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Face-Off Challenge: Cradle of Filth & Unleash The Archers

Cradle of Filth / Unleash the Archers
(via Skype)

Well, this is a first for Sonic Cathedral. Instead, of Robin Stryker relentlessly tormenting bands with interview questions, we invited two very special guests -- Lindsay Schoolcraft (female vocalist and keyboardist of the British metal band, Cradle of Filth) and Brittney Slayes (vocalist for the Vancouver-based metal band, Unleash The Archers) -- to torment each other. Because Lindsay and Brittney hail from a country famous for having the world’s most polite citizens, they cheerfully agreed to be our guinea pigs, but opted for a love-fest rather than a blood-fest.


Face-Off Challenge: Cradle of Filth & Unleash The Archers

 


By way of background, both of our guests live in Canada; they became friends through Eve’s Apple, the now-defunct online community of female metal vocalists; and they both have upcoming albums that will be released by major labels in the next few weeks. Figure the odds, right? Cradle of Filth’s Hammer Of The Witches will be released worldwide on July 11, 2015 via Nuclear Blast Records, while Unleash The Archers’ Time Stands Still has a European release date of June 26, 2015 via Napalm Records. Without further ado, let the shenanigans begin!

Sonic Cathedral:  Welcome to Sonic Cathedral’s first Face-Off Challenge! The rules of engagement are that each of you will have approximately 10 minutes to interview the other person. The final 10 minutes or so will be to a free-for-all where anything goes. Lindsay, prior to going on the record, we did a coin-toss, and you will lead off by asking Brittney questions.

Lindsay:  I miss you, Brittney! We live on the opposite side of the country, actually. Just so everyone knows, I’m from the East, and she’s from the West, so we have a couple thousand miles between us.

Brittney:  Mmmhmm, and a few long prairies, and mountains, and whatnot …

Lindsay:  And waterfalls, and tornadoes. Yeah, we’ve got it all … ice storms, you name it.

Being a fan of your music, I notice that there are themes of outer space and fantasy in your lyrics. On your new album, Time Stands Still, are there going to be a lot of those recurring themes as well?

Brittney:  For Time Stands Still, we kind of did a little bit of a concept thing, where we are talking about what it’s like to be an independent band -- we were independent -- in Canada … the touring aspects, dealing with lots of the issues that are going to come your way, dealing with your fans, and things like that. We kind of twisted it into kind of a fantastical theme.

It is not like I’m literally talking about the fans of Canada. For instance, in the song “Frozen Steel”, we’re talking about the warriors of Canada, and those are all the Northern metal-heads. So, there is still a lot of that sci-fi/fantasy aspect to it. But we are taking reality, and twisting it into something that it’s not -- just making it more fantastical than it is, really.

Lindsay:  I’ve heard the preview that’s been sent out, and I absolutely love it! But I’ll be excited to have time to sit down and REALLY listen to it.

Brittney:  Well, thank you!

Lindsay:  For your new video, “Tonight We Ride”, where did you get the inspiration for the visuals, and who designed your outfits and the props?

Brittney:  The outfits were all designed by our then-bass player’s girlfriend, Yomi Jordan. (She has an Etsy store where you can see all the stuff that she has made.) So, she did most of the stuff. A few of the elements in my outfit, like my big leather pauldron and a couple of other things, were done by Jasmine at Hellbent Creations here in Vancouver. She does all of my stagewear. She is actually working on a whole new outfit for me for this next tour, that is going to be super-rad, and I’m really excited to reveal that.

Basically, we were given the opportunity to use the props from “Death Guild Thunderdome”, which is a camp from Burning Man. We were hooked up with the director, Nathan Karma Cox, also through our then-bass-player, Brad. He said: “We’ve got all these cool cars. You guys could come out to the desert, and we could do some sort of Mad Max type thing.” So, of course, we were super down with that! It was actually a really lucky opportunity that we got.

