Ville Valo joined forces with Cradle Of Filth for ‘Byronic Man’ in 2006. Dani Filth thought Valo would take the song to a completely different level with his deep voice and assumed things would go very smoothly. After all, Valo was someone who had established himself as one of the metal giants. Although solid plans were made, Valo revealed in his last interview with Loudersound that things didn’t go accordingly.
“We actually ended up doing it twice because the first time around, I was so drunk that it turned out really bad!” Ville confessed, remembering how intoxicated he was while they were recording. “Dani invited me to sing on that song, and we got the files when we were out on tour.”
He continued, “I remember we rented a studio on a day off, and I kept on pounding Stella Artois until I sort of passed the Byronic level. I went too far with all that bohemian crap, and it didn’t sound too good, so I ended up re-singing all of that stuff back in Helsinki.”
Although the recording process was a bit wild, ‘Byronic Man’ ultimately came out. Despite their different styles, both Valo and Filth have a great passion for gothic, and this song is an example of that. Both the song and their album were considered good examples of gothic metal. Some even called the album ‘black magic,’ so their efforts seem to have paid off.
The collaboration on this song was one that satisfied metalheads quite a lot. However, judging by what Valo said later in the interview, it seems unlikely there will be another one like this. Although Valo loved Filth’s music and the duo had a lot in common regarding their passion and talent for gothic metal, they didn’t stay in touch much. In fact, he last saw Filth at a party years ago, and they haven’t interacted much ever since.
