INTERVIEW 1 

England's #1 black metal band are back with us with a new EP on Cacophonous records and to talk about the band and life...

C=Andres (interviewer)

R=Robin

C: Ok, Rob (bass) let's begin by telling us about how the evil spirit of COF was formed.

R: Well, we started between 1991 and 1992 and the founders of the band were Dani/ Paul/ Darren and John. They recorded their debut demo and I joined the band for their second one playing the guitar; I played for 2 weeks and after that I quit because they were doing well and I was on their path. So later on after the band played with PARADISE LOST and SKYCLAD, John Richard left the band and I was lucky enough to get a phone call from the band asking me to join the band and I was back but this time as a bass player.

We've had a few line-up changes like drummers etc and we then decided to record a 12" for Cacophonous, and during that period the drummer left and Nick (ex-MONOLITH) came in and we did a UK summer tour with EMPEROR and MOURN and that was a few months before EMPEROR released their split LP with ENSLAVED. That was a good experience. I mean here we have these evil spirits from England and we got us evil spirits from England and we got quite well with them. They accepted us as fellow black metallers to say, and that was the way forward!

C: Late last year there were rumors of the band splitting up because of a big line-up change, tell us what really happened

R: Well, Paul Weller (now with BLOOD DIVINE) got married and his wife is having a baby and the other guy Richard, his commitment to the band was low and then Paul and Ben followed suit. The last two formed a project and released an EP through Cacophonous.

C: Where you surprised by the success of "The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh", your debut?

R: Yeah, we were really surprised, I mean I don't know where was the main attraction on that LP, but obviously everyone liked it and we enjoyed recording it. I mean I know I will never forget the time when we went to record the LP. We really worked hard and I guess my favorite tracks are "To Eve.." and & "The Principle..".

C: Compared to a lot of underground bands from the UK, you have been fortunate because you've done some european tours right?

R: Well, you're right, I mean our first european tour was with ANATHEMA before they kicked out Darren White (which I personally think was a fucking seriously bad move!). Later we played Portugal, that was twice and it was good to play out there because I guess Portuguese people don't get a chance to see many bands, but I do think that they have a good international band known as MOONSPELL, we can also say we have a lot of fans there.

C: Ok, tell us about life outside the band?

R: Ok, we don't have a lot of spare time, I have a side project called DECEMBER MOON and we got a deal on Spinefarm records and apart from that we just practice and read a lot, especially Dani!

C: Now tell us about your last EP?

R: It's fucking fast, it's the fastest thing we have ever recorded.

C: What about the cover artwork?

R: The cover artwork is pretty cool; it's an actual photograph of two women, one is an angel and the other one is a vampire, and the vampire is sucking the angel's blood and they get to show their tits which is pretty usual for our front covers!

C: Now you must be ready to release your second LP...

R: Well, I quit the band during that period for about 10 months because of personal problems but our new record company will be financing the reproduction so that way we can go back to the studio and change things that we want to change!

C: If this LP does come out, how many songs are you planning to put on it? How do you write songs?

R: Probably 9 and about 3 keyboard songs in between. For the LP, we all supplied the music, but I mainly came up with the music because I also play guitars. It also depends on the way that the guitars are tuned, I mean some bands tune their guitars a lot and lose a lot of feeling and me for instance, I can create a good feeling by playing open chords!

C: Do you guys compare british black metal to Norwegian?

R: Well, let's just say that the Norwegians got carried away in their own hype and this thing about originality. The original Norwegian sound was influenced by BATHORY, and the likes of EMPEROR and DARK THRONE brought the original Norwegian sound, but the true and only black metal from Norway was that of MAYHEM!

C: Ok, finally describe the future sound of COF...

R: It will remain very english, it will not be very norwegian for sure. Our sound will be more classical and symphonic and I guess that can relate to England!

C: Anything else?

R: I like to say cheers to every fucking shithead who's bootlegged our LP, you really are fucking sick!

INTERVIEW 2 

Determined to break Dog Eat Dog's drinking record, Suffolk's Cradle Of Filth succeeded in knocking back more than a respectable amount of booze. Clocking up about £400 worth of damage behind the bar (thankfully they weren't paying!), the majority of the band remained lucid enough to enlighten us on CoF's unique approach to their music, their corresponding lifestyle, and plans for '96.

