Cradle of Filth’s ongoing South American tour has taken another dramatic turn, as the band has announced the immediate dismissal of guitarist Marek “Ashok” Šmerda. This just hours after Ashok wrote on his Facebook page he will be leaving Cradle of Filth at the end of this current tour.
In a statement issued by frontman Dani Filth, the band confirmed Ashok’s firing “with a grave heart,” effective immediately. While the details behind the decision remain unclear, Dani Filth stressed that the move was necessary and urged fans to “avoid speculation as more clarity on the situation will be provided.”
“Despite all attempts to illegally defame and derail the band, Cradle Of Filth WILL NOT cancel any of our South American shows,” the statement reads. For now, the group will continue live with just one guitarist until a temporary replacement is flown in over the coming days.
The frontman added that the rest of the band were “taken aback” by the events but remained committed to finishing The Screaming of the Américas tour. He also defended Cradle of Filth’s management, calling accusations against them “completely unjust and unfounded.”
Dani Filth defending his management will also give a clue to why Ashok was fired, as he wrote just a few hours before on his Facebook page: «We simply do not feel like Cradle can provide for our future, and in fact hinders it. Among other reasons it is a lot of work for relatively low pay, the stress is quite high, and we haven’t felt for a while like this band actually prioritizing/caring about members. It has been years of unprofessional behavior from people above us that led to our decision.»
He countinued rating about the Ed Sheeran collab: «I have also asked all compositions of mine removed from upcoming releases including Ed Sheeran collab. This song feels like foolish clown antics for me at this point anyways- first it was charity single for kids, then for profit single, then on next album, and now who knows and I just do not want to be involved anymore, no disrespect to Ed Sheeran.»
He ended the rant with «And I am going to finish this tour strong! For the fans and for my friends in this band and crew! It is my last ride with Cradle and I am proud to give it my best. I am sad to not share the stage with my wife these last times but I respect why she left and I am happy our friend Kelsey Peters has been given opportunity to shine.»
However, he is a bit weird to belive that you still would go to work the next day after publicely slamming your boss, and the rest of the management, on Social Media like this.
This all started when keyboard player and female vocalist, Zoe Marie Federoff, that is also Ashok’s wife, quit the tour without leaving any explenations. The problem with making statements on Facebook without further explonations is that people will make their one stories and rumours will turn up. In this case the rumour was that Ashok was ceathing on Feredorr, that make her leave the band mid-tour.
This made Federoff stand up for a following-up post on Facebook, making sure that this is not the case at all. In the same post dropping the bomb, that also guitarist and husband Ashok will leave the band, and the was planing to do so after the tour.
This clearly did not happen, as Dani Filth fired Ashok. Making the couple in the good company of 26 former members, and 14 touring members. Just surpassing Megadeth in the number of former members, as they have 25. The online feud is now over untill one of the parts feel the necessery to speak their mind again and throw more gasoline to the already public shitshow.
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