Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

One of the most infamous and notorious names in metal, Cradle Of Filth continues to shock, excite, disgust and inspire in equal measures. On November 1st 2010, the latest chapter of the band’s dark history is to be released through Peaceville Records on the band’s own AbraCadaver inprint. Titled “Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa” is their ninth studio album.
Cradle Of Filth have been pioneers of extreme music since their debut in 1994 and have continued to evolve with each of their subsequent releases. Unafraid of ruffling a few feathers, the band have continually refused to bow to convention or to conform to prevalent trends and fads. Yet despite this uncompromising stance the band are still the most successful British heavy metal band since Iron Maiden, with legions of fans around the globe.

Cradle of Filth are: Dani Filth – Vocals, Paul Allender – Guitar, David Pybus – Bass,  James McIlroy – Guitar, Martin Skaroupka – Drums, Ashley Ellyllon – Live keys and Backing vocals.

Cradle Of Filth remain stalwarts to the satanic horror ethos by again composing a fully blown concept album  “Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa”, this time based on Adam’s first wife, the lascivious Demoness Lilith; throwing Medieval nuns, Knights Templars, Greek mythology and lashings of sex, occult lore and violent bloodshed into the smelting pot, to create a darkly erotic nightmare set to their unique scope of supreme vampyric metal.

Well yeah, after this rather interesting introduction, you just cannot be else than very curious about the interview that is about to start, with Paul Allender, Cradle of Filth’s guitarist. …and there he is… with his slightly flu-hoarse voice saying “Hello Tarja, yeah it’s me, Paul” … and we start talking and slipping slowly into the intriguing world of Lilith …

‘Midnight strikes, the candles sputter
Muttering their reeking spells
I snuff their tongues, my heart a-flutter
These words I speak are gates to Hell’

Hi Paul, how are you today?

Hi Tarja!Yeah, I’m good thanks :), I’ve been doing a lots of interviews in these days and I’ve been in studio, here in States, in couple of last weeks now… and also quite busy practising for the next tour.

What bands have influenced your music the most?

Yeah, I think it’s safe to say Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead and the whole 80s Thrash movement when it was around.

Who writes your lyrics and music?

I do most of the songwriting but this time I got James and Dave more involved. Dani does the lyrics. I’ve done the arranging to all of the songs, you know I mean, at the end of the day, if anybody comes out with good stuff, music wise, I’ll take it, we record it, put it down, and arrange it into tracks, you know, it goes like this.

How would you describe your music and new album, and how it has changed in these 20 years?

…ahahah if I should need to describe and explain our new album to someone who doesn’t know us, I could say it’s Iron Maiden on crack (LOL)… you know, you can hear some Iron Maiden influences on it, but at one million miles an hour. Our music is fast and symphonic. We have a lot of ideas from rock through to thrash type stuff, you can hear it in our songs, mix it with orchestral music and you have Cradle 🙂 It’s basically changed over the last 20 years because we’re older, music evolves and if we don’t let it naturally evolve then the band wouldn’t exist.

Well, to somebody who hasn’t heard  our stuff before, I’d say to start to listen to our new album, he could start with “Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned)”, which has quite a commercial sound. That could work as an introduction. But I have to be honest, I know persons who have come into our music only with our last album, Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder (2008), and they liked it so much that they’ve wanted to listen also to all of our older albums.

If you weren’t in a band right now, what would you be doing?

I woud be a prostitute lol 😀 … well, in fact when I left the school I was learning to be a welder and that sort of stuff…

As you know, we had to do this interview already couple of weeks ago, but it was postponed for some problems you had in Paris, can you tell us what happened?

Oh yeah, we had just finished the interviews, in Finland, we flew to Paris, and made some other interviews there. Then we had to fly to Italy,  we got to the airport, but we found the flight cancelled. The guy that was looking after us, tried to find another flight, but he just found out that ALL the flights were cancelled. So, it was just a French strike, or anyhow I was told so… we ended up to try to find a train connection, from Paris to Brussels ecc., but it would have been a real pain in the ass lol. Oh yes, so that’s why we’re doing this interview only today.

Yep, thats right. But better late than ever 😀 … anyhow, do you intend to return to Italy in these coming months?

Oh yessss, we will be there for sure! Most probably we’ll start our European Tour around April-time. I promise you, as soon as the dates will be confirmed, I let you know. But yes, we will come over to Italy for sure, at least for one or two concerts.

Paul, you are widely recognized for your unique right-handed technique. Can you tell us about it?

