Thank a very market savvy marketing instinct which includes a very blatant image (the top hat was quickly copied by Dimmu Borgir) and gothic music CoF have quickly climbed the sales charts despite a revolving door and music that often defies metal. Controversy adds fuel to the fire and the band takes full advantage of trading insults with the Uk press, banned merchandise and female flesh. The band was in litigation with Cacophonous for the longest time and finally gave the label an EP to be able to leave. Despite massive interest from Nuclear Blast the band signed with MFN and went from strength to strength. The band finally signed to major label Sony in 2001 resulting in the band sharing the main display window of Tower Records at Piccadilly Square, London with the reformed Roxy Music.

In order to support its 2003 album Damnation And A Day (produced by Doug Cook of Anathema, Cathedral fame as well as mixing four previous Cradle Of Filth releases), Cradle Of Filth hit the road in Europe early that year.

The band announced a new DVD called Mannequin for late 2003. The band was turfed from Sony Records in late 2003. The band soon signed with Roadrunner Records and recorded a new album called Nymphetamine. The act would also recruit guitarist James McKillboy. A tour with Arch Enemy and Himsa would follow. Another tour with Type O Negative would soon be postponed however. The band's deliberately provocative T-shirt 'Gilded Cunt' would soon be censored and duly attract publicity. Former bassist Dave Pybus co-founded Sixsixsix Records in 2005. Cradle Of Filth has recruited Czech drummer Marthus (a.k.a Martin Škaroupka) to replace Adrian Erlandsson who had departed in late 2006 to focus on his own band Nemhain. The group’s Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder album was announced for October 28th, 2008 through Roadrunner Records. The album was based on the French historical figure Gilles de Rais. Dani “Filth” completed The Gospel Of Filth: A Black Metal Bible with Gavin Baddeley in 2009. The book addressed both the history of the occult and the British band. Cradle Of Filth was writing new music aimed for a 2010 release. In August of 2010, vocalist Dani Filth, guitarists Paul Allender and James McIlroy, bassist David Pybus, drummer Martin Skaroupka and keyboard player Ashley Ellyllon entered Monkey Puzzle Studio near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England to begin working on the follow-up to 2008’s Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder, Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa. Cradle Of Filth had signed with Nuclear Blast Records for its next album’s American release, which was due in November. Vocalist Dani "Filth" Davey was dropped in early 2011 from the race to be named one of the top 10 icons of the U.K.'s Suffolk county despite receiving the most votes. The band was touring the USA in early 2011. Cradle Of Filth released a new mini-album, entitled Evermore Darkly…, on October 10th, 2011 through Peaceville Records. The package included a DVD.

Midnight In The Labyrinth was the name of a 2012 ‘orchestral’ album by Cradle Of Filth featuring reworked material from the band’s first four albums including choirs, strings and some added dubs. It was out on April 21st. Masterplan recruited drummer Martin "Marthus" Skaroupka in 2012 to record for the band's new album. The gang would release its tenth studio album, The Manticore And Other Horrors, in North America on October 30th, 2012 through Nuclear Blast Records.

CRADLE OF FILTH - BITTER SUITES TO SUCCUBI - ABRACADAVER/SPITFIRE
Cradle Of Filth is the unsurpassed glam band of the new century. Everything regarding this band du jour smacks of the kind of commercialism for which people fall as a function of the inherent subservience to herd mentality in the pathetic human race. While Kiss and Sweet were the foremost glamsters of the seventies, Poison of the eighties and the nineties gave us Gwar and White Zombie; the new century gives us Cradle Of Filth. The band uses more makeup and gimmicks in its photos than entire labels (with the exception of Nuclear Blast and Dimmu something) spend on promotion. The oh-so clever play on words of the band's label extends to the album title. The biography spends pages revealing the manifesto to the theses of coolness never bothering to mention a thing about their music, including the present album's one cover and three rerecorded songs. Cradle Of Filth simply live off the hype, image and the correct bet that the established media will tow the party line. Judging by the photos, six Marilyn Manson concubines with six times more references and allusions to erotic angels than Aeroshit have about their dicks deliver shrilly, ultra-treble dancey goth rock - with Mickey Mouse acting as front man. Finally, please stop parading the semi-nude female photos. Hustler has it tenfold at half the price of a CD. Just plain give it up boys. Remember what happened to Poison? - Ali "The Metallian"