A Word with Cradle of Filth Guitarist Paul Allender.

Cradle of Filth is probably the most well-known band in the world that could be called black metal. This mantle does not translate into being a band that your granny would be familiar with, but almost any heavy music fan knows this band.

While being well known, fans will probably cite the band’s outrageous look and stage show for their popularity as much as the music. This view of a band is to be expected as their music has gone through such a huge but divisive progression over the years. Cradle helped define the more popular form of black metal in the mid-90s but eventually went on to innovate in the realm of symphonic black metal as well.

The band’s latest album The Manticore and Other Horrors has gone in yet another direction. The symphonic and gothic elements have been moved to the back, while hardcore punk and industrial influence has come to the fore.

Our Chad Sims talked with Cradle guitarist Paul Allender (right) about the new album, martial arts and the current tour, which has the band at the TLA on Sunday, February 24.

UPDATE: Cradle of Filth’s US tour has been canceled due to immigration problems.

So now that the new album is out and you have been touring it for a while what is the fan reaction?

It is really good actually. When a couple songs got released from Manticore you get the usual moaning from hardcore black metal fans, which doesn’t bother me at all to be honest.  But now that we have played it live and the album’s out everyone loves it. Which is intense, because the intention behind the album was to make it different.  I got bored playing the same old stuff over and over again, so it was time to switch it up a bit.

I have heard you say the album has a punk influence but I am hearing an almost industrial feel like My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult or something. Are you influenced by any of that sort of stuff?

Yeah that’s all in there. What I really wanted to do with this album is really emphasis the groove.  Give it like the old school feel like when we first started off as a band. The band evolved into what it was and it kind of lost its roots.

I talked to Anders from Katatonia a few months back and he mentioned a bunch of unusual influences that you wouldn’t expect from a guitarist in a heavy band. Are there any non-heavy influences that you have?

I’m really into jazz, I like jazz and blues a lot. Sometimes I mess around with jazzed based chord progressions.  When I get stuck with ideas I completely step away from metal. I will put on a dubstep track or something, and jam guitar with it. If I come up with a really cool riff I will put a metal drum beat behind it and put more metal guitar parts on it and if it works it works.  I take influence from anywhere to be honest.

The band doesn’t record in a single studio, yet the album doesn’t sound disjointed. How to you keep that band feel?

Well it is just me and Martin (drummer Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka) that do the writing and recording, so it is going to sound cohesive.  Some bands go to a rehearsal space, but that doesn’t work for us. It doesn’t work for our chemistry. If we did that we would still be on album number four.

Moving away from the album, you recently moved to the US. How has that been?

Really good. I work from a studio now, but I am having a studio setup in my house. And I teach guitar, but I teach it over Skype so that is going well. I have students worldwide. It is really coming together for me over here.  It is really nice. Let’s put it this way, moving over here has been one of the best decisions of my life.

You are a martial artist. Are you into martial arts films?

Back in the day. I haven’t really seen many recently, but I used to be glued to the stuff. The cheesier the better as well. I liked the really old subtitled Chinese ones.

I haven’t trained for a while. Back in the UK, I was teaching. But here the amount of money they try to charge you in clubs is horrendous. I wouldn’t put up with that out of principle. Martial arts shouldn’t be a luxury game, it should be passed down. When I taught I wouldn’t charge anything but the cost of the hall. After a while I stopped teaching the public, and myself and three other teachers would go to the police station and train with the police. We would teach the police, it was tons of fun.

I heard you switched record labels for more creative control can you tell us about that?

Creatively we have never been told what to do. Even when we were with Sony they never told us what to do.  Though they had no idea what to do with us (laughs). When Damnation of the Day came out, Sony pretty much buried the band.  It really damaged the band. We lost all kinds of magazine covers and other opportunities, and then they turned around and said we don’t know what to do with the album. They let us go and said we aren’t going to take the second option because we have no idea what to do with you.

It makes you wonder what these A&R people are thinking.

I will tell you what was going on at the time. Black metal was peaking at that time and all the major label went around picking all the biggest black metal bands. But black metal was never going to be popular, even the name, you could tell black metal was never going to be popular in the mainstream. Anyone with a brain could have told them that. It is ridiculous.

So you are known as a theatrical band. Is that something you still enjoy doing or does it get old for you?

It has got old. We don’t do that anymore. We just play as us. We just have a back drop and some side fills. We are trying to keep it more raw like the new album.

Is there anything else we should expect from the tour?

The band. I mean that is what it is. We don’t have any actors or any extra stage stuff. We did the whole of Europe with it and everyone loved it.

I imagine that your fans are pretty out there. What is the craziest thing a fan has done at a show?

Oh there is loads of stuff. Well it wasn’t during a show, but at Ozzfest a few years ago we were doing a signing.  There was a cute girl in line, and right at the end of the queue she puts her leg up on a railing, pulls her panties to one side, and starts playing with herself, right in front of the public. The tour manager had to go stop her.  That was the craziest thing I have ever seen someone do. Just because you like a band…

I guess all that rock n roll stuff isn’t over yet?

I know, just imagine what it was like in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. This was like 2002.

Well, on that note, thanks for talking to us.

Thank you.

Cradle of Filth will play with Decapitated, The Agonist and The Faceless February 24^th @ TLA. Show starts at 7PM.  See here for tickets.