Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
the coolest thing since dinosaur chicken fingers.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who's the blackest of them all? Why, Cradle of Filth, of course. England's most notorious and nefarious metal band are gearing up to release their darkest, most dastardly album of all, titled Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder, for Roadrunner Records on October 28. The album, which will have a special edition with an extra disc and bonus material, arrives just in time for Hallowe'en, a holiday that fits Cradle of Filth's blackened, ghostly aesthetic.
The album is conceptual and is based on the well-documented, true-life fall from grace of a shadowy historical figure named Gilles de Rais, a wealthy French nobleman who was one of Joan of Arc's brothers-in-arms. He was best known, however, as a prolific serial killer who mixed prayers with his nightly murders as well as an aspiring alchemist. He was accused of a panoply of crimes, among them heresy, demonology and kidnapping. There's even an extreme fringe sect of historians who question de Rais' true status, with some convinced he was framed.
Regardless of viewpoint, leave it to Cradle of Filth to dissect de Rais' biography, exploring subversive, inflammatory historical subject matter in its lyrics, taking an unjaundiced look at a controversial figure in European history, set to epic black metal music. The band profiled Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory, who attempted to preserve her youth by bathing in the blood of virgins, in the past and now moves forward by framing their latest album around the story of de Rais.
Cradle of Filth's vocalist Dani Filth elaborated on the album's concept, saying, "By far this is our most extreme, dramatic and deeply disturbing album to date. The legend of Gilles de Rais has been given fresh, vampyrical life in this conceptual meisterwerk, swathed in pitch-black magic and a viciousness unsurpassed in the annals of Cradle history. Screw what our detractors say, everyone who has heard this album has bruised their jaws on the pentagram-bejewelled floor."
In addition to 'Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder' due out on Oct 28th standard version being released, there will also be a Special Edition and Vinyl released!
2 Disc set featuring 10 unreleased/rare bonus tracks and expanded artwork
Disc 1:
01. In Grandeur And Frankincense Devilment Stirs
02. Shat Out Of Hell
03. The Death Of Love
04. The 13th Caesar
05. Tiffauges
06. Tragic Kingdom
07. Sweetest Maleficia
08. Honey And Sulphur
09. Midnight Shadows Crawl To Darken Counsel With Life
10. Darkness Incarnate
11. Ten Leagues Beneath Contempt
12. Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder
13. Corpseflower
Disc 2:
01. Balsamic and Anathema
02. A Thousand Hands On The Maid Of Ruin
03. Into The Crypt Of Rays
04. Devil To The Metal
05. Courting Baphomet
06. The Love Of Death (Remix)
07. The Death Of Love (Demo)
08. The 13th Caesar (Demo)
09. Dirge Inferno (Live)
10. Dusk And Her Embrace (Live)
Vinyl:
Double vinyl includes 2 tracks not available on the standard album and a code to download the entire album in MP3 format.
01. In Grandeur And Frankincense Devilment Stirs
02. Shat Out Of Hell
03. The Death Of Love
04. The 13th Caesar
05. Tiffauges
06. Tragic Kingdom
07. Sweetest Maleficia
08. Honey And Sulphur
09. Midnight Shadows Crawl To Darken Counsel With Life
10. Darkness Incarnate
11. A Thousand Hands On The Maid Of Ruin
12. Ten Leagues Beneath Contempt
13. Balsamic and Anathema
14. Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder
15. Corpseflower
Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder Studio Reports
4 band pictures6 dani pictures
Monday, July 21, 2008
satanist, sexual deviant and murderer
The follow-up to 2006's "Thornography" is a 72-minute concept record about a legendary serial killer from the 15th Century, Gilles De Rais, a French nobleman who fought alongside Joan of Arc and accumulated great wealth before becoming a satanist, sexual deviant and a murderer.
"Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder" track listing:
In Grandeur And Frankincense Devilment Stirs
Shat Out Of Hell
The Death Of Love
The 13th Caesar
Tiffauges
Tragic Kingdom
Sweetest Maleficia
Honey And Sulphur
Midnight Shadows Crawl To Darken Counsel With Life
Darkness Incarnate
Ten Leagues Beneath Contempt
Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder
Corpseflower
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Go Go Gothic Binoculars!
6-13-08
Dear unrepentant children of the night,
Greeting once again from the verdant bowers of Ambergate, Derbyshire and the recording studio we call home sweet home and Sneapy Hollow.
Dani here once again to fill you in on everything filthy from the production of our new album, which, as it stands, still remains untitled! There are obviously a huge amount of possible candidates floating about, from the mildly ridiculous to the obviously mediocre, our favourites being "The Lesser Known Adventures Of Gilles De Rais And The Squid People", "Go-Go Gothic Binoculars'" and "Finger Tits" amongst others, not one fully encapsulating the brutal musical scale of this record quite yet. Still, there a couple of weeks left to go, so who knows what will befall our ever-tentacular creation?
Everything else recording-wise has been finished bar vocals for two songs that will undoubtedly see the light of day far after the album's release (possibly on film soundtracks which always seem to require non-album tracks). This also includes the addition of all-female choir sections and an additional Swedish male Opera singer, as well as my daughter Luna contributing poetical lines to the song 'Darkness Incarnate'.
