CRADLE OF FILTH (part 1)

Cradle of Filth are a heavy metal band formed in Suffolk, England in 1991. They have been embraced and disowned with equal fervour by various metal communities, and their particular subgenre has provoked a great deal of discussion. The band's sound evolved from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, Symphonic black metal and other extreme metal styles, while their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily influenced by gothic literature, poetry, mythology and horror films. The band have successfully broken free of their original niche by courting mainstream publicity (often to the chagrin of its early fanbase), and this increased accessibility has brought coverage by the likes of ''Kerrang!'' and MTV, frequent main stage appearances at major festivals such as Ozzfest and Download Festival, and in turn a more "commercial" image. They have sometimes been perceived as satanic by casual observers, although their outright lyrical references to satanism are few and far between, and use of satanic imagery has arguably always had more to do with the shock value than any seriously-held beliefs. According to ''Metal Hammer'' magazine, they are the most successful British metal band since Iron Maiden.

Cradle's first three years saw three demos and a rehearsal tape recorded amidst the sort of rapid line-up fluctuations that have continued ever since (Cradle has generally had around half a dozen members at any one time, but can boast more than twenty musicians in its history). The band also recorded an unreleased album entitled 'Goetia' prior to the third demo and their style shift, which was set for release on Tombstone records. Tombstone unfortunately went bust and couldn't afford to buy the recordings from the studio and all tracks were wiped. The band eventually signed to Cacophonous Records and their debut album, ''The Principle of Evil Made Flesh'', was also Cacophonous's first release in 1994. A step up in terms of production from the rehearsal quality of most of their demos, the album was still nevertheless a sparse and embryonic version of what was to come, with lead singer Dani Filth's vocals in particular bearing little similarity to the style he was later to develop. The album was well-received however, and as recently as June 2006 found its way into Metal Hammer's list of the top ten black metal albums of the last twenty years.

Cradle's relationship with Cacophonous soon soured; the band accusing the label of contractual and financial mismanagement. Acrimonious legal proceedings took up most of 1995, and the band finally signed to Music for Nations in 1996 after only one more contractually obligated Cacophonous recording: the EP ''Vempire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein'' which, it has since been conceded, was hastily written as a Cacophonous escape-plan. Despite the circumstances of its release however, its handful of tracks are staples of the band's live sets to this day, and "Queen of Winter, Throned" was listed among twenty-five "essential extreme metal anthems" in a 2006 issue of ''Kerrang!'' magazine. The EP also marked Sarah Jezebel Deva's debut with the band, replacing Andrea Meyer; Cradle's first female vocalist and self-styled "satanic advisor". Deva has appeared on every subsequent Cradle release and tour, but has never been considered a full band member, having also performed with The Kovenant, Therion and Mortiis, and fronted her own Angtoria project along with Cradle's current bass player, Dave Pybus.

''Dusk...and Her Embrace'' followed the same year: a critically acclaimed breakthrough album that greatly expanded the band's fan-base throughout Europe and the rest of the world. A concept album of sorts based generally on vampirism and specifically (though loosely) on the writing of Sheridan Le Fanu, Cradle's inaugural album for Music for Nations set the tone for what was to follow. The album's production values matched the band's ambition for the first time, whilst Dani's vocal gymnastics were at their most extreme.

The increasingly theatrical stage shows of the 1997 European tour helped keep Cradle in the public eye, as did a burgeoning line of controversial merchandise; not least the notorious t-shirt depicting a masturbating nun on the front and the slogan "Jesus is a cunt" in large letters on the back. A handful of fans have faced court appearances and fines for wearing the shirt in public, and some band members themselves attracted a certain amount of hostile attention when they wore similar "I Love Satan" shirts to the Vatican. Alex Mosson, the Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1999-2003, called the shirts (and by implication the band) "sick and offensive". The band obviously approved, using the quote on the back cover of the 2005 DVD ''Peace Through Superior Firepower''.

CRADLE OF FILTH (part 2)

In 1998, Dani began his longrunning "Dani's Inferno" column for ''Metal Hammer'', and the band appeared in the BBC documentary series ''Living With the Enemy'' (on tour with a fan and his disapproving mother and sister) and released its third full-length album ''Cruelty and the Beast''. A fully-realised concept album based on the legend of the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Bathory, the album boasted the casting coup of Ingrid Pitt providing guest narration as the Countess: a role she first played in Hammer's 1971 film ''Countess Dracula''. The album led to Cradle's U.S debut, and Dani claimed it in 2003 as the Cradle album of which he was most proud, although he conceded dissatisfaction with its sound quality.

