In a new interview with Angela Croudace of Australia’s Heavy magazine, CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani Filth was asked what his thinks about the fact that some people view his band’s music as “blasphemous”. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It’s only blasphemous to certain people. It’s pigeonholed, really. Well, I don’t really view it as that, as such. I mean, if you’re not confined by religion, this sort of thing doesn’t really enter into everyday life. So, are you actually being blasphemous, if you don’t think you’re being blasphemous? If you’re blasphemous to one religion, surely that would be blasphemous to all religions, which it evidently isn’t, because all religions essentially are different, but they just argue about God’s messenger. They can never decide which one’s the true. Well, they can, but it’s always theirs. [Laughs]
“So, no, I don’t really give a shit about religion,” he continued. “I do love the iconography and I love the fact that… There are good messages in it. I just think that time has just worn out the message. I think there’s just too much blood, too much misery in religion’s name to warrant it being regarded as a modern thing. I mean, surely nowadays everybody can see the world is not flat and the world wasn’t born 2,000 years ago or 4,000 years ago or 6,000 years ago. And the dinosaurs weren’t part of the Bible… What I’m saying is, it’s ridiculous, the notion of it all. The message, I get it. But the notion of it being still valid today, it just makes no sense. In an age of science, it makes no sense. So, that being in mind, it’s totally invalidated in my opinion. And I don’t give a two shits about it… I respect it — don’t get me wrong, I respect people’s belief. It’s the belief that’s the most important part of it, and I respect that. [But all the rest is] utter garbage.”
CRADLE OF FILTH‘s infamous T-shirt featured a masturbating nun and a back print proudly proclaiming the slogan “Jesus Is A C**t”.
CRADLE‘s most iconic piece of merchandise was first released in 1993 and spent most of the ensuing decade as a lightning rod for arguments about freedom of speech, and was the cause of several arrests for public indecency.
The “Jesus Is A C**t” shirt has been a source of controversy for more than three decades, with the CRADLE OF FILTH members previously warning fans about wearing the shirt in public.
In 1996, a CRADLE fan was arrested in London for wearing the T-shirt; he was found guilty of committing “Profane Representation under the 1839 Act” and was fined £150. A year later, the group’s drummer was arrested for creating a public disorder and resisting arrest in Dover as he and his bandmates attempted to leave the country for a gig in the Netherlands. In 2008, the shirt was officially banned in New Zealand by the country’s office of the chief censor, which stated that, “The injury to the public good that is likely to be caused by the availability of this T-shirt originates from the manner in which it associates an aggressive and misogynistic meaning of the ‘harsh, brutal and generally unacceptable’ word c**t with Jesus Christ, and depicts an image of a chaste woman engaging in sexual activity.”
CRADLE OF FILTH will release its 14th studio album, “The Screaming Of The Valkyries”, on March 21 via Napalm Records.
CRADLE OF FILTH will co-headline the 2025 edition of the North American “Chaos & Carnage” tour, featuring fellow co-headliners DYING FETUS, as well as FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, NE OBLIVISCARIS, UNDEATH, VOMIT FORTH and CORPSE PILE.
Source: blabbermouth.net
