It’s the most unlikely team up since Judas Priest and SAW

(Image credit: Venla Shalin/Redferns; Venla Shalin/Redferns (Getty Images))

Cradle Of Filth and Ed Sheeran have collaborated on a new song.

Yes, you read that correctly: Cradle Of Filth and Ed Sheeran. Those black-clad exponents of extreme metal and the beige busker from Ipswich. Clearly, it’s a Suffolk thing.

Nevertheless, Dani Filth, the Filth’s frontman, seems really happy with it. Speaking on Stray From The Path drummer Craig Reynolds’ The Downbeat Podcast, he said that “Ed really pushes himself in it.”

“It’s a brand-new Cradle of Filth song featuring Ed Sheeran, and a lot of it sounds like Ed Sheeran,” he told Reynolds. “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 frontman is unsure when the track will finally be released – the band have decided not to include on their forthcoming follow up to their 2021 album Existence Is Futile. “We didn’t wanna release it back then because we were busy with other things,” he said. “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.”

The collab came about through their respective managers, it seems. “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 Sheeran – Bad Habits feat. Bring Me The Horizon (official audio) – YouTube

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For his part, Sheeran seems to have a genuine love of heavy music. He’s already collaborated with Bring Me The Horizon on a revamped version of his 2021 Number One Bad Habits and in the same year 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.”