Cradle of Filth have reportedly finished their recording sessions for Damnation and A Day

British black metal superstars Cradle Of Filth appear to be ending the recording sessions for their Sony Music debut Damnation and a Day opus, which was recorded at two studios, Parkgate Studios and New Rising Studios. Bassist Dave Pybus and vocalist Dani Filth provide their accounts of Cradle Of Filth in the studio.

Stated bassist Dave Pybus (ex-Anathema, Dreambreed) on the recording of Damnation and a Day: "Actually, it's not all that bad. Drums, bass, guitars and the majority of the keyboards, vocals (including Sarah Deva's) and sound effects (including exploding wolves) have been recorded and some lucky bastards in the band have just returned from flying out to Budapest for six days to record the orchestral parts for the album."

"Soon after that we will be mixing the album back in Hastings and then "hey presto"(or "Abracadaver" if you prefer), you've got your new seventeen track Cradle of Filth album and we've got our two years of drunken and debauched world touring."

"If you have gone out and bought a copy of the latest release Live Bait for the Dead you will realise that this in itself is as demanding as coming up with the goods for an album."

"On the plus, there are three UK shows already booked for the middle of December and they will be your last chance this year to catch some of the new stuff live. On a down, and I'm sure most of you already know, we are minus a guitarist as Gian and ourselves have parted company and obviously now we are looking for a suitable replacement to join us in the rehearsal room over the next months to learn how to make everyone hate your guts and wish you were dead. Of course this statement does not apply to Gian. Our parting was extremely amicable by any standards; it is merely a passing comment reflecting the shittier end of the stick you have to grasp in working with any band, however successful and however well those people get on." So, any takers?"

"Anyway, back to the new album. Here I hope to fill you in on some new song titles and maybe a bit of the concept courtesy of passing you into Dani's remarkably nubile mittens... As for release date, it's looking like early 2003 with a single scheduled for January. This will be one or two songs from the new album with exclusive tracks and maybe a cover version (one of the selection we've recorded during this session). A video will also be filmed to promote the single and could end up on there as well."

"And just because the album is finished doesn't mean we won't have anything to do. On the contrary, it's where all the fun begins. Far away press trips, long photo shoots, endless days of phone interviews, loud rehearsals, crazy film sets, formidable drinking binges and still new songs to write. And this isn't a job? The rewards: To rush straight down to WH Smiths to see what cunts we've been made to look and to read all the nonsensical, journo-befaddled reviews. I can hardly wait! And so without further ado... adieu."

Continued frontman and visionary Dani Filth: "Time has come once again for the stars to spin upon their cosmic mobile and deliver the opportunity for us to present you with a new album of hits and near-fatal misses. And hopefully, unless that proverbial cradle should fall, what an album that will be. Seventeen tracks adorn this particular smegmasbord although as per usual not all the titles are in place as it currently stands...this is a usual occurence with any of our albums and most won't be confirmed up until the very last day of the mix,... a trait that is most likely caused by the pet names given to our songs as they are written..."Dark", "Immortal", "Morbid", "Blagula" and "Neil" feature amongst their ranks and it was amusing to hear the Hungarian Film Orchestra refer to great sweeping extravagances of music as "Dozy", "Dave", "Mick" and better still, "Arse"! These titles become practically impossible to erase after countless months of affectionate referral and I still find myself calling Saffron's Curse "The Moon" or Death Magic... "The Hill of the Diplodoci"!"

"On the subject of our trip to Hungary, that of myself, Martin Foul, Doug Cook (the session engineer/producer once again) and Dan Presley (the man responsible for scoring Martin's keyboard links for the orchestra) everything went swimmingly well... the conductor and various appointed translators were all exceedingly friendly and efficient and we succeeded in not only becoming well acquainted with the locals in a work ethic sense, but also in a total debauched drunkeness sense."

"Budapest at this point of the year is humid, cosmopolitan and therefore bustling with the flora and fauna of travellers and Magyan locals. Working hours with the orchestra and choir varied from all day on the Sunday to being evening sessions for the week days, enabling us not only to have an early start on the clubbing front but also to sample the sumptuous sights and sounds of Buda and Pest (these two cities straddle the Danube and unite via a plethora of modern bridges, most being strategically destroyed during the war...). And yes, I made sure that I took at least one book concerning Elizabeth Bathory - the Hungarian Blood Countess - along with me to further colour the session, though I was a bit fucked off to find that Hungary seems to have buried Her from its often violent past; indeed the national gallery even had Her portrait removed from its walls to be stored somewhere underground, out of sight and obviously out of mind. Now where would we be if Transylvania had pursu! ed a similar course for it's more bloodthirsty of legends?"

"The music itself worked out extraordinarily well;- I can relate to it in comparison with great musical scores such as Sleepy Hollow, Conan and The Omen... it is, dare I utter so nonsensical a word, EPIC! I feel that fans of the band throughout the last nine years of our career will be utterly spellbound by this latest development to the sound... we are. It is something that we've been longing to achieve for quite some time now, for as you are undoubtedly aware, forty piece orchestras and thirty two piece choirs are a tad on the expensive side, hence waiting for the time when we would be able to afford them both to great effect and definitely one of the reasons why we opted for recording in Hungary, which is comparably cheaper than somewhere like England, where for the same price you would be likely to get something only half the size. That and it's reputation through previous collaborations with the aforementioned Dan Presley."

"The album itself is nearing completion, we have moved from Parkgate studios in Battle (birthplace of the Midian opus) to complete vocal and keyboard duties in the smaller-yet as necessary- New Rising (which has been our adopted local studio ever since Bitter Suites...) where we will be holed up for a week or two before returning once again to Parkgate for a three week mixing period, this time with the addition of an American mixing duo known as "Scrap 60" to bolster the sound and make sense of the chimera of parts that have been committed to console."

"I must admit I am greatly looking forward to spending Autumn in the studio mixing... talk about inspirational! Set amid the picturesque and often mysterious landscape of the South of England, home to the site of the Battle of Hastings and langouring amid various other historic landmarks and castles, follies and forests, Parkgate is as atmospheric a studio as it gets for us this side of Dracula's winter palace. And the last time we were in the studio during the Autumn was as far back as Principle, which was as magick a time as it gets for a band as dewy-eyed as we were then."

"So hopefully next rant I address you with will be full of further tales of unequivocal madness and full moon tomfoolery... tales of raging studio gun battles that seem to have dominated much of the session so far....the spiralling price of one person buying themselves a Co2 air-pistol and the rest investing in one for their own protection. Now the shoot-outs can start at the slightest flinch of a hand or movement towards what might indeed be a concealed weapon. Myself, Dave, Martin and Doug have all taken slugs... Doug even has a metal ball (actually outlawed from proceedings at time of going to press) lodged firmly beneath the skin of His chin, a fact that he regularly reminds us of by glancing over it with a metal detector. The cunt."

In similar news, Cradle Of Filth have yet to find a replacement for the recently departed Gian Pyres (guitar), who left the band after seven years of membership. Pyres' reason for leaving was that he'd like to spend more developing his music career in a different direction than that of the Filth.

With the way things are in the Cradle Of Filth camp, fans shouldn't expect to see Damnation and a Day well into 2003. We'll have more news on Cradle Of Filth as it happens.

Source: Digitalmetal