Round One Topic: The Concept behind the 'Vempire' EP

Dani:We are gradually drawing towards a millennium and the world is coming to an end, so we were trying to elaborate on that. Our record is like the millennial armageddon in musical form.

Stuart:We have four years left if we're lucky, so you might as well get it all done whilst you can.

Round Two Topic: What is the message of Cradle Of Filth?

Dani:There is no real message. As people we adhere to dark gothic music and the atmospheres which correspond. Everything is dark and ambient. We are just totally besotted by vampiric literature, art and music. Basically, we love everything that is not normality.

Have you had any experiences with vampiric groups?

Dani:Certainly, but we don't adhere to their practices as we believe what they do is too normal. Most of the societies are faint replicants of satanic societies. If we name any of these societies we will bring them in to disrepute. Some of them are totally fake and just ponce about with a bit of make-up on. They just believe in re-enacting stories by authors like Bram Stoker rather than believing in the actual myth. Stuart:The vampire can just be a metaphor; we don't actually go and rip people's throats out.

Have you ever drunk blood?

Dani:Yes, I have. It wasn't part of a vampiric society but part of a satanic society. That was part of the ceremony which qualified me as a believer. Most people would say that drinking blood would lead to something like HIV or various diseases, but we took it as being a stand against society. It was my own blood, which was produced by slashing my arm with a sabre. It was a sacrificial thing pertaining to pagan gods.

Is is necessary to go to those extremes?

Dani:Yes, of course it is, because everything today is geared towards modern beliefs. Kids today focus on computer games like DooM II or watch films like Excalibur, which is nothing like the legend behind it. We actually want to do the real thing and spill blood.

Round Three Topic: Living the life, as opposed to just the image of the music.

Dani:We are what we are, and want people to see how we are as a band. The ironic thing is that a lot of people believe that COF is a pseudonym for something that isn't real. The truth is that COF is real, and people wouldn't believe how we live.

It actually has nothing to do with the music, really. What it does have to do with is our beliefs in occultism. I joined various sects and societies because I believed in it, and living out in the countryside I felt the essence of everything that was pertaining to the dark nature of COF.

Nicholas:I'm from fucking Sheffield, and I could see the opportunity with this awesome band when I joined, and now I'm such a part of it. Where we live it has an aura of its own. It's so fucking old and there has been so much shit that has gone down. It's hard to believe that only 200 years ago they were burning witches there in the market square where we live.

Dani:People would not believe how much I adhere to this lifestyle. I take whatever drugs are necessary (LSD) to transcend into an altered state in the comfort of my home. Which is exactly how you would perceive Castle Dracula to be. We live in a 16th century house with beams, cobwebs, blood-red curtains and cats everywhere.

Round Four Topic: Erotic imagery of women on album covers

Dani:It is women pertaining to vice over virtue. Woman are the downfall of mankind. Pre-renaissance art has always portrayed women semi-naked because they are beautiful.

The blood is to do with original sin and symbolises menstruation and the need for blood, which is life. Women are so much stronger than men. They will become the dominant species. When we indulge in erotic activities, this is the way we see women.

Round Five Topic: Changing line-ups

Dani:We don't go through loads of guitarists, we lost two because they weren't fit for the standard of the band. Unfortunately Brian (ex-Brutality) had an operation, and we were left with no other choice but to get another as we were in the studio when it happened. We've never replaced Paul Allander, but Paul Ryan was replaced easily. Paul Allander was replaced by row upon row of studio guitarists who had other commitments so couldn't join full time. We are still looking for a second member.

Round Six Topic: Music to have sex by

Dani:Soundtracks. Dracula, Stravinsky, Frankenstein and classical music. Nicholas:Danzig, or the Damien, Omen II soundtrack, as there is so much drama. in it that builds up to a climax.

Damien:I couldn't make love to anything like Wagner. The Mission is more like a nostalgic thing as it was my first time.

