“Having a break, not doing anything and taking myself out of the scene, has given me a chance to actually kind of reinvent myself. To be honest, that time away and not being in a band has been the fucking best thing for me ever,” says former Cradle Of Filth guitarist Paul Allender. Now solely concentrated on his new outfit White Empress, which he describes as “the kind of music that really gets my blood going,” the 43-year old axman has finally satisfied his sonic craving. “I wanted something different. I’ve spent a long time trying to find a band that… like when you’re a kid and you get the hairs stand up on your neck and shivers down your spine; that sort of thing is lost now. No one was doing it, so I decided to do it myself.”

Looking back on Allender’s two separate tours of duty with Cradle Of Filth, those sensations must have been experienced on at least a couple of occasions. “Yeah, at the beginning definitely, and then when I came back again. But there was something there, for me personally, that wasn’t right. As I’ve got older, I have more and more ideas of what I want to do. It just so happened that as Cradle was going on, and I’m accumulating all these ideas, it wasn’t going anywhere. Towards the end of it, I personally felt I had taken the band as far as I could take it; it wasn’t right for me anymore. That’s the reason I started doing White Empress full-time.”

During the early stages of White Empress, Cradle Of Filth drummer Martin Skaroupka was behind the kit, playing on the band’s digital-only, self-titled EP; initially offered as a free download in January. Then in February it was available to purchase via iTunes, Amazon and other digital retailers. After Skaroupka left Empress to focus on Cradle, Zac Morris was enlisted as the new drummer. Each of the four songs from the EP were re-recorded; “Erased And Rewritten” as well as “Obsession With The Empress” appear on the standard edition of the just-released album, Rise Of The Empress. The other two tracks, “Exile” and “Fall Of The Old Guard” can be found as bonus material on the media-book or digi-pack version.

White Empress utilized Pledge Music to fund the Rise Of The Empress album. “To be honest, when our manager came to us and said, ‘what do you think about Pledge Music?’ I straightaway thought, no! I have a very much old-school way of thinking,” recalls Allender. “For me, I didn’t want fans to have to pay for stuff. We can’t ask fans to chip in; that’s just wrong. But when she sat down and spoke to me about it, and I saw how many bands – known bands – are actually doing it, I was like… ok here it goes, and it went off amazing. It turns out – ‘cause I speak to fans every day on a regular basis – that they prefer to pay for stuff directly to the band instead of a label. That was the main consensus. We literally went past 100% of our goal within the first week. It was really good to get the band up and running.”

For a majority of White Empress fans, the initial attraction was Paul. But vocalist Mary Zimmer quickly found favour with listeners; going from angelic and operatic, to demonic and satanic. Allender recounts how the pair came to work together. “I was after a singer who could do basically exactly what Mary does. What I wanted was a vocalist who could do all these different parts, but on specific sections within the song to enhance the atmosphere of said riffs. So when a really fast riff would come in, that was really heavy with loads of blast-beats behind it, I’d say, can you do a death metal vocal on top of it? Then when this thrash part comes in, I want you to do a thrash-style vocal. I went through two other singers trying to find someone, but no one could do it. It turned out that when I was in Cradle, we were looking for another keyboard player/female singer. Because I live in Minneapolis, Martin said ‘I know someone who’s just down the road from you.’ So I went and saw her, she wasn’t interested because of family commitments, but suggested Mary. Then I asked Mary if she wanted to do the keyboards and vocals for Cradle; she turned it down straight away. Fair enough, if you don’t want to do that, I’ve got this… and she fucking fell in love with it! I outlined the style of vocals I wanted in certain areas, but then I said to her, if you’ve got any better ideas – go for it! Cause I don’t want to squash somebody’s creativity. And she’s exactly what was needed.”

 

A conceptual weave is intertwined within White Empress, which Allender expounds upon. “Basically, what White Empress stands for… the band is set up not to conform; the scene is mundane, it’s boring as hell. Hence the reason I set this band up. There’s nothing exciting out there at all anymore. I wanted a band that would stick the middle finger up and say, fuck you lot. We’re going to do what we want and we don’t give a flying shit what you think. That’s what it represents. All anybody’s worried about is how many albums you’re going to sell? How much money am I going to make off this? To me, that’s bullshit! I don’t care how many we sell. This band was set up to kick the scene into gear. We’re different; this is how it needs to be done. And if you don’t like it – tough fucking shit. I want to bring that punk attitude back into metal music again. It used to be there, but it isn’t anymore because it’s got all too corporate. The music you write should be from the heart; if it takes off, brilliant. Whatever happens, it’s still going to keep going. That’s the concept behind White Empress.”