😀 am i? that sounds rude… LOL ok theres not much to tell really, i just practise and it all falls into place. I started to play when I was 14 years, normally everybody starts with the covers, but I wasn’t able to do that, so I just started to play what came into my mind, something that just SOUNDED to be a cover-song but it wasn’t. Basicly, as soon as I picked up my guitar, I started to write my own material, you know, my music, that’s how I found “my style”… To tell you the truth… I don’t jam. Therefore, when I play, I don’t use any specific scales or anything in order or that’s musically correct or anything… I’ve always concentrated on mixing lead-oriented riffs, but in like a rhythmic sense. That’s the way I’ve always been because I’ve never really been interested in doing ultra-fast lead work. I’ve always mixed the two up. Just concentrating on the 16th notes and stuff on the right hand, making sure it all sinks in.

It’s the guitar and it’s the way we dress on stage, it’s all part of this troupe, this uniformed-like togetherness…
Actually, I’ve been asked to do some playing videos for two guitar magazines in France, so I’m going to film those this week, you know, just playing riffs from our new album, and they’ll slow it down just to see how I’m playing. Obviously the videos will be published online. As soon as they’re ready I’ll send you the links, that’s a promise :-D.

Paul, the PRS has built up a guitar (here on left), after your name,  following the design made by you. Can you tell us more about the story behind it?

Well when i took a couple of years from Cradle and started The Blood Divine, I took one of the guitar photos from the PRS website and editied it in photoshop. A few months went by and they decided to make the guitar as a private stock only. After being with them for a couple of years they released there SE series and asked me if they could do my guitar as one of the first SE guitars. They had had so many requests from people looking for my guitar… and it’s really incredible that today it’s one of the best-sellers of SE they’ve ever made. It’s really amazing.

How does it feel to know that there are a lot of guys playing a guitar with your name?

It’s weird to be honest, I don’t even think about it. It still feels like a dream.

Making a jump back to 2007 and to italian/american horror film “The Mother of Tears”, what was your relationship with the Italian film-producer Dario Argento? Do you have in mind some future collaborations … maybe a video?

I don’t know because it’s something Dani was doing. I’ve just heard the final song Dani sang in studio. So, to be honest I just don’t know anything else about it. But of course, I do hope for some future collaborations with Dario, yeah that could be absolutelly amazing.

I’ve heard about also some collaborations with Marilyn Manson,Tim Burton and Ville Valo (from HIM), are you maybe planning to have some projects  with them in the future?

LOL Tim Burton would be amazing, but Manson!! Hell noooooo!! lol …and Ville Valo, the only time we have worked with him is when he put some vocals down, in a separate studio, on the track “The Byronic man”, actually, we really didn’t never met him personally.

Your new album “Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa” will be released on 1st November, what do you expect from it?

Hell on earth!!!!!! lol …you know, all the interviews we’ve done so far…and everybody has said that we’ve gone back what we used to be like. We didn’t really do it consciously, but it just happened, to be honest. I just expect that the people will get into it, and enjoy listening to it. I’m sure they’ll be satisfied about what they hear.

Talking about the tracks and album itself, can you tell us more about how it was born and how you chose the tracks for it?

To be honest there’s not much to tell, it was created how most bands write albums. The album is about Lilith, the wife of Adam. It usually starts off with my studio and from there we put ideas down and I arrange what we have recorded. Most of it is written over the internet via email and servers. Once we get everything in place we get together in the rehearsal room and beat it out.

This album is Cradle at our most sinister and darkened fairytale; a gothic horror- themed slay-ride of fervour and perversion: yet amidst the orchestral melodrama and lush, cinematic production, there sits stalwart, a ravening beast of furious riffing, flesh ripping vocals and monstrous, unstoppable percussion.
‘Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa’ is without doubt the fastest and most brutal album we’ve created to date. As an acquaintance of the band so aptly noted, this is like ‘Iron Maiden on crack in a graveyard of angels!’, and with an as-near-as-dammit release date of All Hallows Eve 2010, we are snarling at the leash to get out to all our fans across the world and play this shit live. Long live the ‘Filth!

What are your touring plans in 2010/2011?

We’ll start in South America in december and then onto North America the 1st Feb, all the other plans are up in the air and will be confirmed nearer the time 🙂

In couple of years you’ll celebrate your 20th Anniversary, have you some special plans for it? can you maybe reveal us some secrets?

LOL i’m that old!!!! hahahaha!!!! To be honest we will do that when we have been together for our 20th year album which will be 2014 🙂 but actually, we’ve never thought about the whole 20-years-thing, you know… ahah, it’s just enough to me, when I think I’ll be 40 next moth, for the Christ sake LOL

Paul, now the word is yours, what would you tell to your italian fans?

Thank you guys for all your support, if it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t be able to write music and share it with you. See you on the road my friends and I hope you get into the new album.

Thanks to YOU Paul, unfortunatelly our time ran out, it would have been nice to go on and on, taking about everything. But that will be next time, for sure :-D. Take Care, and keep us informed about your news!