Kelsey Peters

Kelsey Peters — Cradle of Filth's keyboard player and vocalist since 2025 — occupies one of the most specific positions in extreme metal. Since the 1990s Cradle of Filth has kept a double function that few bands in the genre have: symphonic keyboards and clean female vocals, performed by the same person. That voice does not do backing — it is set against Dani Filth's shrill high register, creating the contrast between lyric singing and horror voice that has been the band's trademark since Dusk... and Her Embrace (1996). Combining the two functions demands distinct competences: writing and performing orchestral layers that hold up the structure of the tracks, and singing in a classical register over a base of blast beats and tremolo guitars. It is a specific lineage within the group, held by a succession of musicians across three decades. Peters took up that position in 2025, in the period of The Screaming of the Valkyries, the band's fourteenth studio album.