Cradle of Filth Guitarist Claps Back at Dani Filth’s “Side of the Story”

Messy, messy, messy. That’s all that comes to mind now after all of the back and forth between ex-Cradle of Filth members Marek “Ashok” Smerda and Zoe Marie Federoff and Dani Filth’s Cradle of Filth. Accusations have been flying, people have been fired, personal struggles have been aired out in public… It’s just messy.

Rather than go through the whole rigmarole of trying to give you a day-by-day recounting, you can find all that information in the previous story we ran the other day. Just be ready for a lot of back and forth

As for the most recent development, Šmerda responded to Dani Filth’s recent post in which the vocalist said he was offering his “side of the story” and that it was going to be his final post on the matter. And things got a little personal in the post.

In his response, Šmerda said he took issue with Filth trying to gain sympathy by bringing up both his ailing mother and Federoff’s miscarriage. He also took umbrage with the fact that everything had been dragged out into the open in the first place, blaming Filth for many of the problems that led to the blowout in the first place.

Rather than paraphrase his statement, here’s Šmerda’s “last post” on the matter.

“To Dan After Last Post,

And I believe this will be the end of public statements from my side and my wife’s as long as it is end from his side. I know this is grating everyone … me too, but private convos did not sort anything for months. Understand it was a last resort to go public.

I am usually [the] most silent person even when I am hurt, which is probably why it took 12 years to properly say all of this.

Here are my hands. The hands I used to serve you for 12 years. To write and play music for you. I gave you these hands.

Your mom is always [a] great person to me and I wish her healing. Her heart is huge as far as I ever knew. However it feels low to me to use her right now as [an] excuse when we all know she’s been sick since last year. Everyone has been there for you and supportive Dan. We all give so much love and support to her as soon as you tell us.

I lost my own mother to [a] sudden medical tragedy and I never even said goodbye to her — there was o time. She never saw me onstage with Cradle. She haunts me every day. But her memory tells me to be [a] better man and treat others better. I would never use her as [an] excuse for hurting others.

But if you respect mothers, then why twist our tragedy of miscarriage into something that was not true of my wife — she never drank while pregnant. However her doctor told her the lack of sleep, irregular schedule, constant pressure of management threatening her job if she did anything they didn’t like … all of this more than likely contributed to her body rejecting pregnancy. She exhibits high signs of the stress she is under.

It is true we cannot blame it all on you, but for you to assume she was drinking with pregnancy was low, because we all know there is very little that is worse to accuse [a] woman of than killing her own child.

I saw many times [the] rest of the band would protest or argue with you and management but only Zoe was singled out to be mocked and punished. Even now your ‘fans’ call her crazy but I can guarantee every man in the band has said [the] same things she is saying. I am saying it too. There was never the same respect for my wife there was for [the] opinions of the men.

You once had my respect and full loyalty, respect you lost [a] while ago and loyalty you threw away not long ago. Even when I stopped respecting you, when it was obvious you did not care about us, I stayed loyal. Until… you respond to [a] heartfelt plea to give us [a] better chance for living with that sordid contract, which every session member knows you sent with instructions to sign as soon as possible. No one has a shitty contract just lying around to be sent by mistake.

To not take ownership even now for the many ways in which you screw us all, it is not surprising, but it is still sad Dan … cause again, even after years of being treated disposable I wrote my heart and soul into albums for you … because I love music and I love the joy of the fans. it is sad that you could not take responsibility for these issues in private and now they are public, so we are all caught in a giant storm. This is on you for not allowing anything to be handled privately. Just ignore, ignore, ignore everything we tried to tell you for [a] long time.

I wish I could see a man when I look at you, Dan, but I don’t. I see excuses.

In time all will come to light as I do not believe we will be [the] last to say something — although it is now obvious why 40 other ex members never did say much. It has been hell for us to speak up. But I do not regret it.

Treat my brothers still in the band better, if there is any honor left in you. They are damn good people and will always have my love and support. That is [the] entire goal we have.”

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