{"id":290990,"date":"2025-11-30T06:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T06:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/290990\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T06:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T06:26:07","slug":"six-former-cradle-of-filth-members-file-lawsuit-against-frontman-dani-filth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/290990\/","title":{"rendered":"Six former Cradle of Filth members file lawsuit against frontman Dani Filth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six former members of metal band\u00a0Cradle\u00a0Of\u00a0Filth<\/a> have filed a lawsuit against the group\u2019s frontman Dani Filth.<\/p>\n

In August, keyboardist Zoe Marie Federoff and her husband, guitarist Marek \u2018Ashok\u2019 \u0160merda, announced they were leaving the band<\/a>,\u00a0later\u00a0citing \u201clow pay\u201d and \u201cstress\u201d as among the reasons for their departures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u0160merda\u00a0wrote at the time that he and Federoff felt the band could not \u201cprovide for our future\u201d,\u00a0adding:\u00a0\u201cAmong other reasons it is a lot of work for relatively low pay, the stress is quite high, and we haven\u2019t felt for a while like this band actually\u00a0prioritising\/caring about members. It has been years of unprofessional\u00a0behaviour\u00a0from people above us that led to our decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guitarist also cited\u00a0the band\u2019s collaboration with Ed Sheeran<\/a>\u00a0in his decision, saying\u00a0the it\u00a0felt like \u201cfoolish clown antics\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now, it has\u00a0emerged\u00a0that Federoff and\u00a0\u0160merda\u00a0are among those to have filed legal papers in Arizona against the band and Dani Filth \u2013 real name Daniel Lloyd Davey. Paul Allender, who played guitar\u00a0from 1992 to 1995 and 1999 to 2014, and Richard Shaw, guitarist from 2014 to 2022, are also named as plaintiffs, as is Lindsay Matheson, keyboardist from 2013 to 2020, and Sasha Baxter, who appeared in some of the band\u2019s\u00a0videos.<\/p>\n

The complaints in the suit include alleged copyright infringement, misappropriation of the plaintiffs\u2019 likenesses in merchandise, defamation, unpaid royalties for live shows and\u00a0recordings\u00a0and unauthorised use of copyright.<\/p>\n

Dani Filth has yet to respond to the suit.<\/p>\n

After Federoff and \u0160merda left the band, the frontman shared his \u201cside of the story\u201d, posting screenshots of a text exchange between \u0160merda and the band\u2019s manager Dez Fafara. Filth claimed the contracts the band members signed were supposed to be rough drafts and they were signed in a rush so that the tour could get off the ground, which he said was a \u201cmistake\u201d.<\/p>\n

Filth also said the South American tour that led to Federoff and\u00a0\u0160merda\u2019s\u00a0departure involved drunken fights between the couple, including an alleged incident in front of fans\u00a0who\u2019d\u00a0gathered for a meet-and-greet. Filth alleges that this was \u201ca pattern of abusive behavior that strained the entire team\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also\u00a0shared\u00a0\u201cone final statement\u201d on the matter in September<\/a>, wishing\u00a0\u0160merda\u00a0and Federoff well, but\u00a0refuting\u00a0their allegations of \u201ctheft\u201d and \u201cexploitation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo Zoe and Ashok: despite everything, I do wish you well. We shared great times together, and\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0always be grateful for those memories. But I\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0let unfounded slander define this band or diminish the work\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0put into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He concluded the post by saying the focus remained on delivering shows \u201cwith the passion our fans deserve, and on building a stronger, clearer foundation for all our musicians moving forward\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six former members of metal band\u00a0Cradle\u00a0Of\u00a0Filth have filed a lawsuit against the group\u2019s frontman Dani Filth. In August,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,5204,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-290990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-metal","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}