibe to it, which the band completely lost. And over the last few albums, it just felt like the stuff we were writing sounded the same. So this time we had to do something more drastic. There’s nothing worse than a band that keeps releasing albums that sound exactly the same over and over again. We have got such a really good feedback so far. The journalists that have heard it so far are really into it. Especially in Europe, there is a whole bunch of journalists that said this is the best thing we have ever done for the last 12 years, which is brilliant. And we had a lot of people coming to say to us as well: “We kind of lost interest for band on the last few albums, but this one puts you back in the game finally.” So I think it’s really important.
PureGrainAudio.com: One more time, you’re collaborating with producer/engineer Scott Atkins. But this is the first he produced the whole album. What is so special about him?
Paul: Scott actually produced the whole album. On the last album, he recorded just the guitars. And after that, he actually said to us, “You know, I got this brilliant idea if you please let me produce the whole album. Please let me have a go. I got some cool ideas especially for guitars about this and about that… I’ll visualize what the band’s missing. The last few albums were good but you’re not getting the reviews that I personally think the band deserves.” I think he has done an excellent job; the fucking guitars are raging! His ideas made this album different. It’s just goes around somewhere we probably would have never gone without that push. He has done a really good job. He’s got amazing ideas in the studio.
PureGrainAudio.com: So, sound-wise, are you pretty satisfied about how it came out?
Paul: Absolutely! It’s the best thing in a long time, I love it. It’s so clear. It’s what a lot of bands strive for, recording an album that’s clear. And it’s not overproduced either. It’s just nice to have an album where the guitars are absolutely raging and you can hear absolutely everything. We’ve never really had that before on an album. But this time you can actually hear everything and that’s brilliant and that’s a really step forward for the band.
World renowned extreme heavy metal act CRADLE OF FILTH has premiered a lyric video for their new song ‘Manticore’, check it out now:
‘Manticore’ is the second track to be revealed from the band’s upcoming 10th studio album, The Manticore And Other Horrors, out in North America on October 30th via Nuclear Blast.
The previously released ‘For Your Vulgar Delectation’ lyric video can be seen below:
The artwork and tracklisting for The Manticore And Other Horrors is as follows:
‘The Unveiling Of O’
‘The Abhorrent’
‘For Your Vulgar Delectation’
‘Illicitus’
‘Manticore’
‘Frost On Her Pillow’
‘Huge Onyx Wings Behind Despair’
‘Pallid Reflection’
‘Siding With The Titans’
‘Succumb To This’
‘Nightmares Of An Ether Drinker’
‘Death, The Great Adventure’ (Deluxe Edition Digipak)
‘Sinfonia’ (Deluxe Edition Digipak)
CRADLE OF FILTH‘s new album The Manticore And Other Horrors is now available for pre-order via iTunes. The iTunes edition contains 13 tracks and a digital booklet. Go to this location to check it out and to purchase.
The Manticore And Other Horrors is out on October 29th in the UK and Europe via Peaceville, and on October 30th in North America via Nuclear Blast.
The special limited edition The Manticore And Other Horrors contains two bonus tracks in the shape of ‘Nightmares Of An Ether Drinker’, and ‘Death, The Great Adventure’, and is presented in deluxe digibook format with 28 page booklet. The complete tracklisting can be found below the album cover:
‘The Unveiling Of O’
‘The Abhorrent’
‘For Your Vulgar Delectation’
‘Illicitus’
‘Manticore’
‘Frost On Her Pillow’
‘Huge Onyx Wings Behind Despair’
‘Pallid Reflection’
‘Siding With The Titans’
‘Succumb To This’
‘Nightmares Of An Ether Drinker’ (bonus track)
‘Death, The Great Adventure’ (bonus track)
‘Sinfonia’
A new audio sample for the album track, ‘Manticore’, is available below:
CRADLE OF FILTH will release their new album, The Manticore And Other Horrors, on October 29th in the UK and Europe via Peaceville, and on October 30th in North America via Nuclear Blast.
A new audio sample for the album track, ‘Manticore’, is available for streaming now at the Nuclear Blast US webshop. To listen to the sample, click on any of the new album item products here and click ‘Play’ on the SoundCloud player in item description.
