Photo by Roberto Diaz

If you’re Dani Filth, all you have to do to get inspired for a new Cradle of Filth record is look out the window.

“Inspiration comes from everything. It's continuous, a perpetual thing. There's no short supply of artistic things like cinema and theater, music, books. Everything that’s going on in the world, the people I'm talking to, nature.

“Everything inspires.”

30-some odd years since the first Cradle demos crawled out of the primordial void, their 14th studio album The Screaming of the Valkyries is a masterclass in extreme and melodic gravitas. It’s a modern capsulation of the Cradle of Filth sound in 2025, while honoring the legacy forged across over a dozen records.

Longtime Cradle fans will be able to hear songs that could’ve easily fit on albums like Midian, Cruelty & the Beast, or Damnation and a Day, while still being surprised and excited at the brand new offering laid before them.

That was by design from the get go.

“The remit was — literally — let's write a shorn down album,” Filth says. “Fuck off the special edition — because people just moan about it being too long anyway — and any sort of bonus tracks you have to give to Australia or Japan, and just deliver an album like they used to in the good old days. It’ll just be full of memorable, catchy songs. it can be extreme, or slow, tragic, and melancholic, or it could be a mixture. Just make it memorable.

“That was our modus operandi for this record.”

***

In mythology, Valkyries are the last defenders of Heaven before Ragnorok. If one were to hear their screams, it means they’ve failed, the end is imminent and all hope is lost.

“It’s almost like a metaphor for being close to midnight on the doomsday clock,” Filth says. “As if you were gazing at an atom bomb going off, and saw that blinding flash that would signify everything's gone. This is it. This is the end. It's the cusp of a cataclysmic disaster.”

But in contrast to 2021’s Existence is Futile, which had several songs reveling in different apocalyptic fantasies, The Screaming of the Valkyries is not another doomsday record. In fact, the lyrics tend to settle back into the more “occult escapism” Cradle is known for. That’s not to say that the real world doesn’t filter onto the record, though.

“Obviously what's going on in the world now can't help but filter through,” he says. “Ukraine and Russia. Palestine and Israel. You got North Korea and China goading Taiwan. Trump and what he's going to do. You couldn’t help but be slightly swayed by that.”

But overall, the music told him what the songs were going to be about.

“This album was very personal. A lot of the (lyrical content) came from when I heard the songs, or the nucleus of the songs when they were at their embryonic stages. I knew almost what they were going to be about from the word go.

Songs like “Nom Omnis Moriar,” “Ex Sanguine Draculae” and “Malignant Perfection” revealed themselves almost immediately, allowing him to pursue the themes gestating in the music with focus and without overthinking.

“I just wanted to celebrate lyricism by not being too deep about things,” he says. “Revisiting the whole thesis of vampirism on a couple of tracks. Celebration of life, celebration of death as well. ‘Malignant Perfection’ is all about Samhain and All Hallows Eve with nods to current affairs, I suppose.”

Album opener and single “To Live Deliciously” immediately sets the tone, a statement about embracing life and treating others how you want to be treated.

“Life is too short,” he says. “Just get on with it, but with respect for others, and basically following the mantra, ‘Don't be a cunt.’ A celebratory track for the first song on the album.”

“When Misery Was a Stranger” – which references the title – ends on a sort of hopeful note, according to Filth. In it, the cataclysm has already occurred, and serves as a warning, albeit perhaps a futile one.

“We’re not quiet (there) yet, so we still have time to put the brakes on. It doesn't seem like that’s happening, but that’s the theory.”

***

The Screaming of the Valkyries also marks the first appearance of keyboardist and female vocalist Zoe Marie Federoff and guitarist Donny Burbage on a Cradle of Filth record. But having toured relentlessly for nearly three years, neither are “new” to the band anymore and have already experienced the vicious vortex of Cradle’s schedule.

“They had a very quick baptism of fire in joining the band,” Filth says. “When you join, you're forced to wear many, many hats.”

Filth praises how they brought a different perspective for what Cradle of Filth is and can be. They both discovered the band around the Midian era, and bits of their musical past leak onto the record.

“They were fans before, so I think that they bring a different angle, you know? It's us, but through a different prism. They definitely bring a character to the band, which is also important. Character and a youthful vigor.”

Reaching back into their own legacy is important for Cradle of Filth. Extreme music wouldn’t be the same without them, and Filth wants to keep moving the music forward while honoring the sound that got them to where they are.

“I don't think you can self plagiarize. If that's a crime, then there are so many very famous bands that are guilty of that. I don't see anything wrong with it, if you've created a sound and you harken back to it. You don’t want to betray that. ”

As a music fan himself, Filth has never liked it when bands stray from the identity that made him love the music in the first place.

“I want [my favorite bands] to experiment, but I don’t want them to experiment too much,” he says. “If they’ve got something you love about them, that’s their ingredient. Bad Religion is one of my favorite bands. They tend to try and experiment and it’s not as good as when they just go full force. That’s what you want, you know? What it says on the tin.”

Even the harrowing and grotesque gothic renaissance artwork by Roberto Diaz feels Cradle to its core. Filth sent Diaz the album’s lyrics and asked him to create his own interpretation of what that would look like. The result not only jumps off the record shelf (or streaming page) but extends throughout the physical booklet, giving a whole new life to the songs.

“He's just got a unique style,” Filth says. “It's like a photo montage and then illustration on top of that. I love the cover because it's just got that vibe that you'd find at the Prado in Madrid. It looks like something just hewn from an art gallery.”

***

With inspiration comes ambition, and Cradle of Filth aren’t content to rest on their laurels woven across three decades. They want to be at the peak of their artistic output and have people foaming at the mouth in anticipation of what the band does next.

“We've got so many great things ahead of us,” he says. “We've got great management (Dez and Anahstasia Fafara) steering the ship. We've got great crew, great people around the band and in the periphery working for us. These are things that can only happen once you've been in a band while and trodden that yellow shit road for so long. You gravitate towards cool people and we have a very strong family-like connection.”

That familial connection extends to the army of Cradle of Filth fans that have conscripted themselves into Filth’s nightmare circus at any point across their 14 albums. Filth hopes The Screaming of the Valkyries resonates with them as much as it does with new fans.

“I want some of the songs to become like earworms. That they go, ‘Fuck! I just wish I couldn't hear that anymore!’”

He grins his cheeky grin, then gets serious.

“No, mainly I hope they come away enjoying it. That’s the main thing, innit? That’s the purpose of the record. But I don't want it to be just another album. I want people – especially our fans, obviously, that gravitate toward it more – that it is something they're very proud of.”

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The Screaming of the Valkyries arrives March 21 via Napalm Records - HERE