CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani Filth recently spoke with I Like Music about the band's new album, Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa. An excerpt is available below.

ILM: Tell us about the narrative behind Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa.

Dani: "We've done a home-spun gothic horror story that involves the first trespasser, who was Lilith, Adam's first wife before Eve. She didn't want to be beneath Adam, and wanted joint ownership of Eden, so she fled and hooked up with Samael the serpent. Supposedly she became this dark archetype who gave birth to thousands of demons and thus was the reason for evil being in the world. Jewish mythology sees her in a different light though, viewing her as a strong female icon. We've used a bit of both, though rather than dealing with the creation myth we've brought her into a story that runs from the 14th century through to the present day. It involves Sumerian and Egyptian mythology, nun-sploitation and Knights Templar all rolled up into a story about sex and death."

ILM: When did you come across Lilith, and what made you decide that she was the right character for the new album to revolve around?

Dani: "We'd come back off tour and had a nucleus of three or four different songs, and I must admit I was struggling a little bit at the time to think what to write about. Then for some reason I suddenly got inspired by her and read a bit more about it. She's always been a character that's been behind the band since our first inception, so I thought maybe I could concentrate on her for this album. The music, as well, was suggesting her; it was sinuous, elegant, fast and a bit melodic. So once we had a few songs I just thought 'let's do it.'"

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Cradle Of Filth recently announced dates for the band’s first North American tour since 2009, a headlining run on the Creatures From The Black Abyss Tour”, set to kick off in February. NACHTMYSTIUM, TURISAS and DANIEL LIONEYE will round out the tour’s impressive package on Cradle Of Filth’s long-awaited return to North American shores.

North American tour dates include:

February

1 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
2 - Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom
4 - Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre
5 - Pomona, CA - Fox Theater
6 - Las Vegas, NV@ House of Blues
8 - Los Angeles, CA - Club Nokia Live
9 - San Francisco, CA@ Regency Ballroom
11 - Seattle, WA - Showbox Theatre
12 - Spokane, WA - Knitting Factory
13 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
15 - Edmonton, AB - Edmonton Events Center
16 - Calgary, AB - MacEwan Hall Ballroom
18 - Englewood, CO - Gothic Theatre
20 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues
21 - Milwaukee, WI - The Rave
23 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Zoo
25 - Detroit, MI - Harpo's
26 - Toronto, ON - Sound Academy
27 - Montreal, QC - Metropolis
28 - Quebec City, QC - Imperial de Quebec

March

2 - Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
3 - New York, NY - Best Buy Theater
4 - Worcester, MA - Palladium
5 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom
6 - Baltimore, MD - Bourbon Street Ballroom
8 - Norfolk, VA - Norva Theatre
9 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
11 - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Revolution
12 - Orlando, FL - Firestone
13 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade

A new preview track (‘The Spawn Of Love And War’) from Cradle Of Filth's new album, Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa is up on the Peaceville mini-site here; click on the audio player to listen to all of the samples.

As well, a video clip taken from the Making Of 'Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned)' documentary, part of the Fans' Edition Box set, available exclusively from Peaceville.com can be viewed below. The clip was shot on location in West London on the day of the video shoot for 'Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned)'.

'Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned)' is now available from iTunes, Amazon and all major download stores.

The video for the song can be seen below:

Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa was released on the band’s own AbraCadaver imprint through Peaceville Records on November 1st in Europe and will be available via Nuclear Blast on November 9th in North America.

Cradle Of Filth previously unveiled the designs of the final contents of the fans’ edition of Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa. Check it out below:

This special fans’ edition is only available from Peaceville.com and will be limited; once they sell out they will never be re-pressed. Dani Filth has already stated, this is will be, "the best Cradle Of Filth release that we have ever created, the ultimate version of our ultimate album. For you, our loyal mortal appreciators."

The fans’ edition comes packaged in a deluxe hard box containing:

Two-CDs – the album plus a disc of bonus tracks and demos (including Adest Rosa Secreta Eros, an exclusive track that will not be available on any other edition of the album)

DVD – the promo video for Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned) plus a documentary on the making of the video

A LP sized 64 page hard-back book. The book features hi-quality artwork and photos and a short story based around the album written by Dani. A sneak preview of some of the pages from the book, which will also house the 2CDs and DVD included in the set, is now on the band’s mini-site.

An exclusive t-shirt available only in this box

A stunning limited edition lenticular 3D image of the album cover art, ready for framing

Five 8” x 6”photographic prints of members of the band.

An official certificate of authenticity from the band.

The vinyl and two-CD special editions of the album are also now available to pre-order:

The double, heavyweight (180gsm), coloured (one disc on blue and one disc on red) vinyl edition is limited to 2000 numbered copies and comes packaged a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves. The vinyl edition also comes with a dropcard with a unique code to download digital version the album. Click here to order.

The two-CD edition of the album features four bonus tracks and comes packaged in a 20 page digibook. Click here to order your copy.