Cradle of Filth, the Grammy nominated and highly successful English extreme metal band, has played in front of fans by the thousands at many musical festivals as well as in intimate clubs. However when guitar Paul Allender is placed in front of just a handful of people all alone, his nerves can sometimes get the better of him.

Allender, who is living in Minnesota temporarily said, if I was placed by myself in front of ten kids I wouldn’t be able to play anything. No way. I can only play for people when it’s in a band setting.

Beginning on February 1, Allender will get the opportunity to play in a band setting. Cradle Filth is embarking on the outing “FEARnet and Decibel Presents: Creatures From the Black Abyss Tour” along with Daniel Lioneye, Turisas and Nachtmystium.

Cradle of Filth is comprised of Allender, keyboardist Caroline Campbell, drummer Martin Skaroupka, bassist David Pybus, guitarist James McIlroy and vocalist Dani Filth. They are touring in support of “Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa,” their album released in 2010.

It’s a concept album that is similar to “Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder,” their 2008 predecessor. This time the story centers on a demon named Lilith who is Biblical Adam’s first wife. Allender says writing for a concept album isn’t much different than writing a standard set. It would not be possible, he says, to write riffs around a previous story.

Allender said, it’s written in the same exact way. With this band, we write the music first. We don’t know what the concept will be at that point or what the lyrics will be or what the album will be about. We write certain songs so they will be catchy and so that each track will stand out by itself. Once we have collected some tracks, I will then hand them over to Dani. He will start to come up with ideas and lyrics. In the end it’s his decision whether he does or does not want to make the tracks into a concept album.

“Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa” is fiercely loyal to the ethos of satanic horror. The set was recorded in Suffolk England close to Bury St. Edmunds at the Monkey Puzzle Studios.

It’s out in completely nowhere, said Allender. It was incredible. All my time wasn’t spent there. I was there for six weeks to record the guitars and it was great.

The rural surroundings helped Allender concentrate on the work. Skaroupka and Allender arranged orchestral pieces while they were there.

Allender said, I was stuck pretty much inside a single bedroom. My studio was on the end. It had pink walls. That’s all I saw was the four walls of that room. It was very much like solitary confinement.

Allender doesn’t spend a lot of time listening to the music once it’s been recorded. However in hindsight there are a couple of changes he wished he would have made.

He said, I wish that it had been a bit more intricate. It’s a wonderful thing to have hindsight. I don’t really ever listen to the old stuff. The only time I do is when we need to practice before going on tour. When I look back and listen back to things, I wish the guitars had been a bit more complicated.

“Godspeed,” our last album, was intricate. More so than this one is. It would kind of be nice if there was the same style for the guitars on this one as there was on the last one. It will be different on the next one. I already have started to come up with some ideas for our next one. I’ve been learning some new things on guitar that I haven’t ever played before. There’s lots of shredding stuff. I haven’t really ever done that until this album. I will be experimenting down that road. With my guitar I will make things somewhat more complicated and more symphonic on our next album, to make things more intricate. The song structures will still be the same and things like that. When guitar players are listening to it, it will something they can sink their teeth into.

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