‘Up for the chaos’: Cradle of Filth plot out their Australian Invasion

Metal icons Cradle of Filth have just landed in Australia and are ready to tour the country celebrating the release of their ‘Best Of’ live album, Trouble & Their Double. Alongside new tracks from their latest album, Existence is Futile, they’re also bringing Moldovan band Infected Rain on their inaugural Australian tour, with tickets on sale now. Ahead of their first show at Metropolis Fremantle on Tuesday, September 24, BRAYDEN EDWARDS sat down with frontman Dani Filth to discuss what fans can expect from the live set, future album plans and more.

It’s great to have you back in the country for this Australian Invasion tour! What are you looking forward to most about heading down under and being the first stop on the tour, Perth in particular?

Thank you! Firstly, I guess stepping off the 22-hour Long Qantas Airlines flight and stretching my slowly rotting legs!

Secondly, the vibe. I really like Perth and have had some great times there; eating, drinking and sightseeing.

One of my best friends here in England is originally from Perth, so she always brings back good vibes when she returns from visiting her friends and family. And of course, Fremantle is the birthplace of the infamous Bon Scott!

There have been a few band members come and go since you last visited five years ago. Apart from being a world-class muso, what else does it take to be part of Cradle of Filth? And what do these new members bring to the group?

Just the two members departed our ranks, and these were due to general incompatibility, which is one of the contributing factors to being in this band, aside from the level of musicianship.

Just as importantly, members should be fun to hang around with: kind, respectful, loving, slightly kooky, fiercely creative, and up for the chaos and carnage that a life on the road entails.

You’re arriving on the back of your 2021 album, Existence is Futile, and last year’s live album Trouble and Their Double Lives. As a band that has released so many albums and performed so many shows, how did you go about selecting what makes it onto a live album?

With great difficulty, trust me! It was our first live album in nigh on twenty-two years, so it was even harder! We also decided to put two new tracks on there as well to showcase the direction the band was heading towards at the time and to satiate the new fans that might’ve picked up the release from hearing the She Is a Fire single.

The album was concocted of songs that hadn’t appeared on live albums before, fan favourites, and band essentials amid a few rarer tracks not usually aired.

You will be joined by Moldovan act Infected Rain on their first tour of Australia. What made them a great fit to tour with Cradle of Filth?

Because Infected Rain are an awesome fucking band, full of energy, great catchy heavy songs, and live theatricality!

Your new album has been in the works for a little while now. What’s still to be done on the record, and when can we expect it to land? 

The album is finished, and the first single will be released on October 22nd, just in time for Halloween season!

The reason the album took a while is partly due to integrating the two new members and the fact that we were interrupting the recording sessions constantly with tours and festival appearances. Plus, the producer Scott Atkin’s girlfriend had a baby girl just before Christmas arrived.

How would you say the new music is different from what we’ve heard from you before, and will that shape the live set that we’re getting in Australia? 

Well, for a start, the new album is full of different songs! I find that very important for releasing a new album!

Seriously though, it’s a fresher hybrid of the Cradle of Filth people have come to know and love, with a good mixture of very catchy necrotic tracks and more ornate, lengthier brutality.

The Australian setlist isn’t affected—or should that be ‘infected’?—by new songs; instead, we will be concentrating on a setlist based on both the Existence Is Futile and Trouble And Their Double Lives musical excretions.