DANI FILTH

Kvlt purists might argue that Cradle of Filth aren’t really black metal, but Dani Filth doesn’t really care. After all, he’s played – and partied – with just about every major extreme metal band to come out of Europe since the early 90s, and seen his band become a bona fide metal institution. Nymphetamine even earned the band a Grammy nomination in 2004 – although they lost. “To a Motörhead cover of a Metallica song, of all things!” he scoffs, referring to Whiplash. “It’s just a bunch of people who know nothing about music saying, ‘I’ve heard of them, so I’ll vote for them.’”

Nonetheless, the record cemented Cradle’s reputation and proved to be the gateway for many teens to get into the hard stuff. They’ve continued to expand, crafting ever-grander-sounding records while retaining the abyssal heaviness that spawned them. Now on album #13, Existence Is Futile, they grapple with existentialism with a typically baroque sense of bombast.

Hammer caught up with Dani fresh from the band’s triumphant return to the stage at Bloodstock 2021 to talk 30 years of Cradle, crossing over into pop culture and partying on the beach with Kesha… You couldn’t make it up.

You were born in 1973 in Hertford and were raised in Suffolk. What was it like growing up there?

“My mum was still in school – she had