By admin 
Former Cradle Of Filth members Marek “Ashok” Šmerda and Zoe Marie Federoff have alleged that “low pay” and “stress” are the reasons for their departures.
Frontman Dani Filth recently took to social media to announce that the metal band had fired guitarist Šmerda with immediate effect. It came shortly after Šmerda shared his own posts, announcing that he would be leaving Cradle Of Filth at the end of their current tour.
Šmerda’s wife and the group’s keyboardist, Zoe Marie Federoff, also left the band mid-tour a day before Šmerda’s update. The couple initially cited “certain events” within the band as their reasons for wanting to quit.
Šmerda explained in his post that the pair “do not feel like Cradle can provide for our future, and in fact hinders it”.
He continued: “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 prioritising/caring about members. It has been years of unprofessional behaviour from people above us that led to our decision.”
The musician went on to say that he had asked for “all compositions of mine [to be] removed from upcoming releases”, including Cradle Of Filth’s long-awaited collaboration with Ed Sheeran.
Criticising the team-up with the singer-songwriter, Šmerda said: “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 then addressed online speculation over his and his wife’s “personal affairs”, adding: “Just stop this, please. We are trying to start [a] new chapter.”
Šmerda promised to “finish this tour strong”, albeit without his wife. However, Filth later shared a statement in which he fired Šmerda with immediate effect. Additionally, he hit back at what he described as Šmerda’s “attempts to illegally defame and derail the band”.
“The rest of the band are cool, even if taken aback, and accusations toward management, who work very closely with me and the band are completely unjust and unfounded,” he wrote. “Patience is a virtue and the truth will always come out.”
Federoff, meanwhile, has updated a statement about the situation on Facebook. “This is our final account of what’s happened and why,” she captioned the post, which alleged that the couple “make [£]150/day currently and [£]25K a year roughly in this band, to clarify the math”.
Please read the statement from Marek Ashok Smerda too.This is our final account of what’s happened and why.*edit* We make 150/day currently and 25K a year roughly in this band, to clarify the math.
Posted by Zoe Marie Federoff on Tuesday, August 26, 2025
She also attached what she described as her contract from the band, appearing to show “the terms of the agreement” for her “services as a performer and recording artist with the group professionally known as ‘Cradle Of Filth’”.
The document sets out “the sum of £200.00 per day for all days upon which you are required to perform, record, rehearse, or attend other activities with or on behalf of the Artist”, as well as “£150.00 for days spent travelling”, and a “‘per diem’ of £25.00 per day for each day upon which your services are required by the Artist”.
It also mentions “an annual payment of £1,000.00 for the use of your image and/or performance in videos, merchandising, photographs, other such promotional materials to be paid prior to each 31 December that you perform with the Artist”.
Federoff said: “We planned this transition out of Cradle of Filth months ago. Management is dishonest, manipulative, and tries to take money that belongs to us with no contract between us session musicians and him.”
She also made an allegation that unnamed “management” had attempted to “steal” album advance money from their 2025 record ‘The Screaming Of The Valkyries’, and that she had been threatened with dismissal.
The musician went on: “The frontman does nothing to stop them and hides behind them while they belittle and steal. We hold the frontman responsible for hiring this management and never advocating for his team, only himself. Other ex members try to tiptoe around this and only blame management management works for the frontman.”
Kelsey Peters will be taking over backing vocals and keyboard duties for the remainder of the tour. In his statement, Filth told fans that “Ashok’s temporary replacement is [being] flown out to join the tour in a few days”.
He promised that the group “WILL NOT cancel any of our South American shows”, but asked his followers to “bear with us” as they continue “with only one guitarist live” in the meantime.
In a previous update, Filth said “the mood in the camp is very upbeat and positive”. He also thanked fans for their “continued support and for not listening to all the bullshit rumours and sickly worms presiding over the internet”.
NME has contacted Cradle Of Filth’s representatives for comment.
Filth revealed that Cradle Of Filth’s team-up with Sheeran was “done and dusted” at the start of this year, but later confirmed that it would not appear on ‘The Screaming Of The Valkyries’.
Earlier this summer, Dani Filth proposed to his long-term girlfriend Sofiya Belousova during Cradle Of Filth’s performance at Download Festival.
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