Cradle Of Filth recently uploaded a lyric video for the album track, ‘For Your Vulgar Delectation’. Watch below:
The artwork and tracklisting for The Manticore And Other Horrors can be found below:
‘The Unveiling Of O’
‘The Abhorrent’
‘For Your Vulgar Delectation’
‘Illicitus’
‘Manticore’
‘Frost On Her Pillow’
‘Huge Onyx Wings Behind Despair’
‘Pallid Reflection’
‘Siding With The Titans’
‘Succumb To This’
‘Nightmares Of An Ether Drinker’ (bonus track)
‘Death, The Great Adventure’ (bonus track)
‘Sinfonia’
In live news, Cradle Of Filth has announced they will be touring across Europe on their next Creatures From The Black Abyss Tour that will feature GOD SEED, ROTTING CHRIST, DARKEND and BLYND. Rotting Christ will join the tour from November 7th to November 27th and from December 11th till December 19th; Darkend from November 7th to November 27th (first part); and Blynd from November 27th to December 19th (second part).
Tour dates are as follows:
November
7 – Haarlem, Holland – Patronaat
8 – Leeuwarden, Holland – Romeein
9 – Osnabrück, Germany – Hyde Park
10 – Aarhus, Denmark – Train
12 – Gothenburg, Sweden – Trädgarn
13 – Stockholm, Sweden – Klubben
15 – Tampere, Finland – Klubbi
16 – Helsinki, Finland – Nosturi
17 – Tallinn, Estonia – Rock Cafe
19 – Minsk, Belarus – Re:Public
20 – Kiev, Ukraine – Bingo
22 – Warsaw, Poland – Progressja
23 – Krakow, Poland – Kwadrat
24 – Zlin, Czech Republic – Winter Masters Of Rock
26 – Bologna, Italy – Estragon
27 – Milan, Italy – Alcatraz (Small Hall)
29 – Montpellier, France – Rockstore
30 – Bilbao, Spain – Santana 27
December
1 – Santiago De Compostela, Spain – Capitol
2 – Porto, Portugal – Hard Club
4 – Madrid, Spain – La Riviera
5 – Barcelona, Spain – Salamandra
7 – Geiselwind, Germany – Musichall
8 – Bochum, Germany – Matrix
9 – Pratteln, Switzerland – Z-7
11 – Prague, Czech Republic – Meet Factory
13 – Bratislava, Slovakia – Majestic Music Club
14 – Munich, Germany – Theaterfabrik
15 – Wels, Austria – Schlachthof
16 – Berlin, Germany – C-Club
19 – London, UK – Forum
The official lyric video for the song “For Your Vulgar Delectation” from British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH can be seen below. The track comes off the band’s tenth studio album, “The Manticore And Other Horrors”, which will be released in North America on October 30 via Nuclear Blast Records.
The track listing for the CD is as follows:
01. The Unveiling Of O
02. The Abhorrent
03. For Your Vulgar Delectation
04. Illicitus
05. Manticore
06. Frost On Her Pillow
07. Huge Onyx Wings Behind Despair
08. Pallid Reflection
09. Siding With The Titans
10. Succumb To This
11. Nightmares Of An Ether Drinker
12. Death, The Great Adventure (deluxe edition digipak)
13. Sinfonia (deluxe edition digipak)
A mini-site for “The Manticore And Other Horrors”has been launched, featuring album audio, information, gallery, desktop downloads, plus a chance to download the track “For Your Vulgar Delectation” for free.
Recorded in eight weeks at both Springvale and Grindstone studios (where it was also mixed by Scott Atkins), Suffolk, “The Manticore And Other Horrors” is a testament to the longevity of the ‘FILTH, as not only does it reek of CRADLE‘s (feared or revered) brand of delicious metal vamperotica, but this thoroughly modern album places the band firmly in fresh killing fields anew.
“The Manticore And Other Horrors” itself possesses an altogether new atmosphere for the band, incorporating a heavier, faster NWOBBM punk vibe that is both current and cruel, blended with ornate orchestration and the quirky immediateness of 2000′s “Midian” opus.