After leaving the pub, guitarist Robin was so wretchedly drunk that he collapsed and was sick in the middle of a busy tube on the return journey to Liverpool Street. Regaining his composure to the extent of being able to stumble about aimlessly, he disappeared from Nick and Damien (whom he had gotten lost with), and wasn't seen again until 4am when he arrived back in Ipswich in a cab.

Apparently he'd stumbled around London for a couple of hours until he found Liverpool Street station again, and eventually fell onto a train which he thought was going to Colchester. Next thing he knew, he was waking up at 2am in Southend on the last train. The taxi fare back was a stupendous £65!!

He managed to lose his belt, most of his jewellery, everybody else and, believe it or not, one of his shoes. Not a bad effort, eh?

TONIGHT'S BAR TAB

NICK = double vodka (x6), mules (x6), bottle vodka (x1/2)

ROBIN = snakebite with port (x1), snakebite with creme de menthe (x1), double scotch whiskey (x4), vodka slammer (x1)

DANI = pernod and black (x11), cranberry charge (x2), bloody mary (x1), triple port (x1), bottle of vodka (x1/2)

STUART = cranberry charge (x7), triple port (x3), vodka slammer (x1)

DAMIEN = double scotch/ginger (x14), triple scotch (x1), triple vodka (x3)

INTERVIEW 3 

Cradle of Filth is already legend in their own unlifetime. The biggest blackmetal band in Britain, they have become a rallying point for the lost and outcast, their 'Supreme Vampyric Evil' seducing much of the underground. Now, with their first recording in two years, the 'Vempire' mini album, Nick Terry invites the band in and finds out why this is one band advocating a 'darker love'.

I AM LEGEND:

'We were looking forward to this interview' says Nicholas, 'if only because so much bullshit and so many rumours have been going round about us that it's an opportunity to set the record straight.'

Indeed. Cradle of Filth are that rare nocturnal creature within the extreme music scene, a veritable legend. Flick through the Terrorizer personal classified's and you won't find another band which receives so many mentions, whether from those wanting to start bands, from the legions of lonelyhearts and penpals. It seems that everyone now either wants to sound like them, or fuck to them. They've become that important, and all without having released a record in two years. Part of that delay has been well-chronicled in the press, but it's probably best to let the band's satanically elfin singer Dani explain...

'We've had a year and a half of total shit, where we've had managers, record companies, ex-members...sorry to use the term, but basically vampires sucking our blood. It's totally ironic, but now all this has been sorted out, we kicked out the manager and told him where to stick his fucking job, ex-members are geting their comeuppance, and the dispute with the record company is at an end. Everything's falling into place, but it's been a harrowing time for us.

'

It can be hard to live up to a legend, especially when the absence of everything but the live shows leaves the racks empty of new recorded material, but Cradle of Filth's second release, a mini-album entitled 'Vempire', more than lives up to said myth/mania. With half the old line-up out on it's ear, it features a new keyboardist, the irish and incredibly loquacious Damien, new permanent guitarist Stuart, and a second, temporary session guitarist Jared.

More focused than 'The Principle of Evil Made Flesh', the band's now somewhat aged debut, it's richer in almost every department. More about that later.

'Well, one of the reasons we haven't had a release over the last year and a half is because we've been in legal dire straits with our label.' Dani continues. 'The reason that this EP is out through Cacophonous although we've stated in the past that they should eat their own excrement, etc etc is that it seemed a fitting end to this legal situation. As a compromise, we'd release the EP in the event that 'Dusk...' would be our property and we could take it and sell it to whatever company we deemed fit, which we are doing now. Saying that, there's no intention to release substandard material, because everything we do goes out to the people that matter. We did spend a lot of time on it.' Hmmm... 'If the people reading the magazine, the other bands, the whole scene, anybody who cared thinks that Cradle of Filth has been or from this point onwards is going about some commercial entity,'

Damien interjects, 'then they're really sadly mistaken.' Well, I suppose we'd better not be mistaken.'

'If anybody reading this magazine believes that magic works, yeah, that magic is a true spiritual force,' continues Dani, 'and I'm not going to say whether it does or not, then our band is a very dangerous band to be in. Also, actually in terms of physically encroaching on our territory, if that works as well, people should be scared of our band.'