The following year the band continued primarily to tour, but did release its first music video, ''PanDaemonAeon'', and an accompanying EP, ''From the Cradle to Enslave'', featuring the music from the production. Replete with graphic nudity and gore, the video was directed by Alex Chandon, who would go on to produce further Cradle promo clips and DVD documentaries, as well as the full-length feature film ''Cradle of Fear''.

The band released their fourth full-length studio album on Hallowe'en, 2000. ''Midian'' was based around the Clive Barker novel ''Cabal'' and its subsequent film adaptation ''Nightbreed''.Like ''Cruelty and the Beast'', ''Midian'' featured a guest narrator, this time Doug Bradley, who starred in ''Nightbreed'' but remains best known for playing Pinhead in the ''Hellraiser'' films. Bradley's line "Oh, no tears please" from the song "Her Ghost in the Fog" is a quote of Pinhead's from the first ''Hellraiser'' ("No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering...") and Bradley would reappear on later albums ''Nymphetamine'' and ''Thornography''. The video for "Her Ghost in the Fog" received heavy rotation on MTV2 and other metal channels, and the track also found its way onto the soundtrack of the werewolf movie ''Ginger Snaps''. ''Midian'' created a rift in fan opinion which has only increased with time: whilst taking the band to new heights of commercial popularity, it also provoked cries of "sell-out" from die-hard fans of the early albums.

The longest-ever interim period between full-length Cradle albums was nevertheless a busy time for the band. ''Bitter Suites to Succubi'' was released on the band’s own "Abracadaver" label, and was a mixture of four new songs, re-recordings of three songs from ''The Principle of Evil Made Flesh'', two instrumental tracks, and a cover of The Sisters of Mercy's "No Time To Cry." Stylistically similar to ''Midian'', the album is unique among Cradle albums in featuring exactly the same band members as its predecessor, but is generally regarded as an EP and often overlooked in the band's canon. Further stop-gap releases followed in the form of the "best of" package ''Lovecraft and Witch Hearts'' and a live album; ''Live Bait for the Dead''. Finally, the band (principally Dani) also found time to appear in ''Cradle of Fear'' while they negotiated their first major-label signing with Sony Music.

''Damnation and a Day'' arrived in 2003; Sony's heavyweight funding underwriting Cradle's undiminished ambition by finally bringing a real orchestra into the studio (the 80-strong Budapest Film Orchestra and Choir replacing the increasingly sophisticated synthesisers of previous albums) and thus marking the band's belated gestation - for one album only - into full-blown symphonic metal. ''Damnation'' featured the band’s most complex compositions to date, outran its predecessors by a good twenty minutes, and produced two more popular videos: the Švankmajer-influenced ''Mannequin'', and ''Babalon AD (So Glad For The Madness)'', based on Pasolini's infamous ''Salò''. Roughly half the album trod the conceptual territory of John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'' - showing the events of the Fall of Man through the eyes of Lucifer - while the remainder comprised stand-alone tracks such as the Nile tribute "Doberman Pharaoh" and the aforementioned "Babalon AD"; a reference to Aleister Crowley. "Babalon AD" was the first DVD-only single to reach the U.K. top 40, according to the ''Guinness Book of Records of British Hit Singles and Albums''. Feeling that Sony's enthusiasm quickly palled however, Cradle jumped ship to Roadrunner Records after barely a year.

2004's ''Nymphetamine'' was the band's first full album since ''The Principle of Evil Made Flesh'' to not be based around any sort of overarching concept (although references to the works of H. P. Lovecraft are made more than once). Cradle's bassist Dave Pybus described it as an "eclectic mix between the group's ''Damnation'' and ''Cruelty'' albums with a renewed vigour for melody, songmanship sic and plain fucking weirdness spat into the smelting bowl." Cradle's growing acceptance by the mainstream was confirmed when the album's title track was nominated for a Grammy award, but the band's cover version of Cliff Richard's "Devil Woman" for the ''Nymphetamine'' special edition did little to convince its detractors of the band's integrity.

