Cradle of Filth‘s upcoming album, The Screaming of the Valkyries, is set to drop on March 21, 2025, via Napalm Records. The record has been described as a succinct summation of the ghosts of Cradle Of Filth‘s past while taking bold new steps into the future. And to know more about what transpired during his creation, contributor Jonathan Smith, sat down with none other than Dani Filth himself, to uncover a myriad of details and know what fans should expect from the album.
In this interview, Dani Filth explained that while they’re continuing to work with longtime producer Scott Atkins: “He’s one of those people that doesn’t stand on – well, to put it this way, he doesn’t mix words, so if it’s shit, he’ll tell you it’s shit, which is great because everybody needs that, maybe Metallica could do with a bit of that and all, but the point of it is he’s very astute, very creative, and he gets the best out of everybody, and we feel comfortable working with him, so obviously, if it’s not broken, don’t try and fix it.”
Discussing the album’s title, Filth revealed that its inspiration comes from the chaos of our modern world. “The Screaming of the Valkyries is influenced by, I don’t know, the political turmoil in the world, in respect of, if you were to hear The Screaming of the Valkyries as a metaphor, or in actuality, it would be, like in Ragnarok, it was the end of days because it would be heaven was being overrun, a last source of protection would be being overrun and destroyed, and that was inspired by the fact that we’re very, even infinitely closer to the midnight hour on the doomsday clock at present” he declared.
This apocalyptic imagery, steeped in myth and reflecting current global tensions, set the tone for an album, which he praised for a raw approach and clarified there’s not a concept record: “We wrote nine very strong, catchy tunes, and when I was presented with some of the embryonic stages of the tracks, most of them immediately struck up a chord with me. So there’s an overarching theme that unites the tracks, but it isn’t a concept record, everybody thinks we’re going to do a conceptual record every time, we haven’t done one for like 15 years, but like King Diamond, everybody thinks that’s our thing.”
When it comes to songwriting and musical style, Filth made it clear that the band is committed to authenticity and looking ahead, and that the new line-up certainly contributed to the album’s final sound: “We’ve got a different lineup, and new blood is good all the way around, it injects a fresh perspective on everything, and as a band, we can sort of self-cannibalize ourselves, because we created this sound, and if we want to hark back to some music that is reminiscent of some of our earlier works, then so be it, but we always have one in the future.”
“When we write music, we don’t think, you know what, by this algorithm, we now need to add to this, you know, mathematical equation, 20% death metal, 30% gothic rock, a little bit new wave of British, we don’t look at it like that, we write music,’ Filth explained. “And if it works, it works. And if it sounds good, it sounds good”
Asked about how he preserves his voice, particularly in a live setting, Filth explained how working with a vocal coach helped him: “Years have just brought wisdom, and went to see a doctor, he’s more of a singing coach, the one time I had a big problem back in 2006. We’d written an album, we were in the studio, and my voice just didn’t work, and they brought in a vocal coach from across from America. They put that thing down your throat, it’s horrible, and he said, ‘I can’t see anything wrong, but I tell you what, here’s a number, because I saw someone not so long ago who was an opera singer, and I sent him along to this person’.”
“I went to see this Jewish guy who just dealt with opera singers, and it turned out I had like tennis elbow off the throat, I just was singing from the wrong part, and I was overwearing it, like turning a car battery over continuously or being in the wrong gear, and he corrected that, and I haven’t looked back since, ” Filth added.
Anywhere else in the interview, Filth doesn’t hold back his criticism of modern streaming platforms either, voicing his deep-seated frustration with platforms that devalue music by underpaying artists: “Spotify, and not only them, they don’t pay people. And I appreciate the fact that from that people could discover you from another band and, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever. I’ve heard it a million times, but I’m old-school”
“And I know so many people from big bands that since the pandemic have gone, ‘You know what, I’m taking a proper job. So you’ll see me less often, we’ll still be doing albums, but probably once every five years’. And it’s because, music it’s just seen like daylight robbery. If you owned a delicatessen or a fuc**ng supermarket, people can’t allow to just come in and help themselves to free produce, you know, which is what people think they’re entitled to do with music, because it’s a periphery thing and it’s in the air. You can’t physically touch music”
“Speaking for myself, I always saw radio the same way back in the 90s, and so I ended up amassing a personal collection of about 2000 CDs. I’m proud to say that around roughly 10 of them are yours. And I miss the days when there were physical charts,” Dani mused. “But nowadays it’s like a fuc**ng free-for-all all. You figure at some point something’s going to have to give because I do still think there are plenty of people out there who want a metal scene that’s actually intact. Right now, I think the metal scene is probably one of the most, you know, loyal and also one of the most agitated scenes.”
Are there more videos from the album coming soon? Filth gave us the scoop: “We’ve got loads of live shit coming out. ‘To Live Deliciously’, the video for that should be out even next week or the week after. It should have come out two weeks ago with the release of the second single, but unfortunately, it was being filmed in LA at the time of the fires, so it had to evacuate, and it was only actually filmed last week, and I just signed off the edit for it today. And then the third video will come out mid-March”
Watch or listen to Jonathan and Dani‘s conversation below, and remember that for more interviews and other daily content, follow us on Facebook, and Flipboard, or subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified about new content we publish daily.
The Screaming of the Valkyries is available for pre-order now