We originally were going to release “Tonight We Ride” in 2014. We were aiming for a Summer/early Fall release, but when Napalm contacted us, that pushed everything aside. It actually just so happened to come out at the same time as Mad Max: Fury Road. So, it was kind of like fate almost that we were inspired by Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and then got to release the video two weeks after Mad Max: Fury Road. <laughs> Yeah, it was pretty great!

Lindsay:  That is so cool how it all worked out! I also noticed that we are deer-horn sisters, and you are wearing antlers in the music video. How did you like wearing antlers? <laughs>

 

Face-Off Challenge: Cradle of Filth & Unleash The Archers 

 

Brittney:  It wasn’t too bad. They were things that Yomi brought down. It was like an actual little deer’s head that was all tied to my head using my hair, and bobby-pinned in real tight. So, I had a little skull on my head. I don’t think it was real … I’m pretty sure it was just a prop, because that would have been GROSS if it was real. <both laugh> Yomi just wrapped my hair all around it.

I mean, I didn’t use it in the scenes where they were all just close-ups of us all rocking out, because I wanted to be able to head-bang and stuff. I couldn’t really do that with antlers on, so we just did it for the Queen of the Desert leading her entourage into the sunset scenes. Your antlers are way bigger though!

Lindsay:  If I was actually a deer in real life, I’d be terrible because I kept knocking them off of everything. <Brittney laughs> I don’t know if you have the same problem, where you keep hitting off of things.

Brittney:  No, actually for the most part, it was okay. But they were smaller. Yours are like for reals.

Lindsay:  <laughs> Yeah, they’re MASSIVE.

Brittney:  But they look rad, so that’s worth it; right? <laughs>

Lindsay:  We’re definitely queens of SOMETHING. You are queen of looking awesome in the bobby-pins, and I’m queen of knocking my antlers off of everything. <laughs> Literally, I got them tangled in a tree. It was hilarious -- like straight out of a Disney movie! I was a total klutz, while you actually look awesome and cool.

Brittney:  You do too, with that black metal, surreal Songstress in the Night thing going on.

Lindsay:  Awww, thanks! I try. Okay, so, can you tell us something interesting about each of the guys in your band and whether they have any hidden talents?

Brittney:  Grant [our guitarist] is actually really good at backing up the trailer, so we always call him the Trailer Wizard. It is kind of crazy because, with regular driving, he’s scary. He goes really fast, and is always smoking a cigarette, drumming on the steering wheel, and singing along to Hibria or some crazy power metal going on, and just not paying attention at all, whatsoever. But then, when he gets into reverse and it’s “go” time, he just ROCKS it. It’s pretty awesome. So, I think that’s probably Grant.

Andrew [our other guitarist] is an artist. He is really good at drawing, and he always draws funny little cartoons. There is a really good one of Brayden [our former guitarist] that he drew a long time ago that is somewhere, I don’t know quite where, but we all kept it. He takes tour jokes and things that we bug each other about on the road, and then turns them into these little one-cartoon caricatures. Ah, they are absolutely hilarious! We were actually talking about creating a collage, and using it as our album cover. <laughs>

Lindsay:  Nice!

Brittney:  It would be pretty funny, but okay, we would never really do that. A couple of them did make it onto their guitar picks … I think we put a little picture of Grant on his guitar pick or something.

Kyle [our bassist] is really good at doing voices. I don’t know how to explain it, but he just pulls voices out. He’s got the Southern football coach voice, just trying to get you all riled up for the game. He’s got the annoying old lady voice that he does, who’s tired and slow and whiny. He’s got a few that he pulls out, that are always good for a laugh when you’ve been in the van for too long.

Scott [our drummer], you know, I think I know him too well to divulge all of his secret talents. <laughs> Yeah, I honestly could probably come up with a million that would all embarrass the shit out of him …

Lindsay:  Any hidden talent that he is useful for on tour?

Brittney:  Useful for? <both laugh> Well he’s pretty funny, I mean when we all hate each other and things are almost at a strangle point, he always finds a way to pull us out of it.