CRADLE OF FILTH (part 3)

The band's most recent album, ''Thornography'', was released in October 2006. According to Dani Filth, the title "represents mankind's obsession with sin and self... An addiction to self-punishment or something equally poisonous... A mania." On the subject of the album's musical direction, Filth told ''Revolver'' magazine, "I'm not saying it's 'experimental', but we're definitely testing the limits of what we can do... A lot of the songs are really rhythmical - thrash metal, almost - but they're all also really catchy." A flurry of pre-release controversy saw Samuel Araya's original cover artwork scrapped and replaced in May 2006, although numerous CD booklets had already been printed with the original image. ''Thornography'' received a similar reception to ''Nymphetamine'', garnering generally positive reviews, but raising a few eyebrows with the inclusion of a cover of Heaven 17's "Temptation". (featuring guest vocals from Dirty Harry), which was released as a digital single and accompanying video shortly before the album.

Long-term drummer Adrian Erlandsson departed the band in November 2006. According to an official Roadrunner press release, Erlandsson left with the intention of devoting his energies to his two side projects Needleye and Nemhain: "I have enjoyed my time with Cradle but it is now time to move on. I feel I am going out on a high as ''Thornography'' is definitely our best album to date". On July 1st, 2007, the German band Samsas Traum stated that Erlandsson would be playing drums on the new album, ''Heiliges Herz—Das Schwert der Sonne'', and its subsequent tour.

The band's official message boards recently revealed parts of an interview with Paul Allender, conducted by MédiaMatinQuébec: "We already have four new songs ready and I have to say that they are... much faster than the songs on ''Thornography''. They sound like old Cradle of Filth..."

Cradle of Filth's first three demos bore a death metal feel, with occasional symphonic elements. However, when they released their fourth demo, ''Total Fucking Darkness'', their genre became more akin to black metal. Their "true" black metal status however, has been in debate since near the time they became popular. Dani, in a 1998 interview for BBC Radio 5 for example, said "I use the term heavy metal, rather than black metal, because I think that's a bit of a fad now. Call it what you like: death metal, black metal, any kind of metal...", while Gavin Baddeley's 2006 ''Terrorizer'' interview states that "few folk, the band included, call Cradle black metal these days."

Their format differs from most black metal, and they have thus, at one time or another, been labeled symphonic black metal; extreme gothic metal; melodic black metal; satanic metal; vampyric metal; speed metal; death metal; brutal death metal; melodic death metal; horror metal; and dark metal, some of which are regarded by critics and fans alike as entirely apocryphal categories.



However, the band's evolving sound has allowed them to continue resisting definitive categorisation. They are audibly influenced by Iron Maiden, have collaborated on projects like Christian Death's ''Born Again Anti-Christian'' album (on the track "Peek-A-Boo"), and have even dabbled outside of metal music with dance remixes ("Twisting Further Nails", "Pervert's Church" etc), although these have fallen by the wayside in recent years. In a 2006 interview with ''Terrorizer'' magazine, current guitarist Paul Allender said "We were never a black metal band. The only thing that catered to that was the corpse paint. Even when ''The Principle of Evil Made Flesh'' came out — you look at Emperor and Burzum and all that stuff — we didn't sound anything like that. The way that I see it is that we were, and still are now, an extreme metal band."

Appearing on the BBC music quiz ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' on April 9 2001, Dani jokingly claimed Cradle's sound as "heavy funk", and in an October 2006 interview stated "We'd rather be known as solely 'Cradle of Filth', I think, rather than be hampered by stupid genre barriers."

The band has issued the following update:

"The world tour for the 'Thornography' album, which last saw COF in Russia, Ukraine, UK, Romania, Slovakia and North America with GWAR is now complete. The band has now returned home to start writing for a new record over the dark months in the rehearsal room. The new album, which is not yet titled, will be released some time in 2008 via Roadrunner Records."

DANI FILTH (CRADLE OF FILTH)

Dani Filth (born '''Daniel Lloyd Davey''' on July 25, 1973 in Hertford, England) is the lyricist, vocalist and founding member of the British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth.

Dani was born to '''Susan Janet Moore''' and '''Lawrence John Davey''' and is the oldest child of four. Dani has two sisters; Amanda (b. 1975) and Rachel (b. 1978); and a brother, Phillip (b.1981).