NORWAY - NULL POINTS:

As the biggest band in Britain labelled Black Metal, Cradle of Filth's rise to infamy has paralleled the Scandanavian not to mention European-wide-explosion in occultist, nordic, dark, or satanic metal. In some respects, 'Vempire' stays true - that ever popular word within the scene - to the musical script, but not at the expense of quality experimentation. But 'Vempire' is also many more things: an astonishingly fluid, alsomst death metal guitar record, with it's plethora of riffs drawn from all eras of extreme music; a symphonic rendition of Hammer Horror films, thanks to Damien's ultra-gothic keyboard playing; a collection of epic love stories. This is a band, that, like everyone else, grew up on 'thrash metal and farley's rusks', but also one that's delved elsewhere for it's dark inspirations, into classical, harcore, and especially Goth. Unsurprisingly, Cradle of Filth are not over-enamoured with the Scandanavian blackmetal sausage factory.

After the interview, Dani hands me the crib sheet he's prepared for the interview, and down in the corner, there's the pithy comment 'Norway: nil point'. 'I know it's very hip that if you're involved in a certain scene to say, oh, I never listen to it,' Damien acidly observes, 'but the people who say that are just plain lying. Of course we listen to Black Metal, but only the quality stuff.' 'A lot of these new bands though, that's all that they listen to', drummer Nick adds, 'You can see that in their music. I think that a lot of them are just living in Fantasyland too. A lot of them are sucking up to Burzum, because of what he's done, he's like their idol.'

'But that whole thing was good in one respect,' Dani says, 'because it actually proved that music can still have a disastrous effect on people, that it has relevance and importance in life. The only people I admire are the people who go out and do things, not the people who take photos of themselves, then go home and say, Mum, will you wash this for me. They are the only things that will be remembered through history.' Dani picks up a leaflet on the pub table, for a guided tour of the Jack The Ripper murder sites. 'This is a perfect example. If the Count has murdered five people, this is what would have happened a hundred years from now. I sincerely believe that as much as I think that the guy is screwed in the head, what he did was actually a good thing, and I'll stand by that, because it would have been him or the other guy. I wouldn't have chosen to go to prison, but I would've chosen to end the other guy's life rather than mine. '

BLOODY KISSES:

Considering their well-known infatuation with the Vampire myth, we shouldn't be so shocked. After all, here's a legend where killing is both central and sensual, passionate and amoral. Taking the 'T' out of Immortal isn't so difficult after all.

DANI: 'I think that Carole Borland, who acted in 'Dracula's Daughter' with Bela Lugosi actually stated that the best thing about vampirism is it represents a dark enigma, so women can be fascinated by men, and be totally dominated by that man, but it's got nothing to do with sex. It isn't actually a man, it's the epitome of evil. This is some kind of dark sensuality that they can get into, they can be spiritually raped without risk. She was so attracted to the dark sensuality of this one guy, it was just such a powerful metaphor.'

Incidentally, in his notes DANI talks of 'venerating woman as original sin, and therefore, the reason for man straying from god.' I didn't know there was such a thing as Satanic feminism, but here it is...

'The reason why people are attracted to vampirism,' he continues,'the main thing is life eternal. You could be 18 for the rest of your life, well, it speaks for itself, in volumes. It's also the history of it for us, it's not just the vampire legacy, because these days people don't just explore how it transcended, they go back to Bram Stoker and see where his literary influences come from, and when they referred back to historical figures such as Elizabeth Bathory, Gilles De Rais, Peter Kurten, and Vlad Tepes. We enjoy the romanticism of it, the fact that we've taken this primordial creature who scurries around the sarcophagi and feasts from the dead, they've vampirised it, so to speak, into a romantic character that has taken every facet of human emotions and learned to utilise the suppressed sexuality of Victorian England, where it'd take half an hour to find out what was beneath a woman's clothes, and this tall, dark, attractive stranger can come along and seduce her. Because of the things that Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee had said in the past, like 'Ah, listen to them', that was a coined phrase, it wasn't in the book.