Les Smith — born in England in 1967 — was Cradle of Filth's keyboard player during the Cruelty and the Beast phase, and remained in the band for several years afterwards. His function is central to the group's identity. Cradle of Filth does not use keyboards as ornament: the symphonic layers, the choirs and the atmospheric textures are part of the structure of the tracks, and are what separates the band from the raw black metal it came from. Cruelty and the Beast (1998), the concept album about Elizabeth Báthory, is built on that combination — extreme speed beneath orchestral writing of gothic character. Smith also took part in the records of the following phase, including Midian (2000), Damnation and a Day (2003) and Nymphetamine (2004), the period in which Cradle of Filth reached the British charts and a Grammy nomination. Damnation and a Day was recorded with full orchestra and choir — the high point of that symphonic ambition, and the kind of work in which the keyboard player's function comes close to an arranger's.
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