His earliest bands were Carnival Fruitcake, The Lemon Grove Kids, PDA and Feast of Excrement,and he named Judas Priest, Venom (band), Emperor (band), Destruction (band), Iron Maiden, Sabbat, Misfits, Paradise Lost and Tim Burton]]'s ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' among his major influences. At the age of eighteen, Filth took up a job at a Chinese restaurant. He later chose his career in music over an internship at a newspaper, although his "Dani's Inferno" column ran for two years in ''Metal Hammer'' during the late 1990s.

Cradle had no actual proper record deal (barring an abortive relationship with Tombstone Records) until 1994, when their first album, ''The Principle of Evil Made Flesh'' was released by Cacophonous. Filth is one of the only two remaining members of the band's original line-up.

He married his girlfriend of 14 years, Toni, on October 31, 2005 in Ipswich, and the two share a daughter, Luna Scarlett (b. February 8, 1999).

He lives in Suffolk, England and is currently working on co-writing ''The Gospel of Filth'' with Gavin Baddeley.

Away from Cradle, Dani appeared on the ''Roadrunner United'' CD in 2005 (contributing vocals to "Dawn of a Golden Age"), and his high profile has also led to a handful of film and television roles. In 2000 he appeared in the movie ''Cradle of Fear'' as The Man - a deranged psychopath taking revenge on his father's persecutors - and in 2003 he provided the voice of the eponymous main character in the feature-length animation ''Dominator''. He also appeared during the final season of Bam Margera's MTV series ''Viva La Bam'' in an episode involving a stolen Hummer and a Cradle of Filth concert in Pennsylvania. The episode featured a portion of Cradle of Filth performing the song "Nemesis" from the album ''Nymphetamine''. Additionally, the song "Her Ghost in the Fog" from the album ''Midian'' was used in the background in the episode "Scavenger Hunt", when Bam dropped a piano on Ryan Dunn and Raab Himself's "Policia" car. "Her Ghost In The Fog" was also featured when Bam and Dunn went to a castle in Europe to get wine for his parents' anniversary.

ORDO AD CHAO (MAYHEM)

Ordo Ad Chao is the the fourth full-length album by the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem . "Ordo Ad Chao" is Latin and means "Order to chaos" - a reversal of the Latin expression "Ordo Ab Chao" ("Out of chaos comes order") often cited as the motto used in Freemasonry. It is the first Mayhem album to feature vocalist Attila Csihar since the 1993 release, ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas''. Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer) stated on his official forum that the drum tracks were not equalized and only the bass drums were triggered "New Mayhem Song!!!" thread" January 24, 2007. He finished saying "the production sounds necro as fuck, but thats the way we wanted it-this time. It represents Mayhem today." And indeed, the sound of the album is far rawer than that of any official Mayhem studio release since ''Deathcrush'', with a very bass-heavy mix. Despite that, the album continues the somewhat unorthodox songwriting approach showcased on the band's last two releases, with "Illuminate Eliminate" being the band's second longest song ever. Reviews of the album thus far have been extremely positive. The album features some death grunts and clean vocals. The album was released to the world on April 23, 2007 and to North America a day later. The album charted at #12 in Norway, making it the band's highest charting album yet, and many consider it the band's greatest work since ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas''. There is a limited edition version of the album that comes in a metal case that is limited to a production of 3000.

GROOVE METAL (part 1)

Groove metal, often associated with '''neo-thrash'''/'''post-thrash''' and '''power groove''', is a term sometimes used to describe a derivative of thrash metal which took its current form during the early 1990s. a re-thought version of the conventional thrash music that ... seemingly relied on groove metal, and this subgenre was dubbed neo-thrash

Groove metal is an derivative (but not necessarily a sub-genre) of thrash metal that rose to prominence in the early 90s. It is based around a mid-tempo thrash riff and detuned power chords. The band responsible for inventing the style is much disputed, but bands such as Exhorder, Pantera, Sepultura and Machine Head have all made substantial contributions in terms of developing and popularising the style. Groove metal is a blend of several genres from the 1980s, including traditional heavy metal, hardcore punk, crossover hardcore-heavy metal (sometimes called crossover thrash) thrash metal, and sludge metal Albums such as Exhorder's ''Slaughter in the Vatican'', Pantera's ''Cowboys from Hell'', Sepultura's ''Arise '', and Artillery's ''We Are the Dead'' first incorporated groove-based rhythms into thrash metal. However, it wasn't until later albums like Exhorder's ''The Law'', Pantera's ''Vulgar Display of Power'', Sepultura's ''Chaos A.D.'', White Zombie's ''La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1'', and Machine Head's ''Burn My Eyes'' that groove metal took its true form.