The album’s title can be likened to a bestiary, a collection of stories on monsters – personal demons, Chimeras, literary fiends and world-enslaving entities to blame but a few. “Manticore”, the ravening title track, is a song about a beautiful mythological horror that comes to be feared as the disfigurehead of foreign occupation in the Indian provinces.
The songs “Illicitus” and “Pallid Reflection” bear the sweet ingredients of vampirism and lycanthropy; the wicked “For Your Vulgar Delectation” and “Frost On Her Pillow” are woven perversely into grim fairy tales, whilst classic, monumental tracks like “The Abhorrent And Siding With The Titans” both extol tentacular Lovecraftian values.
Speaking to Metal-Trails.com at this year’s Wacken Open Air festival, which took place August 2-4 in Wacken, Germany, CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani “Filth” Davey stated about the musical direction of the band’s new album, “It’s a slightly different direction for CRADLE OF FILTH. It’s very fresh for people who appreciate our other works. It’s a slightly shorter album, but we’ve concentrated on melody and different techniques that have been slightly missing from our music — it’s a bit punkier, a bit more structured, a bit more singalong, but it’s still extreme and it’s still CRADLE OF FILTH.”
He continued, “It’s very hard to speak about it, because it’s only been two years since our last record, so if it was so familiar, trying to explain what that record was like and what this record is like… Because there’s so much going on in our music — there’s symphonic parts and then there’s really fast parts and slow, romantic interludes and, like I said, punk and New Wave Of British Heavy Metal in there. But it’s all kind of wrapped up in theology and cinematic kind of soundscape. So it’s hard to break it down and say, ‘Well, this is what we’re doing this time that’s a bit different from the last time.’ But it’s good. We’re really proud of what we’re doing. I think people are gonna be very surprised when they hear it and go, ‘Wow, that’s CRADLE OF FILTH for 2012.’”
CRADLE OF FILTH has announced they will be touring across Europe on their next Creatures From The Black Abyss Tour that will feature GOD SEED, ROTTING CHRIST, DARKEND and BLYND. Rotting Christ will join the tour from November 7th to November 27th and from December 11th till December 19th; Darkend from November 7th to November 27th (first part); and Blynd from November 27th to December 19th (second part).
Tour dates are below:
November
7 – Haarlem, Holland – Patronaat
8 – Leeuwarden, Holland – Romeein
9 – Osnabrück, Germany – Hyde Park
10 – Aarhus, Denmark – Train
12 – Gothenburg, Sweden – Trädgarn
13 – Stockholm, Sweden – Klubben
15 – Tampere, Finland – Klubbi
16 – Helsinki, Finland – Nosturi
17 – Tallinn, Estonia – Rock Cafe
19 – Minsk, Belarus – Re:Public
20 – Kiev, Ukraine – Bingo
22 – Warsaw, Poland – Progressja
23 – Krakow, Poland – Kwadrat
24 – Zlin, Czech Republic – Winter Masters Of Rock
26 – Bologna, Italy – Estragon
27 – Milan, Italy – Alcatraz (Small Hall)
29 – Montpellier, France – Rockstore
30 – Bilbao, Spain – Santana 27
December
1 – Santiago De Compostela, Spain – Capitol
2 – Porto, Portugal – Hard Club
4 – Madrid, Spain – La Riviera
5 – Barcelona, Spain – Salamandra
7 – Geiselwind, Germany – Musichall
8 – Bochum, Germany – Matrix
9 – Pratteln, Switzerland – Z-7
11 – Prague, Czech Republic – Meet Factory
13 – Bratislava, Slovakia – Majestic Music Club
14 – Munich, Germany – Theaterfabrik
15 – Wels, Austria – Schlachthof
16 – Berlin, Germany – C-Club
19 – London, UK – Forum
Cradle Of Filth will release a special limited edition of their new album The Manticore And Other Horrors on October 29th in The UK and Europe via Peaceville, and October 30th in North America via Nuclear Blast. The limited edition contains two bonus tracks in the shape of ‘Nightmares Of An Ether Drinker’, and ‘Death, The Great Adventure’, and is presented in deluxe digibook format with 28 page booklet. The complete tracklisting can be found below the album cover:
‘The Unveiling Of O’
‘The Abhorrent’
‘For Your Vulgar Delectation’
‘Illicitus’
‘Manticore’
‘Frost On Her Pillow’
‘Huge Onyx Wings Behind Despair’
‘Pallid Reflection’
‘Siding With The Titans’
‘Succumb To This’
‘Nightmares Of An Ether Drinker’ (bonus track)
‘Death, The Great Adventure’ (bonus track)
‘Sinfonia’
The mini-site for The Manticore And Other Horrors, is online now, featuring album audio, information, gallery, desktop downloads, plus the chance to download the track, ‘For Your Vulgar Delectation’, for free.
