Two Cradle of Filth members exit amid pay and management dispute

Two longtime members of British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth have exited the group in the midst of its Latin American tour, setting off a public dispute over pay, management practices and authorship of future recordings. Keyboardist and backing vocalist Zoë Marie Federoff announced her immediate departure on Aug. 24 while guitarist Marek Ashok Šmerda said days later that he planned to leave at the end of the tour before frontman Dani Filth announced Šmerda had been fired effective immediately.

Federoff told fans in a social media post that she was stepping away for personal reasons and asked for privacy for her and her family. She later returned to clarify amid online speculation that her husband was not involved in infidelity, writing that “Ashok isn’t cheating” and that the pair had already been planning to leave the band later in the year, though “certain events have sped that up for me.” Dani Filth said the band had secured a temporary replacement for Federoff, naming Kelsey Peters to cover backing vocals and keyboard duties for the remainder of the run.

Šmerda, who joined Cradle of Filth in 2014, issued an open letter saying he and Federoff had concluded the band...