Cradle Of Filth hint at 'Victorian horror' theme for next album

Cradle Of Filth give us a sneak preview of their studio sessions in Brno
Cradle Of Filth give us a sneak preview of their studio sessions in Brno

Cradle Of Filth’s Dani Filth says they’re looking at a Victorian horror theme for their next album.

The band are currently in the studio in Brno, Czech Republic, working on the follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed Hammer Of The Witches.

He tells TeamRock: “I’m looking at something based on Victorian horror. We’ve already written about 50% of material, but we’re collating all our ideas. We’ve got a big pool of riffs.

“I often wait until the others have done their parts. I’ve made the mistake of writing stuff which then dictates the way that the songs have to go for everybody else – or you get into the studio and we’ve got way too much material and we’ve spread ourselves too thinly.

“So we’re hoping to have the majority of the album written, and then I’ll be locked away in my garret composing lyrics between now and December, when I go on tour with Devilment.”

Filth continues: “I’ve grown up on Victorian horror and ghost stories written by remarkable people. There are hundreds of them – even Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a collection of really good ghost stories. I’ve got a feel for that from the music that’s already been written.”

Though Filth says the as-yet-untitled release won’t be a concept record like its 2015 predecessor, he says they’re “experimenting” with new musical elements to help with storytelling.

He adds: “We’re actually looking at using a child’s choir. It can be really haunting if you’ve ever heard stuff like Candyman, or someone’s done Phantom Of The Opera stuff with child choirs – and the An Interview With A Vampire soundtrack. The music is great – apart from the Guns N’ Roses song tacked on at the end!”

Meanwhile, Filth recently announced his other band Devilment are putting the finishing touches on their forthcoming album before their UK trek in December.

Famous Firsts: Cradle Of Filth

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.