Daniel Lloyd Davey (born 25 July 1973), known professionally as Dani Filth, is an English singer who is the lead vocalist, lyricist and founding member of the extreme metal band Cradle of Filth.

Dani Filth
Dani Filth performing with Cradle of Filth in 2022
Dani Filth performing with Cradle of Filth in 2022
Background information
Birth nameDaniel Lloyd Davey
Also known as
  • Dani Filth
  • Lord Filth
Born (1973-07-25) 25 July 1973 (age 51)
Hertford, Hertfordshire, England
Genres
Occupations
  • Vocalist
  • songwriter
Years active1989–present
Member of

Personal life

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Daniel Lloyd Davey was born to Susan Janet Moore and Laurence John Davey in Hertford and is the eldest child of four.[1]

He married Toni King on 31 October 2005 in Ipswich.[2] The couple have a daughter, Luna.[1] Separated since 2018,[citation needed] he is currently in a relationship with Russian-born, Ipswich-based tattoo artist Sofiya Belousova.[3]

Career

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Dani Filth's present and primary band is Cradle of Filth. He also has been lending his voice to the band Devilment, a side project that has taken off into a full-time job in between Cradle records. His earliest bands were Carnival Fruitcake, The Lemon Grove Kids, PDA, Feast on Excrement, the Bondage Boys, and Hash Gordon and the Drug Barons.[1][4][5] He named Judas Priest, Venom, Emperor, Destruction, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Sabbat, Misfits, Paradise Lost and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas among his major influences.[1]

At the age of eighteen, Filth took up a job at a Chinese restaurant. He later chose his career in music over an internship at a newspaper,[1] although his "Dani's Inferno" column ran for two years in Metal Hammer during the late 1990s.

He has co-written and released The Gospel of Filth with Gavin Baddeley.[6] The book, which Filth describes as an "occult study," features contributions from Clive Barker, Christopher Lee and Ingrid Pierson.[7] He had been accused many times of being a Satanist, but has denounced such rumours, claiming instead to being "more of a Luciferian."[8]

 
Davey in 2008

Away from Cradle, Filth appeared on the Roadrunner United CD in 2005 (contributing vocals to "Dawn of a Golden Age"), and recorded the song "(She's) The Mother of Tears" with Claudio Simonetti and Simonetti's band Daemonia, for the soundtrack of Dario Argento's film The Mother of Tears.[9]

Filth participated in the Temple of the Black Moon project in 2012 with guitarist Rob Caggiano, black metal musician King ov Hell on bass, and drummer John Tempesta. The supergroup aimed to combine rawer, extreme metal with the softer more melodious sounds of progressive rock, describing the band's sound as a "cross between Celtic Frost and Tool".[10] Filth has also released two albums with Devilment since 2014.

His high profile has led to a handful of film and television roles. In 2000, Filth appeared in the movie Cradle of Fear as The Man, a deranged psychopath taking revenge on his father's persecutors. Cradle of Fear unfolds four stories all linked by the thread of an incarcerated child killer wreaking vengeance on those responsible for his imprisonment. The movie's tagline on some posters was, "It's not if they die... It's how...".[11] In 2003, he provided the voice of the eponymous main character in the feature-length animation Dominator. Moreover, Filth has appeared numerous times on British television, most notably 1998's Living With the Enemy, Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2001, Big Brother's Big Mouth in 2008. He has also appeared on the American series Viva La Bam in 2005, and was interviewed for two episodes of the Metal Evolution series, on shock rock and extreme metal in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

In 2010, he was ranked 95 in the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time.[12]

Scottish death metal band Party Cannon dedicated Dani the song "I Believe in Dani Filth",[13] released in December 2021 with an animated version of Dani in a Street Fighter-styled video.[14]

Discography

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Dani Filth performing at Wacken Open Air 2015

Cradle of Filth

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Devilment

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Guest appearances

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Members Chambers". Cradle of Filth Official Website. Archived from the original on 18 November 2006.
  2. ^ "Studio Reports". Archived from the original on 23 November 2006. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  3. ^ "Instagram".
  4. ^ Dani, Filth (28 August 2019). "Interview with Dani Filth". YouTube. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  5. ^ "Dani Filth Interview". YouTube. 24 May 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  6. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Audio Interview with CRADLE OF FILTH's Dani Filth". Archived from the original on 26 October 2009. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  7. ^ "Dani Filth: Cradle of Filth". SuicideGirls.com. 18 February 2008. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
  8. ^ German, Eric. "Interview with Dani Filth". metalupdate.com. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
  9. ^ Roadrunner Records. "CRADLE OF FILTH" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
  10. ^ "DANI FILTH Issues TEMPLE OF THE BLACK MOON Update". 28 January 2012.
  11. ^ "splendid film – Cradle of Fear (auf DVD)". Archived from the original on 26 August 2007. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  12. ^ "Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time". Hearya.com. 4 December 2006. Archived from the original on 24 June 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  13. ^ "Party-slam legends Party Cannon nod to their influences with new single 'I Believe in Dani Filth'". Frontview magazine.be. 4 December 2006. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  14. ^ "Party-slam legends Party Cannon nod to their influences with new single 'I Believe in Dani Filth'". distortedsoundmag.com. 7 December 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  15. ^ "Rock Music: Top Mainstream Rock Songs Chart". Billboard.
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