Sonic Cathedral:  The 10-minute buzzer has sounded. Lindsay, you’re now in the hot seat. Brittney what do you have for Lindsay?

Brittney:  Besides keys and vocals, did you do anything else on the record? Because I know that you are also a harpist and a very talented musician, I just wondered if you added anything to the new Hammer Of The Witches by Cradle of Filth.

Lindsay:  Well, I did the leads over the choirs. Because we were using samples, I had to do all the leads to meld real voices with the choir voices. It was big and atmospheric, almost like a creepy old movie soundtrack. So, there is that. Uhm, I’m just thinking and trying to wrap my head around it because I was asking the questions, and now I’m like: “Oh crap, I have to answer questions now!” <Brittney laughs>

Brittney:  There was some spoken-word stuff too. Did you …

Lindsay:  Yes, I had to do that. That was really difficult because Dani kind of threw it at me last-minute, and he expected me to know how to pronounce all these big words I’d never heard of before. Let’s face it, our Canadian school system is not as vast a England’s. <laughs> Well, I didn’t pay attention during English class.

But yes, I did the voice-acting stuff. It was really new for me, and it was really scary, but it was really exciting. And there was harp. But the problem with the harp is that I only own a folk harp and an electric harp. <laughs> “I ONLY own”, that makes it sound so …

Brittney:  <posh accent> My one of three harps …

 

 Face-Off Challenge: Cradle of Filth & Unleash The Archers

 

Lindsay:  <matching posh accent> … my one of three ELEGANT harps. I don’t own a concert harp, like the big lever grand harps that you’d find in the orchestra, which is what the guys decided they wanted for the sound. I played through some of the parts on the piano, and I pedaled them to give them the same feel. Then I sent them over to our drummer Martin, and he put in the samples for the concert grand harp.

So, it is my compositions. I know in some parts it is my playing, but I didn’t get a chance to do all of them. It is something we are going to discuss down the road, if I ever do get a concert grand harp. But in the meantime, it’s just kind of there. But yeah, that’s about it.

I guess I’m kind of like the jack-of-all-trades. It was the longest week of my life, being in the studio over in England. They expected me to be the choir girl, the sexy British voice for the speeches … oh my gosh.

Brittney:  I think you did really well. You pulled it off, for sure!

Lindsay:  Thank you so much!

Brittney:  What was the hardest part to record?

Lindsay:  Definitely the speeches. There were a few high notes that they did want me to hit in some parts that were instrumental. Because I was so tired and jet-lagged, I pretty much worked on the single [“Right Wing Of The Garden Triptych”] the first full day I was there, and I had two more days. So, the second day was like 10 hours of choir, between editing. And the last day was all the spoken-word.

Dani wanted it to sound a certain way because he wanted to keep it to the old-school sound. So, it was a lot. It was hard; I won’t lie. I had to probably repeat some parts 20 times until I got it. I swear, our producer, Scott Atkins, was trying to break me, but he didn’t.

Brittney:  That’s great. Well, I mean “not great”, but you killed it! So, how did it work? You live over in Ontario, Canada, and the rest of the boys are in the UK. How did the song-writing process work? Did they send you tabs? Did you write all your parts right there in the studio? Were they giving you free rein, or did they have ideas already set that they wanted you to follow through with?

Lindsay:  It was a big collaborative effort. I am not a guitarist, but I know a little bit about bass. Who am I kidding? I was on bass for eight years, but not extreme heavy metal … it was like funk and reggae and stuff. But don’t tell Dani, or he’ll ostracize me. <Brittney laughs> Oh, he HATES it.

I don’t play guitar, so I don’t understand the basic band set-up to save my life. But I do understand classical orchestration, instrumentals, and atmosphere-building. What kind of happened in the beginning is that me and the bassist, Daniel Firth, got together. It was just me sending over instrumental ideas, him sending over full-band written stuff, and then we built off of each other. Once everyone else came in, we just picked and chose who we wanted to work with on what part. It was a crazy, collaborative effort by five people. But it was all done over Dropbox, Skype, and email.