There seems to be somewhat of a misconception, based partly upon the promotional photos, that Mary herself is the White Empress. “She stands for the embodiment that White Empress represents. The singer is the main focus in bands, it’s just the way it is and it’s never going to change; so I played on that. Hence the reason White Empress looks like it does. There’s no concept within the music or songs; the concept is actually within the artwork and videos when they start following each other. This is the reason the album’s called Rise Of The Empress and there’s a crown sitting on the pillow. That’s the start of the concept. Whenever a band does a concept album, it’s always in the lyrics and the music, and everything else follows after that, which is complete rubbish. It doesn’t have to be like that. We’re trying to keep away from everything that everybody’s done before.”

When asked about the recording session for Rise Of The Empress, Allender replies, “We’ve had some serious luxury with this album. Before, in Cradle, it was like, ‘quick, let’s get another album out. It’s got to be finished by this date’ – oh for God’s sake. That’s what I don’t like about it. So in White Empress, I took a considerable amount of time with the songwriting, off and on over the last two years. When I made the decision to do something different, the luxury of time was actually on our side. Once I started getting other band members involved and shared the music with them, nobody wanted to change it; they thought it was awesome.”

 

The incredibly varied backgrounds of Allender’s bandmates in White Empress contribute to the group’s unique sound, as well as its diversified fan base. Vocalist Mary Zimmer was in Luna Mortis, drummer Zac Morris played with Ugly Kid Joe, bassist Chela Rain belonged to Coal Chamber, keyboardist Will Graney came from Damnation Angels, and guitarist Jeremy Kohnmann was a member of The Awakening; it’s not like everybody was in a band similar to Cradle Of Filth. “No, absolutely not, all I wanted was really super freaking cool people to play with who are really good at what they do and look decent. That’s all I was after. It just so happened that those are the bands they came from. But there’s no point in trying to go for people who are in the same area of the music scene, because it doesn’t bring anything fresh to the table. The whole point of getting different people involved is to get new ideas you would never think of yourself.  When I left Cradle, some people were saying ‘you need to join Behemoth.’ Why the fuck would I do that? Why pigeonhole yourself and stay in one tiny genre? When you leave something, you have the absolute whole fucking world to yourself and you can do what the hell you want. That’s what White Empress is. We’ve covered all genres with the best parts over the last 15 years in a modern form.”

In live news, White Empress has a handful of shows booked at the end of October and the beginning of November in Wisconsin and Minnesota. “These shows coming up are like warm-up shows; we’re a new band, and we haven’t played any shows yet. All these shows we’re doing in October are going to be filmed, so a lot of it’s going to be kept for a DVD release, and some of it will be put on YouTube. And the Halloween show we’re doing in Madison is actually being streamed in real time online.” Providing a sneak peek at the upcoming concerts, Allender confesses, “These shows are going to be total punk rock; it’s going to be awesome. All we’ve got is a back drop with the logo, two side panels with the crowns, and us onstage playing; that’s all you need. We’re going to bring it to the fans as raw as possible, and I’m going to try and encourage stage diving as well. It’s about time we brought that shit back.”

But don’t expect White Empress to play any Cradle Of Filth songs live. “Absolutely not! I can’t see the point. It’s like when Paul Di’Anno’s gone out with his other band, but plays Maiden songs. What the hell are you doing that for? At the end of the day, yes, I was in the band. And don’t get me wrong, it was loads of fun, I loved it. But I came to the point in my life where I wanted to expand more. I felt like my time had been reached. So there’s no point in going out, playing a previous band’s songs, when you’re trying to promote your own album that sounds so completely different. Nine times out of ten, only 20% of the audience will know who Cradle are. There’s no point. Even when I was in Cradle, I moaned like hell every time we did covers. You’re an established band, only bands who are up and coming and haven’t got an album out, need to do covers at pub shows. I just don’t see the point in covering other people’s songs. To me, that’s just a cop-out, trying to get a crowd going by playing songs you haven’t written. It just doesn’t make sense when you’re trying to promote your own stuff and push your own band.”