Cradle of Filth Biography

A little history...

Cradle of Filth was formed in 1991 by singer Dani Filth (His real name being Dani Davey), guitarist Paul Ryan, his keyboarder brother Benjamin Ryan, bassist John Richard, and drummer Darren.

One year later, the band recorded their first demo 'Invoking the Unclean'. Shortly after, another guitarist, Robin Eaglestone, was brought on, but quit soon after the second demo, Orgiastic Pleasures.

Soon after, Richard left the band, and Eaglestone joined back to play bass, and Paul Allender joined up to play guitar. After the bands third demo, 'Total Fucking Darkness', Cradle of Filth, now with Nicholas Barker on drums, signed up with the Cacophonous label, with whom they released their first true album in 1994 - 'The Principle of Evil Made Flesh.

Many more lineup changes occurred soon after. The Ryan brothers both left to form Blood Divine. Allender left as well, and guitarists Stuart Antsis and Jared Demeter joined, as well as keyboarder Damien Gregori with the release of the 1996 'Vempire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein. Later that year, 'Dusk and Her Embrace' was released, with Gian Pyres taking over for Demeter, and then Gregori was replaced by keyboarder Les Smith.

Support for the band was already growing rapidly, and the release of 'Cruelty and the Beast' in 1998 helped further spread their fan base. Two years later, 'From the Cradle of Enslave' was recorded with their new drummer Adrian Erlandsson, as Barker left to join Dimmu Borgir. After that, Paul Allender rejoined and Martin Powell replaced Smith on keyboards for the album 'Midian'.

...more to come