When British extreme metal legends CRADLE OF FILTH and American metal titans DEVILDRIVER, two of heavy music’s most iconic and ferocious bands – each with a stellar reputation for incredible live shows – joined forces for a North American tour in 2023 the results were predictably amazing and the synergy undeniable.
Now Australia will finally experience this much lauded team-up in July of this year as the two titans bring full headline sets packed with classics, to deliver a night of unrelenting intensity, theatrical horror, and crushing grooves.
Cradle of Filth, led by the inimitable Dani Filth, continue to reign as the most influential and enduring name in extreme metal. Their reputation as a singular artistic force and as one of the most insanely entertaining live acts metal has ever produced remains unchallenged. Fresh off the success of their acclaimed 14th studio album The Screaming of the Valkyries, the band is ready to unleash their signature blend of blackened gothic metal, orchestral grandeur, and venomous lyricism on Australian fans who in turn rewarded the band with a fully sold-out tour on their last visit.
This week I was lucky enough to be able to sit down and talk to Dani about the upcoming tour – I started by asking him about how his friendship with DevilDriver frontman Dez Fafera first started.
“Well, we met ages ago when he was in Cold Chamber at various awards and shows and stuff – back in the early 90s, maybe late 90s sorry,” Dani explains. “And then more recently we were on tour in America and we had Jinjer in support and he was managing Jinjer at the time and came to the show expressed an interest in managing us. At that time we had this interim manager that was just utter shit so yeah that’s how it came about and yeah, we just hit it off.”
“Plus we liked what he had to offer,” he continues. “It was cool that as a management team him being a musician as well meant that it just sort of cut all the red tape when it comes to things that just should be obvious to a manager on how to look after a band. So, yeah, never looked back since then and it’s been a good now, what, six, seven years?”
That led me to ask what is it that Dani feels makes DevilDriver and Cradle Of Filth such a formidable force when they take to the stage together.
“Well, because we’re not a million miles apart,” he says after thinking for a moment. “You know, maybe different kinds of genres, but it’s not a million miles apart. It’s not like reggae and, you know, the Swedish House Mafia. It’s metal. They may be sort of groove-laden, meat and potatoes metal, and we may be the exotic dessert, but it works very well and the track record has proved that.”
Of course the other thing that has made those shows so special has been the music that Cradle Of Filth has been playing recently. Their last album, The Screaming Of The Valkyries, was an absolute masterpiece and Dani says adding tracks from it to the setlist has been amazing… and there is more to come.
“Well, it’s been great. The audience reactions have been amazing. We did a very busy year last year – touring South America, America, Europe, summer festivals, and yeah, it’s just been overwhelming really. And on the current trajectory, we’ve actually finished writing, well, about to finish writing. We’ve got another day to go and then soon myself and the producer will sit down at my house and go through which tracks we think are working toward the new record and then we’ll be in the studio by the end of this month.”
“That being said the album won’t be released until next year because we’ve got a busy year this year as well,” he quickly adds. “So we’re just continuing on our current upward climb I guess.”
So with such a crazy, busy year how did the band find time to sit down and write new material?
“Well, we’ve done a bit of everything. We’ve specifically finished touring mid-December and I was involved in a movie and more recently than that a duet that I’ve done with another large female artist – but essentially we set these few months since coming back off tour and we had ideas, obviously fledgling ideas already circulating amongst the band. But yeah, we just make time. We’re constantly busy but, you know, you need to work when the devil drives.”
Now to finish it all off Cradle Of Filth are coming to Australia and that is something that Dani cannot wait for.
“Well, it’s gonna be an incredible experience, you know obviously us and Devil Driver. They’ll be local supports as well and they’re going to be an amazing, it’s going to be an amazing experience. Whether you bought tickets or whether you’re planning to buy tickets – I already believe the majority of the shows are way over half sold out already so by my estimates they will sell out. Touring Australia you only generally do five or six shows, unless of course you’re that big that you can like book an extra night, so maybe if they do sell out that may happen but I’m not sure because we are booked in to arrive on a certain day and fly out on another day.”
“But I am very much looking forward to meeting people,” he continues. “I think there’s meet and greets. If there are, we always love meeting people, it’s as much an experience for the band as it is for the audience. So we are kind of in the same uncharted waters of what to expect. I mean, we know the parameters of what we’re doing, what’s going on and whatever, but you know you never can tell. And we always really look forward to it because obviously, you know, logistically we’re based on the other side of the world and it’s not often that we do get to Australia. So it’s a big deal for us as well.”
Cradle Of Filth and DevilDriver hit Australian shores in July.
