Australian Music Network recently caught up with Cradle of Filth's Canadian backing vocalist / keyboardist Lindsay Schoolcraft, who also works as a solo artist under the Schoolcraft name. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Lindsay: "There are things I can talk about because I’m allowed to talk about them. Of course, Cradle of Filth: we haven’t started yet, but we’ve discussed doing the next album together. So I’ve been given a grace period; I have until June, and then in June I’m going to start composing for Cradle of Filth again, which I’m looking forward to, because it’s going to be the same collaborative effort of the band as we had last time, but this time we’re actually going to meet for a week in Europe and sit down together and do it the way what we feel were the greatest Cradle albums were done—where all six of us are in a room, we’re focussed and we’re making these big songs happen. So that I’m looking forward to. 

When it comes to Schoolcraft, before starting, I have to say I’m really, really passionate about organic instruments and about the string sections and having everything authentic. I feel that in today’s world, production is so polished and too clean, and all my favourite music was—not to say terribly produced—but it had some raw authentic qualities to it. And with Schoolcraft, I am redoing some of my old works, and I’m working on new works, and I want the real, live strings. And I’ve found a way to do it within a budget that works, because let’s be honest, this isn’t exactly something that is super affordable. But I believe you have to do your art right, or don’t do it at all. 

I’m working on an EP right now with a local band here in Canada. They’re called Darkstone Crows. They’ve got more of a very raw kind of Alice in Chains-vibe, but the singer sounds like Stevie Nicks, and they’re fantastic at what they do. We found a way to make our two styles work together, so I’m doing one EP with them at the moment. We’re still trying to get it together, and we’re taking our time with it. Usually I’d be like, rush, rush, rush, get out a Schoolcraft song right now, but I want to do it right. I’m not going to make people wait years and years and years, but I am going to make sure that I’m happy with it before I put it out there. Because if you rush things, then you’ll look back that them later and think, I could’ve done this a little bit differently. I don’t want to live like that anymore, especially as an artist."

Click here for the complete interview. For information on Darkstone Crows go to this location.

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 Melissa Matheson Photography