Cradle Of Filth backing vocalist/keyboardist Lindsay Schoolcraft is featured in a new interview discussing the band's current album Hammer Of The Witches, touring, working on new material, and her current favourite bands. Following is an excerpt from the chat:

Q: With Russia in May, and the last couple of shows for a while, can we speculate that there might be some writing or recording in between for a follow-up to Hammer of the Witches?

Lindsay: "Yeah. Actually, we already started discussing it. We have some remnants of demos that we left over from last time, but some members like our bassist Daniel Firth have already gone ahead and started composing things. I’ve a few ideas. They’re rough. I really haven’t had the time to properly formulate any of them, being away from the studio, so it’s really difficult on the road. But we kind of all agreed that we would start working on things if we want to, but have these next six to eight weeks to just do our own thing, relax, spend time with family. Just take some down time. I’m involved in two other projects outside Cradle of Filth, and I really enjoy working on them, so I’m just going to take this time to work on those, and I know the other guys want some downtime before the craziness starts. We’ve decided that the end of August is when we’re going to get together and really start. We’re going to take a week together as a writing band and really bring together our ideas and formulate them at that point and the demo process, so it gives us lots of time. After Russia is when the chaos starts."

Q: Are there any up and coming extreme metal bands on your radar that you might recommend at the moment?

Lindsay: "One that’s really blown me away is Myrkur. I think she’s phenomenal. She gets a lot of backlash with people saying she’s not true metal or she’s not true black metal or blah blah. People are going on about it. But from a musician’s standpoint I think she’s a genius. She can write for choirs and all these folk instruments, and she has her own sound and voice and the backlash is just ignorant. You shouldn’t try to devalue someone’s talent because you’re not fitting it into a certain genre. I think she’s on tour now with Behemoth and I plan to go and see her at home in Toronto. I think she deserves a lot of credit. More than the metal community is giving her. Also, the opening band we have right now, Winterfylleth are fantastic. I was really blown away by their performance last night. I highly recommend them. And also my boys in Ne Obliviscaris. I think they’re doing a phenomenal job of formulating a new genre of metal and I really believe in them as people and their artistic direction. I think they’re going to be really big."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Cradle Of Filth checked in with the following tour update on March 14th, where they played the last show of their current run in support of Hammer Of The Witches in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

"Feckin' b'stards Cradle Of Filth finish off their six and a half week U.S/Canadian/UK Inquisitional tour in sunny Belfast at the Limelight. Thanks to everyone for attending the shows, we had an absolute blast, perhaps one of the best tours undertaken by the band ever! Absolutely brilliant stuff indeed! From Charlotte on the East Coast through to the Caribbean, Deep South, Texas, the Midwest, West Coast, Canada and beyond and then back to Blighty, it has been a deeply moving adventure beyond compare."

Cradle Of Filth will be returning to Belarus and Russia in May with support from Xandria. Dates are posted below, tickets went on sale March 2nd.

Check out fan-filmed video of the band's complete Orlando show on February 2nd below.

Cradle Of Filth have released a music video for the track "Blackest Magick In Practice" (streaming below). The clip was directed by Sam Scott-Hunter and the song is taken from the groups latest tome of horror and romance, Hammer Of The Witches.

Comments the director: "There’s dark madness in this video. “Blackest Magick In Practice” is a deeply tragic tale of lost love. It’s the grief stricken insanity of trying to bring back that loved one from the dead; desperately trying to hold onto that person who’s gone, even if that leads down a dark and gruesome path. I don’t want to give it all away, but I will say that the hardest part of the production was getting hold of a human ear.

"I wanted to convey the power of the band too, in amongst the romance, madness and magick. Behind the imagery of the lyrics is a great and powerful metal band of amazing musicians, and I hope people can feel the intensity of the band when they watch this. It is intense viewing. There should be a bit of madness in the video, because there’s madness in this song."

Cradle Of Filth's latest album, Hammer Of The Witches, was brought to fruition in Britain's Witch County, in darkest rural Suffolk at the reputedly haunted Grindstone Studios. The album's title is named after the Malleus Maleficarum, a medieval document of guidelines regarding the persecution and torture of witches - but Cradle Of Filth’s title version is more retributory: It's the Hammer Of The Witches; the hammer is in the witches' hands and it's payback time.

Unquestionably one of the greatest and most influential British metal bands of all time, Cradle Of Filth have cast a commanding and macabre shadow across the metal scene for nearly a quarter of a century. Armed with their trademark, cross-pollinated assault that taps into myriad strands of sonic extremity and morbid opulence they have steadily conquered the entire world, unleashing a malevolent slew of classic albums along the way. From the raw and rambunctious savagery of their 1994 debut The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh to the wickedly monstrous, technicolor bombast of 2012's The Manticore & Other Horrors, the Cradle ethos and aesthetic has had a huge impact on the evolution of metal, the band's insatiable appetite for performing live and frontman Dani Filth's unerring charisma and sense of occasion ensuring that they have established a powerful and enduring connection with Hell-bound acolytes everywhere.

Photo by Olga Kuzmenko