I think it’s good that it happened over email because we’re from four different countries, and the accent and language barriers were diffused over email. Know what I mean? When we got together over the Russian tour or the festivals last year, we’d sit and discuss it, and jam it, and stuff. It was a lot of work, but it was so much easier to do it over email.

Brittney:  My favorite song is “Blackest Magick In Practice”. Do you have a favorite on the record?

Lindsay:  My favorite would have to be the … oh, I can’t remember the name of it because it has big words … no, no, it’s because I’m used to the demo names. <all laugh>

Brittney:  Oh yeah, I know what you mean!

Lindsay:  Ah right, it’s called “The Monstrous Sabbat”, that’s it. It is the instrumental one on the track. Really, I wrote it with someone beforehand, and I composed all the harp. I like what they did. I had a different idea in my mind because music can go in so many directions. I stripped it back down to the harp, and gave it to Martin. He composed his part over it -- he did exactly what I had in my head as what I wanted for it originally. So, it was a collaboration with him, and it was really special to me.

I don’t know if I would say it’s my favorite because I actually love ALL the songs on the album. Picking your favorite song is like picking your favorite child; you just can’t.

Brittney:  That’s true; that’s definitely true.

Lindsay:  You have to love them all equally. I bet you feel the same way about your new album, right?

Brittney:  Yes, I do.

The first time that I heard Cradle of Filth was when I was playing the videogame Brutal Legend, back in 2009. There is a whole scene where you’re fighting this black metal/goth metal bad guy, and “Her Ghost in the Fog” is the song that is playing in the background. So, I was wondering whether you were a really big fan before you joined, or if you were a passive listener. What was the deal?

Lindsay:  It’s actually hilarious … I despised the band in high school; I really did not like them at all. My little brother is a huge fan, and I’d just make fun of him. I was very ignorant to the fact of how important Cradle of Filth were to extreme heavy metal. Because I listened to punk in high school, that wasn’t something I would know, even though there are punk elements to the band. I was just an ignorant teenager. I always knew that Cradle of Filth was an important band for heavy metal, and I realized the impact that it had on a lot of people, whether they were artists or musicians or writers. But I just didn’t care. And that’s so sad!

I would say that, until the summer before I was asked to join the band, when the person I was living with gave me Midian -- which has “Her Ghost in the Fog” on it -- and they were like: “Just try it one more time.” This person introduced me to a lot of heavy metal, and he got me into bands like Dimmu Borgir, Belphegor, and more death and black metal. So, I was like: “Okay, I’ll give this a shot.” And I listened to Midian, and it was like: “Wow, this is amazing!”

I had to text my brother, and apologize to him for taking jabs at him all those years, because Cradle of Filth is actually an awesome band. I now appreciate it so much more because I’ve learned to play a lot of the catalog. It takes some serious chops to play, and to go through everything and change the voice all the time. It’s a lot. I really have a lot of respect for the previous writers in the band.

 

Face-Off Challenge: Cradle of Filth & Unleash The Archers 

 

Sonic Cathedral:  Ladies, wipe your brows, because it is time for the free-for-all portion of today’s chat.

Lindsay:  Okay, Brittney, I have a question for you. Being a Canadian, are you addicted to Tim Hortons coffee as well?

Brittney:  No, actually. I don’t drink coffee.

Lindsay:  Oh my god, you’re not Canadian enough! Do you at least like maple syrup or own a canoe?!?

Brittney:  <laughs> I do like maple syrup, and like it on everything -- on my bacon, on my sausage, pancakes, toast, eggs, WHATEVER. If it’s a breakfast thing, I like maple syrup on it. I don’t really drink coffee, and I never have, although I do have an espresso machine. So, if I do drink coffee, I’ll have an almond milk latte, but that’s about it. I’m not going to say that I don’t love Tim Hortons and that I don’t love the fact that it’s now moving into the US.

