January 7, 2025: Dani Filth says Ed Sheeran “really pushes himself” on his collaboration with Cradle of Filth.

The symphonic metal band’s frontman revealed in 2021 that he and the pop megastar had exchanged emails about a surprising duet, and Dani has praised the ‘Castle on the Hill’ hitmaker for nailing his rock vocals.

Speaking on Stray From The Path drummer Craig Reynolds’ ‘The Downbeat Podcast’, Dani said of the track: “It’s a brand-new Cradle of Filth song featuring Ed Sheeran, and a lot of it sounds like Ed Sheeran. He’s playing acoustic guitar, he’s singing Ed Sheeran, but a lot of it sounds like us. There’s a blast beat, scream. Ed really pushes himself in it as well. He does rock vocals. It’s about affirmation. It’s a bit about self-affirmation. It’s a really good song. Only about a handful of people [have heard it]. My mum hasn’t even heard it.”

The band decided not to include the song on their upcoming follow-up to their 2021 LP ‘Existence Is Futile’, but it will come out at some point.

Dani explained: “We didn’t wanna release it back then because we were busy with other things. Then he couldn’t release it because he was doing a bunch of stuff. So it’s just gonna come out when it does. We didn’t wanna put it on the album.”

Recounting how the collaboration came to be, he said: “I don’t know. I think our managers got in touch with each other somehow. His manager, Stuart [Camp], used to listen to Coal Chamber [Cradle of Filth manager Dez Fafara’s band] when he was growing up. Ed [played a vampire in the music video for his single ‘Bad Habits’], and I think one day he got asked questions somewhere where it was, like, ‘Are you into heavy metal?’ I don’t know why. And he said, ‘Yeah, I was really into Slipknot and Cradle of Filth.’ … So apparently [our managers] talked, and the chat came around, we should do a collab, it’d be hilarious. And he was right up for it.”

Ed had told The Sun: “I was really into death metal as a kid. I listened to Cradle of Filth and Slipknot and all that stuff. I’m not saying I could ever step into that world. I learnt all those riffs on guitar as a kid. That’s something I’ve never thought about doing — but something I would not be opposed to creating.”

The Grammy winner surprised his fans in 2022 when he teamed up with heavy rockers Bring Me The Horizon on a heavy version of his pop hit ‘Bad Habits’.