British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH will release their tenth studio album, “The Manticore & Other Horrors”, in North America on October 30 via Nuclear Blast Records.
Speaking to Metal-Trails.com at this year’s Wacken Open Air festival, which took place August 2-4 in Wacken, Germany, CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani “Filth” Davey stated about the musical direction of the band’s new album (See video below), “It’s a slightly different direction for CRADLE OF FILTH. It’s very fresh for people who appreciate our other works. It’s a slightly shorter album, but we’ve concentrated on melody and different techniques that have been slightly missing from our music — it’s a bit punkier, a bit more structured, a bit more singalong, but it’s still extreme and it’s still CRADLE OF FILTH.”
He continued, “It’s very hard to speak about it, because it’s only been two years since our last record, so if it was so familiar, trying to explain what that record was like and what this record is like… Because there’s so much going on in our music — there’s symphonic parts and then there’s really fast parts and slow, romantic interludes and, like I said, punk and New Wave Of British Heavy Metal in there. But it’s all kind of wrapped up in theology and cinematic kind of soundscape. So it’s hard to break it down and say, ‘Well, this is what we’re doing this time that’s a bit different from the last time.’ But it’s good. We’re really proud of what we’re doing. I think people are gonna be very surprised when they hear it and go, ‘Wow, that’s CRADLE OF FILTH for 2012.’”
On the influences they have incorporated into the songwriting process for “The Manticore & Other Horrors”:
Dani: “We’re influenced by loads of stuff. We like recording out in the countrysides. We get a lot of influence from where we live. Music, obviously… [We're] very big fans of soundtracks, films and cult literature, 19th-century literature. Anything, really, can influence you, depending on the environment in which the album is created.
“We’re very inspirational people, we’re very artistic and stuff — sometimes autistic — and I couldn’t actually where ideas come from, but, fortunately, we’re not too few of them.”
On whether CRADLE OF FILTH intentionally experimented on the new album:
Dani: “We had a mind to experiment with different sounds, and different instrumentation, different structures, different guitar sound, different drum sound, different vocal techniques… But again, at the end of the day, it’s really about writing good songs and we think we’ve written 11 really good tracks for the new album and some bonus material for later on. And that can’t be contrived — you can’t just say, ‘We’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that,’ it really has to be from the heart and the soul. But it doesn’t hurt, along the way, to pick up influences from all the things I mentioned.”
On CRADLE OF FILTH‘s touring plans for after the new album is released:
Dani: “The new album comes out October 31 or thereabouts — Halloween — and then we undertake a full European tour called ‘Creatures From The Black Abyss’. It’s us headlining, GOD SEED, ROTTING CHRIST and DARK END in support of us. There’s gonna be a big stage show, it’s gonna be very new, very novel, vey heavy metal, very CRADLE OF FILTH.”
On whether “The Manticore & Other Horrors” is a concept album:
Dani: “It’s probably a concept album as far as other people’s concept albums go. ‘Cause when people say, ‘We’ve written a concept album,’ it’s generally just a couple of ideas thrown around a picture on the cover. This one is more like each song is like a satellite orbiting a bigger theme. So it has a concept of, sort of, monsters, personal demons and greater entities. But no, for once [we thought], ‘Let’s not be too predictable. People will expect something like that.’ This time we’ve just gone and done a collection of really good, fast, intricate, theatrical heavy metal tracks.”