Lindsay:  FINALLY, right?

Brittney:  It will be like a home-away-from-home, when we’re out there on those long drives.

Lindsay:  Except the Americans probably won’t give you free wi-fi. Be honest.

Brittney:  You know what? You’re totally right!

Lindsay:  Yeah, you know what it’s like touring in the States. <laughs>

Brittney:  Yeah, I didn’t even think about that. Uhhhhh, you ruined all my dreams. But that’s okay because we can go to Starbucks, and get their free wi-fi.

Lindsay:  Yeah, the free wi-fi that won’t allow you to transfer big files.

Brittney:  Exactly! Or apparently (according to a friend of mine who is on tour now) let you go on RedTube. I don’t know why he wanted to do that, but I’m just gonna let that one hang.

Because you’ve been so many more places than I have, my question for you is … not for the metal crowd, because metal-heads are awesome everywhere … in all your travels, what was the city that you were the most stoked to get to see?

Lindsay:  Most excited for, I’d have to say: Paris. I didn’t expect it to be a big deal, and I didn’t even think we were going to have time. It was kind of like I rolled out of the tour bus that morning … well, I actually woke up to Dani poking me with the broom on the bus. He was like: “Lindsay, Lindsay, get up! We’re in PARIS.” I was like “shut the front door; we are not!” because we didn’t think we were going to stop there.

So, he kind of nudged me out of bed, and I’m just “uggghhhhhhh”. First and foremost, I am not a morning person. I never have been, or will be. <laughs>

Brittney:  I’m not either. I can’t STAND waking up.

Lindsay:  Waking up SUCKS, and I love sleep, especially considering how hard we work as vocalists. I just throw it out there: As a vocalist, wouldn’t you agree that it’s like running a marathon?

Brittney:  Totally!

Lindsay:  It kicks the shit out of you.

Brittney:  Don’t ever let Scott hear that because he’s a drummer, and they work … it’s something like playing three football games in a row, if you do an hour set on drums. But he doesn’t think that we work hard, and I just want to punch him in the face sometimes.

Lindsay:  Tell him that it’s painful. Just be like: “Okay, try to enter a balloon-animal contest, but you have to do it for an hour-and-a-half.” Right?!? Exactly. <all laugh> Oh, drummers! They don’t get it.

Where were we? Oh yeah, Paris. So, I totally didn’t wear proper walking attire, and the bassist had to give me a piggy-back ride up the stairs to the Sacred Heart. At the end of the day, my feet were DONE. But we went through Paris, and it was just phenomenal! We did the whole day … we did a full 14 hours. Luckily, our bus was about a 10-minute train ride out of the city, which was amazing.

We didn’t play Paris, unfortunately. We just stopped there between shows because (I think) Behemoth was playing Paris that day on the Behemoth tour. So, we were following through with them, and staying close together. They did a private show, so we had the full day off. It was one of my best memories, for sure. We saw EVERYTHING in those 14 hours. We paid a lot of money for food in a tourist trap area, but that’s okay. Everybody says that, when they go to Paris, they spend so much money on food. But it was just an “I’ll never forget it” kind of thing.

I got really lucky. That’s the thing with tours, sometimes you get these surprises, where you’ll show up in a random place or you’ll run into a random person, and be like: “Holy crap, I didn’t expect THAT to happen.”

Brittney:  So, what was it like with Behemoth? Did you get to hang out with them at all?

Lindsay:  Those guys work so hard that I barely saw them, honestly. They are GREAT guys, and we had a lot of fun with them when we did get to talk to them and stuff. They’ve actually got a good sense of humor. They were great, and their live show was fantastic. They had all the pyrotechnics … oh, it was just so cool! It was a very short tour though. It was only maybe four weeks, but usually the tours are six to eight weeks or something.

 

Face-Off Challenge: Cradle of Filth & Unleash The Archers 

 

Brittney:  Cool!