The mix is well on its way toward completion, we'll finish one by the end of this week and then retire our separate ways for a well-deserved week at home, the premise being to return a week later to re-evaluate and complete it fully (with the intermittent narrative being not-so-lightly sprinkled on the top - well, it is 'Candyman' voicing it after all).
Several journalists have also paid us visits, one, a good friend of ours ended up singing yokel Karaoke on a night out after drinking too much Pedigree, Gin and Guinness. Still, he had a great time and (at least before we all started singing "Delilah" with our trousers down) said journalist loved the album, half-finished mix or not.
Which is nice.
Now comes the time of video conceptualising and rehearsals, artwork assembly and heavy press schedules in Europe and America, working our arses off to bring the braying beast to life. Phew! No rest for the wicked I say.
So without further ado, I bid you farewell until the album is finished. Next time we will converse will be a week from now.
All the best, your fiend,
Dani Filth
Sunday, June 8, 2008
aww...thats shitty.
Statement released: -
"Norway's QUART Festival Canceled Due To Poor Ticket Sales - June 6, 2008
This year's Quart festival, which was scheduled to take place July 2-5 in Kristiansand, Norway, has been canceled due to poor ticket sales.
"It is sad for all those who've worked so hard to make this year's festival a success that we were forced to make this decision. The Quart festival is an institution in Norway and is very important to Kristiansand and the area in the most southern parts of Norway," Quart festival board leader Stein J. Olsen said.
"We are proud of this year's festival lineup and the program had received acclaim within the music business. At the same time, we have to admit that we didn't hit bull's eye with the audience," stated festival manager Daniel Nordgĺrd.
Kristiansand's mayor, Per Sigurd Sřrensen, is disappointed that the festival is cancelled.
"It's really a pity," he said. "Quart is a very important festival for Kristiansand." The mayor added that he was informed about the festival's cancellation this afternoon.
The festival — which was supposed to include performance from MAYHEM, BENEA REACH, KEEP OF KALESSIN, CLUTCH, CRADLE OF FILTH, BLOOD RED THRONE, NILE and THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN — sold a significant number of tickets to sponsors and various companies, but the sales to the general public have been surprisingly low. Only 2,053 tickets had been sold through Billettservice (the biggest ticketing company Norway) as of early June, forcing the organizers to file for bankruptcy.
"We want to insure that none of the ticket holders will suffer from our decision to call the event, and we will therefore refund their money as much as we possibly can," Olsen said.
The Quart organizers added that increased competition from other big festivals in the same area, such as the Hovefestivalen — which will be held June 23-24, 2008 on the island of Tromřy, just outside the city of Arendal in Norway — contributed to the low ticket sales. Hovefestivalen has reportedly already sold 40,000 tickets to this year's event.
Monday, May 26, 2008
studio update
05-15-2008
Dear avid Disciples of the watch,
Salutations once again from the very epicentre of the vampyric, night-time kingdom - Ambergate, Derbyshire.
The weather now has turned from the rather sporadic and humdrum to the Summer glorious perpetual. Flocks of chattering birds brightly harangue the trees and Mother Nature has cast a blanket of deep blue skies and heady opiates upon our verdant sleepy vale. Middle England is in bloom. And so is the album.
Dave has finished his bass in the past week, his exemplary rumblings complimenting and underpinning the the overall voraciousness of the tracks, from the massive majestic slow grind sections, right through to the abundant blasts and punch-you-straight-in-the-face style riffs, his five-string prowess provides the perfect blackened heartbeat to our ravening beast.
Sarah has been, sung and sallied forth into the sun, having lent her voice to the epic 'The Death Of Love' and 'The 13th Caesar' (which sound all the more excellent for it) and slowly but surely we're easing into the beginnings of the mixing stage (as opposed to settling into the baths of warm blood that we're used to) with Paul finishing solos and aligning the orchestral elements, Andy assembling and tidying the tracks and me now three-quarters of the ride through my vocal takes with engineer Doug. There have been some small leisurely breaks in-between, which have also provided us with the time to become Olympic frisbee throwers, avid plastic footballers, budget cooks and even lower budget horror movie critics, as well as daredevil skateboarders and garden enthusiasts. I have even got some time out to visit my voice therapist in London (it may sound a tad arty-farty, but believe you me it can be a painful experience having your larynx physically manipulated) and enjoy a beautiful and exhausting weekend visit from my wife Toni.
Next week will hopefully see the recording fully completed (i'm becoming a God parent at the weekend, so i'm hoping to be almost wrapped by then, if only to get sloshed for the first time in eight weeks...) aside from the guest narration and the choir (which are being visited soon to be shocked witless by their impending involvement!).
We can also reveal our guest narrator to be none other than Candyman himself, the horror icon Tony Todd. His talking parts are in the writing with a view to being executed in a few weeks time. Very exciting indeed, especially for a total horror movie buff like myself!
So that's it for this week's blog, thanks for reading from it, I'm sure in some small way it infects your life in positive way.
Godspeed on the back of the Devil's thunder.
Count Filth. xxx
