Cradle of Filth Update

The following studio update has been posted at the CRADLE OF FILTH website by frontman Dani Filth, although he readily admits it's well out of date at this point in time. BW&BK presents it here purely for entertainment's sake:

"Dear fellow fiends and fiendesses,

Welcome to my studio report from beautiful upstate New York, where, within the Steven King-like surroundings of a quaint little town called Millbrook, I have been laying down vocals for what is our final stage of recording the new album Thornography.

It may seem like the recording of this opus dei has been dragging on a bit, but a small hiatus of a month or so was needed to allow me to recover from an illness I had surreptitiously developed over the past few years, which not only stopped me from singing, but kept me on a yeast-free diet that has seen all mimicry of what is known in the business as the 'Vince Neil chin' evaporate from my once slobbish chops. I actually feel like a new man (I broke the old one) and am now totally fluent in the language of diet and abstinence, having had three months of rice cakes, herbal teas and homeopathic tablets to languish on.

Anyway that whole camaraderie of doctors and dieticians has granted me a more positive outlook on the year, having come out the other side relatively unscathed, which I confess, a month or two ago I was very sceptical of.

But now, amongst the rich, woodland clime of early Summertime upstate New York, in this excellent studio far removed from the hustle and bustle of the city (but near enough to civilisation to warrant shopping trips to the mall and good meals out), the vocals are near-to-fucking-completion.

Thank the stars!

What else to say?

Well, the area is fantastic, the studio actually stands right next to the Alfred Hitchcock estate with it's creepy Bavarian stone gatehouse and 1800 acre forest to pretend to be Fenriz in (this was also where Timothy Leary first introduced LSD when he first rented the place), the quaint little towns of Millbrook, Pleasant Valley and of course, the infamous 'Sleepy Hollow' are all just down the road and there is enough verdant woodland scenery to drown in. I must admit, it is very inspirational.

And it hasn't been that lonely. DRY KILL LOGIC have been using one of the studios for a couple of days to do some work toward their new album and there have been numerable visits from local associates, especially as Paul the owner has a very well stocked licensed bar on the premises (something that is very, very hard to resist in my present non-alcoholic condition, especially with - ye gods, why?- proper Guinness on tap!).

Plus the fact that there is so much to do vocally keeps one preoccupied for much of the time that isn't spent on cooking or sleeping. It's self catering, but there are a few bedrooms as well as a large living room and kitchen in the band house side. Of the two studio rooms, the main room (with it's excellent live room and large control room) reminds me continuously of a cattle ranch (the whole place being built of thick struts of local wood), whilst the second studio (the one we're using to cut the vocals) is decidedly more austere and Victorian, due to it's carriage lamps and floor to ceiling black columns.

Myself and Rob (Caggianno -producer and fellow sufferer) love these studio two rooms so much that we bought a horned bull's head to hang over the mixing console, intended for added atmosphere here in the inner sanctum of aural witchcraft (although it wouldn't go amiss in studio one's cattle ranch either).

Other news to report other than the onset of seclusion and general insanity?

The band have been furiously rehearsing back in England for our forthcoming spate of Summer festivals whilst I have been away singing, the next thing on our radar being the mixing of the album in Derbyshire with Andy Sneap's deft fingers and ears at the helm before jetting out for the belated press trips.

So that's my brief and somewhat late U.S studio report filed. I know it sounds a little boring but I can assure it wasn't. It was a thousand times better than the last few weeks of Lincolnshire with me practically a hermit confined to my bedroom writing poetry like some sad old goth at death's sombre door.

Oops! (I'm thirty three this year. The same age that christ died).

And did I mention the weather out there? The weather was either merciless in it's heavenly downpour or boiling beyond endurance, much like England suddenly became the moment I stepped off the plane back onto proper terror firma.

It gave the whole few weeks an unprecedented holiday vibe, like being away from home back when you were a kid. It was weird but cool. In a weird way.

And ooh, just one last thing to mention before I flutter off because it's funny, although, as you can imagine, it obviously wasn't at the time. Having just been the happy owner of a multi region DVD player that decided to fuck up on me just beyond it's warranty cut-off date, i decided (due to the amount of region 1 films i've bought on tour and having long searched in vain for a new one in the UK), to cleverly buy one from the States at a fraction of the cost and have it shipped home to good ol' Blighty.

Can you imagine my horror then when I smugly plugged it into the back of my telly and the bloody thing blew up right in my face as I hadn't remember the fucking continent voltage difference! A twat of the highest calibre indeed!

Anyway, all the best for a week or two, though in truth we have actually finished the album now, I just haven't been arsed to catch up with my writing. I'll put vein to paper when I get over the end-of-album parties.

Your fiend, free of the hideous Chimera."

Dani

As previously reported, Thornogrpahy will be released on October 16th via Roadrunner. The track list is as follows: 'Under Pregnant Skies She Comes Alive Like Miss Leviathan', 'Dirge Inferno', 'Tonight In Flames', 'Libertina Grimm', 'Byronic Man', 'I Am The Thorn', 'Cemetery And Sundown', 'Lovesick For Mina', 'The Foetus Of A New Day Kicking', 'Rise Of The Pentagram', 'Under Huntress Moon', 'Temptation'.