On the most difficult part of making the new album:
Dani: “Trying to be fresh with ideas, I guess. I always write all the lyrics, so it’s always… not a struggle, but I’m very particular about what I wanna do and try not to be too wordy with it. This time I was trying to balance the attributes that make up CRADLE OF FILTH, but with something that people can sort of sing along to. And that’s relatively hard in itself. I guess the whole process of starting again from scratch and coming out with something at the end and feeling like you’ve worked so hard and that you’ve achieved something, because nothing comes easy; otherwise everybody would be doing it. So, I guess, before you start a record, you always see the climb and think, ‘Oooh, this is gonna be difficult this time,’ but it’s worth that climb.”
On whether he feels like they still have something to prove the fans or themselves with each new album:
Dani: “I think it’s more to ourselves. Obviously, the fans are very important, but I think the fans believe enough in the band enough by now — or they should so — to realize and appreciate that if we write for ourselves , it’s gonna then spill out onto the record and they’re going to embrace that, hopefully.”
Recorded in eight weeks at both Springvale and Grindstone studios (where it was also mixed by Scott Atkins), Suffolk, “The Manticore & Other Horrors” is a testament to the longevity of the ‘FILTH, as not only does it reek of CRADLE‘s (feared or revered) brand of delicious metal vamperotica, but this thoroughly modern album places the band firmly in fresh killing fields anew.
“The Manticore & Other Horrors” itself possesses an altogether new atmosphere for the band, incorporating a heavier, faster NWOBBM punk vibe that is both current and cruel, blended with ornate orchestration and the quirky immediateness of 2000′s “Midian” opus.
The album’s title can be likened to a bestiary, a collection of stories on monsters – personal demons, Chimeras, literary fiends and world-enslaving entities to blame but a few. “Manticore”, the ravening title track, is a song about a beautiful mythological horror that comes to be feared as the disfigurehead of foreign occupation in the Indian provinces.
The songs “Illicitus” and “Pallid Reflection” bare the sweet ingredients of vampirism and lycanthropy; the wicked “For Your Vulgar Delectation” and “Frost On Her Pillow” are woven perversely into grim fairy tales, whilst classic, monumental tracks like “The Abhorrent And Siding With The Titans” both extol tentacular Lovecraftian values.
CRADLE OF FILTH is:
Dani Filth – Vocals Paul Allender – Guitar James McIlroy – Guitar David Pybus – Bass Martin Skaroupka – Drums
British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH will release their tenth studio album, “The Manticore & Other Horrors”, in North America on October 30 via Nuclear Blast Records.
Commented the band’s infamous frontman, Dani “Filth” Davey, “This is our 10th commandment in metal. We have diversified and kept alive the spirit of this band and breathed it into something that I can proudly say, slays like an absolute motherfucker. The Manticore is coming… Long live the filth!”
Recorded in eight weeks at both Springvale and Grindstone studios (where it was also mixed by Scott Atkins), Suffolk, the album is a testament to the longevity of the ‘FILTH, as not only does it reek of CRADLE‘s (feared or revered) brand of delicious metal vamperotica, but this thoroughly modern album places the band firmly in fresh killing fields anew.
“The Manticore & Other Horrors” itself possesses an altogether new atmosphere for the band, incorporating a heavier, faster NWOBBM punk vibe that is both current and cruel, blended with ornate orchestration and the quirky immediateness of 2000′s “Midian” opus.
The album’s title can be likened to a bestiary, a collection of stories on monsters – personal demons, Chimeras, literary fiends and world-enslaving entities to blame but a few. “Manticore”, the ravening title track, is a song about a beautiful mythological horror that comes to be feared as the disfigurehead of foreign occupation in the Indian provinces.
The songs “Illicitus” and “Pallid Reflection” bare the sweet ingredients of vampirism and lycanthropy; the wicked “For Your Vulgar Delectation” and “Frost On Her Pillow” are woven perversely into grim fairy tales, whilst classic, monumental tracks like “The Abhorrent And Siding With The Titans” both extol tentacular Lovecraftian values.
CRADLE OF FILTH will spread its darkness upon European lands with a tour throughout November and December.
CRADLE OF FILTH is:
Dani Filth – Vocals Paul Allender – Guitar James McIlroy – Guitar David Pybus – Bass Martin Skaroupka – Drums