Lindsay:  For you, when you’re on tour, what is the one thing that you wish the guys would understand, but you don’t even want to mention it?

Brittney:  <clears throat> Keeping the freakin’ van CLEAN. I mention it all the time, but it doesn’t matter. It’s crazy. How hard is it to just take your garbage, and put it in the garbage?!? Nooooooooo, just leave it on the floor or wherever you were eating it. It’s insane. <sighs> It’s so funny too because they would go somewhere like the liquor store … I don’t really drink on tour … so I’d be like “okay, bye!” Then I’d have the rig to myself, and start furiously cleaning in the 10 minutes that I had to myself in there.

They would come back, and be like “WHERE is everything?” because I put it away. “It’s in your bag where it should be, you dummy, not on the floor. Oh look, Ray-Bans! I would love to just step on those, and crush them to pieces. But no, I’m going to put them away for you.” It’s just freakin’ hilarious. <Lindsay laughs>

I guess I’m kind of a nut job about it too. I’m really OCD, and like for things to be clean -- with a place for everything, and everything in its place. Our van always has little Tupperwares in it, with drawers and things. If you need salt or pepper, utensils, or a can opener, it’s in this drawer.

Lindsay:  Oh my gosh, it’s like a home-away-from-home!

Brittney:  Exactly. But that is what the van is, though. You are spending weeks on end in this van, and that’s your little escape. When someone spills an entire bag of spits on the floor, it just kind of ruins everything.

Lindsay:  <laughs> I’m just picturing sunflower seeds everywhere!

Brittney:  Yes, everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It was horrible.

Lindsay:  I just sympathize with you such much, Brittney, because I’m the one who cleans the bus. When it’s a hotel-room tour, it’s awesome! But when it’s on a bus, it’s like: “Oh my god, I’m gonna kill ALL of you.”

Brittney:  I can only imagine! I’m sure the next one will be no different. We are actually organizing a bus tour right now. I’m like <sarcastically>: “Yay, a bigger space to clean!”

Lindsay:  Honestly, girl, it’s gonna be like that. You are going to love it, and you’re going to appreciate the bus. You will. But you’re still going to be doing the same thing. Because you have a bus, the random shit that they will collect and bring … and you don’t know what to do with … is amazing. Trust me on that. There have been toy dinosaurs from the last tour.

Brittney:  Awww, that’s great! We do that too, but then we tape them to the dashboard.

Lindsay:  That’s smart!

Brittney:  We had this dragon figurine and … oh, what was it? … I think it was a Darth Vader figurine or maybe a Jedi, but it was definitely something from Star Wars. And then we had this Fortune Kitty. You know when you go into Chinese restaurants …

Lindsay:  The cat with its little paw up?

Brittney:  Yeah, that’s it. Some of them, the paw will move. We have one of those, and it has been on our dashboard for every tour we’ve ever done. We actually cubed our old van because it kaput on us … out in Toronto, actually. So, we took the Fortune Kitty from there, and it’ll be on the dashboard of the tour bus and on all tour vehicles to come. But yeah, usually, we just sort of collected crap on the dashboard. <all laugh> I totally participated in that too, so I can’t complain.

Sonic Cathedral:  Last question, ladies.

Brittney:  Do you have a day job?

Lindsay:  <laughs> No!

Brittney:  Dammit!

Lindsay:  I’m sorry! I’m so Canadian, eh? “I’m sorrrrrry, Brittney.” I am sending all my “sorries” to the Eve’s Apples, now. I won’t lie, it was just this year (at the turn of 2015), where I could say that I don’t need a day job any more. I am very proud of it, and also very broke. I eat a lot of canned beans with crackers.

Brittney:  Nice.

Lindsay:  But I did have a lot of crazy jobs before that. Like, last year, I worked for a jewelry shop and as an auctioneer. That was really interesting. I got to auction off crap.

Brittney:  Did you have to talk really fast?

