Grammy Award-nominated extreme metal institution CRADLE OF FILTH will release its 14th studio album, “The Screaming Of The Valkyries”on March 21, 2025 via Napalm Records. Available for pre-order now, the album excels as a succinct summation of the ghosts of CRADLE‘s past, while taking bold new steps into the future.
CRADLE OF FILTH reigns supreme as one of the most revered, formative and notorious names in music — from the depths of the extreme metal underground to the peaks of mainstream pop culture itself, and are responsible for breaking ground for many of today’s top metal artists with their trademark mixture of blackened heaviness, macabre theatricality, and scintillating gothic style. Now, following the release of 2021’s “existence is futile”iconic frontman Dani Filth & Co. emerges again with a legacy-cementing opus.
Enter yourself with a brand new CRADLE OF FILTH anthem for a new era “To Live Deliciously” —out today. The track hits with rhythmic, menacing urgency built around a Libertine lyrical hook that twists and writes with aggression, atmosphere and melody.
CRADLE OF FILTH master of ceremonies Dani Filth says about the new track: “The song is about the celebration of life. Of indulging in everything unfettered from the conformities of religion, fashion or state. Free from guilt or constraint. As nature intended. It could be read as a hedonistic life code And a positive one if not done at the expense or the suffering of others. To delight in simply ‘being.’ Being alive and free in the here and now.”
On “The Screaming Of The Valkyries”, Danny‘s recognizable scream and equally identifiable growl stand mightily alongside twin guitar attacks, symphonic flourishes and explosive rhythm section, implemented by drummer Martin “Marthus” Skaroupkabassist Daniel Firthguitarists Marek “Ashok” Smerda and Donny Burbage and keyboardist/vocalist Zoe Federoff.
After album opener “To Live Deliciously” hits immediately, second track “Demagoguery” blends dark beauty, blast beats and slaytanic groove as only CRADLE can combine. Across the album’s blunt and unforgiving yet inviting expanse, CRADLE summons the succulent flavors of classic albums like “Dusk…And Her Embrace” and “Cruelty And The Beast” with the galloping (but no less fierce) thunder of recent entries “Hammer Of The Witches” and “existence is futile”. Flashes of early metal influences coalesce with carnivorous glee into unapologetic death ‘n’ roll. “White Hellebore” es CRADLE OF FILTH at its most devilishly simple, juxtaposing traditional heavy metal with blasts of thrashing fury, spinning back to operatic goth without sounding disjointed. Anchored by arguably the most mournful melody in their catalog, “Non Omnis Dying” (“I shall not wholly die”) could be a cousin to PARADISE LOST or ANATHEMAinverted through CRADLE‘s thorny prism. “You Are My Nautilus” is the darkest song IRON MAIDEN never wrote, spinning an epic tale with dueling guitars, while “Ex Sanguine Draculae” conjures “Dusk”-era atmosphere with imaginative new colors.
Produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Scott Atkins at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk, England, “The Screaming Of The Valkyries” beckons the brave into a new era of CRADLE OF FILTH misadventure, celebrating massive melancholic melody, blackened thrash, and apocalyptic existential dread with a grinning smattering of unbridled revelry. “The Screaming Of The Valkyries” is a bloody dark love letter to the longtime legion of CRADLE OF FILTH faithful and a stunning entryway for fresh lambs to the sonic slaughter.
“The Screaming Of The Valkyries” track listing:
01. To Live Deliciously
02. Demagoguery
03. The Trinity Of Shadows
04. Non Omnis Dying
05. White Hellebore
06. You Are My Nautilus
07. Malignant Perfection
08. Ex Sanguine Draculae
09. When Misery Was A Stranger
In a recent interview with UK’s metal hammer magazine, Danny stated about “The Screaming Of The Valkyries”: “It’s got elements of everything we’ve done, really. It has a few head nodes to work like ‘Midian’ and ‘Dusk[… And Her Embrace]’especially in the atmosphere and the subject matter. It’s also got a very brilliant production, courtesy of Scott Atkins“
Asked if there is any overarching theme to it, Danny said: “No, I wouldn’t say so. They’re complicated things, concept records. You have to have tunnel vision and you can’t see from that path. So this is just an album. It’s not an album with filly bits attached, like intros and outros. No guest appearances. Just nine songs. It’s still quite a long running time, obviously.
Danny went on to say that CRADLE OF FILTH‘s collaboration with pop superstar Ed Sheeran won’t be on “The Screaming Of The Valkyries” “because we don’t want it to overshadow the record. But we are going to bring it out. Originally, everybody wanted us to bring it out to glorious fanfare but ed‘s management weren’t keen on that. We’re not absolutely sure how it will emerge, but it’s been done, mixed and it’s sitting on the shelf somewhere… you know, virtually. And it’s fucking fantastic. But only a handful of people have actually heard it. My mom hasn’t even heard it.”
Last November, Danny was asked by Portugal’s Look Mag, CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani Filth why it was taking more than three years for him and his bandmates to release the follow-up to “existence is futile” album. I answered: “[We’ve done] loads of tours. We were in the studio beginning the drums last May. But then we went and did all summer festivals. Then we had holidays — one holiday a year, which we allow us to rejuvenate. Then I was recording with my friend in America. Then we went to South America and Mexico. Then we went, did a co-headline tour with DEVILDRIVER. Then we went back to the studio. Then our producer had a baby. Then it was Christmas, and we did more in the studio. Then we went on tour in Europe. Yeah, that’s what happened. We’ve just been very, very busy.
“It was finished — it’s been ready since July [2024],I think,” Danny revealed. “We’re having two more videos and singles before the album drops. Yeah, maybe even four; I’m not sure. It depends how well it goes. But yeah, there’s a plan to a gameplan to everything.”
Asked about the musical direction of the new CRADLE OF FILTH material, Danny said: “It’s very hard to talk about it. I don’t really want to talk about it because I can’t do it justice. Every album has a lot of things going on. It’s just a very, very great record. It’s the next stage of our evolutionary step as CRADLE OF FILTHmoving on from the [two new songs] we debuted on [the 2023 live album] ‘Trouble And Their Double Lives’. It has elements of old-school CRADLEelements of new-school CRADLE. “It’s catchy, it’s fast, it’s slow, it’s romantic, it’s heavy, it’s theatrical.”
In October, CRADLE OF FILTH released a new single, “Malignant Perfection”along with a music video directed by Vicente Corderowho has previously worked with FILTER, DEVILDRIVER, IN FLAMES and BLACK VEIL BRIDESamong others.
In 2023, CRADLE OF FILTH released its first live album in over 20 years, the aforementioned “Trouble And Their Double Lives”via Napalm Records. The LP was recorded between 2014 and 2019 at different performances in the USA, Europe, Australia and beyond during the band’s “Cryptorian” world tour and dates following. Produced, mixed and mastered by Scott Atkins at Grindstone Studioswith recording captured by Danny B.the effort not only featured a slew of fan favorites encompassing the band’s discography but also two bonus tracks and two entirely brand new songs, “She Is A Fire” and “Demon Prince Regent”.
CRADLE OF FILTH will co-headline the 2025 edition of the North American “Chaos & Carnage” tour, featuring fellow co-headliners DYING FETUSas well as FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, NE OBLIVISCARIS, UNDEATH, VOMIT FORTH and CORPSE PILE.
CRADLE OF FILTH es:
Dani Filth – Vowels
Marek “Ashok” Smerda – Guitars
Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka – Drums
Daniel Firth -Bass
Donny Burbage – Guitars
Zoe Federoff – Vocals, Keys
Photo credit: Jakub Alexandrowicz
