Cradle Of Filth
Cradle Of Filth rose to commercial success in the early 1990s with their sound rooted in black metal and influenced by symphonic metal, only to be scorned by many metal bands. Today, led by singer and founder Dani Filth, they are celebrated as one of England's most successful extreme metal bands, known for their iconic corpse paint, theatrical performances, imaginative artwork, and diverse sound.
Founded in 1991 in Suffolk, England, their debut album, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, was released in 1994, followed by the hugely successful Dusk... And Her Embrace in 1996, which established them with the classic title track. Their theatrical live shows and provocative shirt designs quickly turned them into a phenomenon within the metal scene, attracting both adoration and disdain.
After Cruelty and the Beast brought them into the charts in 1998, the EP From The Cradle To Enslave achieved further success in 1999. Subsequent albums like Midian (2000), Damnation and a Day (2003), Nymphetamine (2004), and Thornography (2006) all achieved worldwide chart success, with songs such as Her Ghost In The Fog, Nymphetamine Fix, and Temptation becoming additional hits.
Their sound evolved away from the raw black metal influences of their early days, incorporating elements of hard rock, dark metal, and symphonic metal, making it more accessible. Following the release of Goodspeed on the Devil's Thunder in 2008, Cradle Of Filth released four more albums in the 2010s, continuing to be celebrated globally while further evolving their epic extreme metal sound.
With recent albums like Existence Is Futile (2021) and their latest The Screaming of the Valkyries (2025), they have modernized their sound, returning to heavier realms. The current album reached number 5 in the charts in Germany, marking the band's highest chart entry to date. Cradle Of Filth continues to captivate audiences with Dani Filth's high screams amidst symphonic elements, modern synthesizers, melodic clean vocals, hard metal riffs, and thunderous blast beats, with songs like Necromantic Fantasies, She Is A Fire, and Malignant Perfect establishing themselves as modern hits.