Lindsay:  No, I didn’t have to do that. It was all done online, thank god, because I would just trip over my words. <Brittney laughs>

Brittney:  You would have had a great diaphragm though.

Lindsay:  They could have at least hired me for that. But I would pretty much just clean up stuff, and put it in lots. Then, people would buy it online, and I’d be there the day that they’d come pick it up. It was mostly furniture and trinkets and stuff. So, I did that. I have worked at every coffee shop under the moon, literally -- Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Second Cup, and Neighbours. The only one I haven’t worked at is Coffee Time, and I don’t think I ever want to.

But yeah, with everything going on, I’ve been very blessed and fortunate that I can do session work, and sing for people, and write songs. It seems like everyone (and their mom) wants harp on their album or their song. I’m like “alright!”

How about you?

 

 Face-Off Challenge: Cradle of Filth & Unleash The Archers

 

Brittney:  <sighs> I definitely still have a day job, but it’s a good one. I work in a family business. My brother and my mom, we all work in an office, and we sell light fixtures. Woohoo!

Lindsay:  There’s nothing wrong with that.

Brittney:  I really love the technical side of it, and I love learning about it, because (for example) LEDs are really cool right now. Everything is growing, and technology is changing so fast. I am learning about the circuitry and all that kind of stuff, so that part of it is cool. But, at the end of the day, you’re just selling light fixtures to people, and having people yell at you when they don’t work or something.

Lindsay:  Oh, no!

Brittney:  But it’s really awesome because it allows me to pursue music and to not live off canned beans and ramen noodles.

Lindsay:  <laughs> Yeah, it’s not as glamorous as you think. You might look like a cool person online, but then you’re sitting down like: “Okay, I spent my last $10 on toilet paper, and I’ve got two cans of beans and some pasta (with no tomato sauce).” It is fine though. I’m happy, and won’t starve. It has just been one of those weeks. You know how you have those weeks?

Brittney:  Oh, for sure. Honestly, I can’t wait for the day when music can pay the bills, if that ever happens.

Lindsay:  I think it will. The new album sounds fantastic! I mean, congratulations on the label, and I saw the one million views on your last music video [“General of the Dark Army”], which I love, by the way. I am terrible with names, but I remember loving the shit out of that video. When I saw that it had one million views, I was like “SHUT UP!!!!” I showed my manager, and she was like: “Oh my god, they’re from Canada?!?” And, I’m like: “Yeah, they are!” <laughs>

Brittney:  It was the helmet. Everyone HATED the helmet that the General wore.

Lindsay:  So, do you think it was a hate thing?

Brittney:  Oh, yeah! It was hilarious. We were like: “We’ve got to find some negative stigma about the new video, so that people will share it like crazy.” It was pretty cool when that happened.

Did you realize that both of our albums come out on the same day -- July 11, 2015?

Lindsay:  Shut up! Really? Oh my god. That is so good, because then I can tweet about us, and share it around on the same day.

Brittney:  Isn’t that funny? I was just looking on the Cradle of Filth Facebook page. Here it is: “Cradle of Filth, Hammer Of The Witches, out July 10th”.

Lindsay:  That is so special! I will be in Germany celebrating that night, because we play Rockharz Open Air that day. The festival technically is on July 9th, but of course, it goes over into the 10th. So, I will be celebrating for you too! That is fantastic.

Sonic Cathedral:  Lindsay and Brittney, that is all the time we have. Thank you both so much for being the willing victims of Sonic Cathedral’s first Face-Off Challenge!

Lindsay:  Thank you for having us.

Brittney:  We appreciate it!

 

 Face-Off Challenge: Cradle of Filth & Unleash The Archers

 

Read Sonic Cathedral’s 2013 interview with Lindsay HERE. Read Sonic Cathedral’s 2012 interview with Brittney HERE

Cradle of Filth official site 
Cradle of Filth on Facebook 
Unleash The Archers official site 
Unleash The Archers on Facebook