Michelle J. Mills of the SGV Tribune recently caught up with CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani Filth. The entire story appears below:

In the dark metal genre, Cradle of Filth has become a household name and, inch by inch, the group has been infiltrating the rest of the rock scene. Metal Hammer magazine called them the most successful British metal band since Iron Maiden and their 2004 album, Nymphetamine, was nominated for a Grammy.

Formed in 1991, Cradle of Filth made its mark by placing scorching grooves over lush orchestral arrangements and adding in angelic female voices to counter the low vocals, screams and growls of lead singer Dani Filth.

Filth and his bandmates - guitarists Paul Allender, Charles Hedger, bassist David Pybus, backing vocals Sarah Jezebel Deva, live keyboardist Rosie Smith and live drummer Martin Skaroupka- have intertwined the two takes even more for Thornography (Roadrunner). They are currently crossing the United States on the Viva La Band tour with Gwar, CKY and Vains of Jenna.

Filth was surrounded by music as a child, as his father was an avid record collector. He played violin, but never felt competent at it, so Filth put it aside by high school.

"My friends in school were into metal and when I gravitated towards that it was suddenly wow, a whole new area to discover. It suited the things that I was into, like horror films and literature, it all connected," Filth said.

At age 14, he started singing for bands in school. After meeting musicians with similar interests, he formed Cradle of Filth, brushing aside his plans for college and a career in journalism to launch into music.

Filth's girlfriend (now his wife) worked two jobs so he could spend time focusing solely on Cradle of Filth and the time paid off.

"We're somewhere near the top, I hope," Filth said of Cradle of Filth's place in today's music scene. "I like to think that as a band we transcend into different genres and bring two different kinds of people together, much like someone like Maiden or Misfits do. I think its great that somebody can on actually stumble upon a band that's not really one thing or another."

The songs are usually near completion when Filth pens his lyrics. He finds his inspiration from horror films (mostly Gothic rather than gore), literature and the reputedly very haunted part of England in which he lives. And, unlike some bands sharing Cradle's genre, humor never comes in to play.

"I think we can be mistaken for being slightly comical because we're really down-to-earth people and in English sarcasm comes second nature. But humor doesn't enter the lyricism. Any artist is allowed to express themselves outside of their art and it's not all doom and gloom with us, it's our escape. We have what we do and we're happy about it," Filth said.