Cradle Of Filth is working on the follow-up to their 2021 record Existence Is Futile, but don't expect to hear it anytime soon. According to Cradle Of Filth frontman Dani Filth in an interview with Pełna Kulturka, scheduling conflicts and the album's producer having a child have all contributed to the delay of the new record.
"Well, strangely enough, I begin my vocals tomorrow," said Filth. "We started back in July, but we've been so busy. We've done loads of summer festivals and we had our annual break for holidays for everybody. Then we did a couple of weeks. So we've done all the music. Then I was away for 12 weeks on recording in L.A. Cradle were playing in South America, and then we did a full American tour, co-headlining with DevilDriver, the second part of that. Then I did a couple of more weeks in the studio, getting some ideas down, getting everything ready to sing. And then the producer had a baby. So we haven't actually been back since November.
"And then obviously we're only gonna be doing a couple of weeks 'cause then we go out on the road. So the album's gonna take a bit longer than usual because we're doing a lot of touring as well. But we're hoping to release it by the end of the year. It's gonna be a big record for us. [I'm] very excited about it. At the moment it's in development stage, so we're being very creative. I'm staying at home. I just got back from France last week where I was visiting with my girlfriend for New Year's. And now I'm just alone in my fortress of solitude at home getting all creative and getting all prepared for the album and the tour."
Then came talk of the long-awaited collaboration between Cradle Of Filth and pop star Ed Sheeran. Filth revealed that Sheeran will be a guest on the new album, as opposed to doing the single as a standalone charity thing which seemed to be the plan in 2023.
"Well, one of the surprises, obviously, but it's not so much a surprise is that we've got a song that we have [pop superstar] Ed Sheeran guesting on. It's gonna be on the album. And people have heard it and loved it. But it is what you imagine — it's Cradle Of Filth and it's Ed Sheeran. It sounds like Ed Sheeran, it sounds like Cradle Of Filth. There's a blast beat in it. I think it's gonna surprise a lot of people, the album. But it doesn't necessarily mean the album is commercial.
"It's a very heavy record. We just upped the game as a band. We moved one step further toward the future from our previous record. We see everything as an evolution, everything as an evolutionary step, everything as a necessary link in the chain. And this album's gonna be an important record for us — our first for Napalm Records, if you discount, obviously, the live record. But, yeah, we're very much looking forward to this year. And there's no rush. We've got plenty of shows. But expect the first single probably about September, October time."