Groove metal bands tend to play mid-tempo thrash riffs focusing on heaviness and groovy syncopation. Pantera practically revolutionized thrash metal. Speed wasn’t the main point anymore, it was what singer Phil Anselmo called the "power groove." Riffs became unusually heavy without the need of growling or the extremely low-tuned and distorted guitars of death metal, rhythms depended more on a heavy groove Guitarists generally play low syncopated power chord patterns, mid-paced guitar solos and occasionally use heavy palm muting and pinch harmonics. The tone is typically described as thick and mid-scooped down with boosted bass and trebles, usually under a harsh distortion. Solid state amplifiers using transisters are commonly used to gain this asymmetrical harmonic clipping sound, although tube amps are used sometimes as well. Like most other heavy metal bass styles, groove metal bass lines typically follow the rhythm guitar riffs but are sometimes used as introduction to a guitar riff or as intermezzi when the guitar riffs are de-emphasized. The use of bass distortion is common. Vocals usually consist of thrash metal-styled shouts, hardcore-styled barks, and clean singing. Groove metal drums typically use double-bass drumming, with emphasis on using the double bass drum in waves, rather than rapid fire double bass and blast beats used in extreme metal styles. Compared to pure Thrash Metal the double bass playing plays a bigger role. In the middle of the Nineties this style saw its heyday and for many Metalheads it was the only true alternative to Grunge. Examples: PANTERA, PRONG, MACHINE HEAD. Uncommon time signatures and polyrhythms are typical for some bands; generally these bands put heavy emphasis on the changing beat. Groove metal typically follows in a medium tempo that ranges anywhere from between 90 to 175 beats per minute, but can vary from band to band or song to song.

GROOVE METAL (part 2)

Groove metal has its orgins within thrash metal, however the later years of the 80's saw many thrash metal bands taking a different approach, as many thrash metal bands had influences by many hardcore punk and crossover bands. Bands like Nuclear Assault, Cro-mags, and others, helped influence a new wave of bands, such as Exhorder, Pantera, Prong, White Zombie and Sepultura who many cite as some of the earliest groove metal bands.

Some groove metal bands had influence on nu metal bands and some bands took many elements of groove metal, including the use of low, down-tuned guitars, groovy riffs and lyrical attitudes. Some groove metal bands such as Machine Head can be seen as a "direct link" to later nu metal bands, combining groove metal with hip hop elements.

Machine Head and Fear Factory experimented with nu metal briefly during the late 1990s and early 2000s but abandoned the style on their latest offerings after being unsatisfied with the results later in their careers and from mixed fan opinions, mostly from those who favored the more heavy metal aesthetic approaches.

A number of thrash metal bands became inspired by the original wave of groove metal and began taking up groove-oriented directions in their later careers. This is most notable in Overkill (band), Annihilator, Sepultura, Testament, Slayer, and Anthrax. The reaction from thrash metal fans has been largely mixed. The direction technical post-thrash band Meshuggah have undertaken on their last few offerings has been largely groove-oriented.

Many sludge metal bands resemble groove metal, since many make use of down-tuned power chords and mid-tempo or slow rhythms and song structures, although sludge metal is generally slower in tempo and more minimalistic than groove metal. However, sludge metal formed earlier than groove metal and most sludge bands have a more distinct hardcore punk influence than thrash metal. Many groove metal bands such as Pantera took influence from sludge metal.

The riffing style of many current metalcore bands also has some similarity to groove metal and certain bands, such as Lamb of God and Chimaira are considered to be both metalcore and groove metal. Both bands released albums at the time metalcore reached mainstream popularity in the early 2000s, and prominently feature hardcore or even death metal style vocals, yet their musical style and guitar riffs more closely resemble groove metal than the majority of metalcore bands. Metalcore and Groove Metal genres are very closely related, being that they both owe their influence to the crossover hardcore-heavy metal bands of the 80's, however, Metalcore tends to have fewer guitar solos in favor of a more rhythmic, punk-style approach, whereas Groove Metal usually contains basic traits akin to traditional metal, including solos and virtuosity.