Paul Allender

Paul Allender
Background information
Birth name	Paul Allender
Born	(1970-11-17) 17 November 1970 Colchester, England
Genres	Extreme metal
Occupation(s)	Musician Songwriter
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1992-present
Labels	Roadrunner Records
Associated acts	Cradle of Filth The Blood Divine Primary Slave White Empress
Website	White Empress
Notable instruments
PRS Allender Signature Model

Paul Allender (born 17 November 1970) is a lead guitarist best known for his work with the British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth. He quit the band for the second time in April 2014. Since 2010, he now resides in Minnesota, USA with his wife.

Early life

At the age of six years, Paul's father introduced him to martial arts, which led to a way of life for him and the home which he grew up in. He received his first guitar at the age of fourteen, and played in staggered periods until he was nineteen years old, because his martial arts training was always his first priority.

Cradle of Filth

He joined the band as the guitarist late 1991, and stayed until late 1994 when he left Cradle of Filth to join The Blood Divine and to spend more time with his son. In 1998 Paul Allender started another band called Primary Slave. In 2000, just before Primary Slave signed a recording contract, he rejoined Cradle of Filth after receiving a call from Dani Filth, along with drummer Adrian Erlandsson and keyboardist Martin Powell on the band's album, Midian.

While performing on stage with Cradle of Filth at Bloodstock Open Air in August 2009, a member of the audience used a slingshot to fire a gobstopper at the stage which narrowly missed Dani Filth, but hit Allender on his spine in his lower back. He was then sent to the hospital which caused the performance to end early.

As of April, 2014 Paul Allender has once again left Cradle of Filth.^[1]

Playing style

Paul Allender is recognized for his unique right-handed technique and is currently endorsed by PRS Guitars, RotoSound and Blackstar amplification.

"To tell you the truth... I don't jam. I've always played what actually I see in my head. Therefore, when I play, I don't use any specific scales or anything in order or that's musically correct or anything... I’ve always concentrated on mixing lead-oriented riffs, but in like a rhythmic sense. That's the way I've always been because I've never really been interested in doing ultra-fast lead work. I've always mixed the two up. Just concentrating on the 16th notes and stuff on the right hand, making sure it all sinks in. It’s the guitar and it’s the way we dress onstage, it’s all part of this troupe, this uniformed-like togetherness... It just comes out dark as fuck".^[2]

Graphic art

Allender also has an art side project known as "Vomitorium: The Dark Art Of Cindy Frey And Paul Allender". He also produced the artwork for New Project's debut album Ultraviolent Light.

White Empress

In 2013, Allender was involved with the formation of a new project named "White Empress." In an interview with "The Age of Metal," White Empress vocalist Mary Zimmer (formerly of Luna Mortis), said:

Paul and I actually have a number of mutual friends and acquaintances and it was Melissa Ferlaak of Plague of Stars (formerly of Visions of Atlantis, Aesma Daeva, Echoterra) who put us in touch with each other. We talked about working on some new music together and he set me the instrumental tracks he’d been working on. They were phenomenal and I decided to lay down vocals for 3 songs. Everything went really well together and we made an official band. White Empress is really all about the concept of “The Empress”. The entire band is in essence “The Empress”. She’s her own creative concept, her own image, her own identity that comes from all of us in the band (meaning I’m not the Empress, necessarily). White Empress is an entire band with a fantasy avatar. It’s visual and audio all tied into one huge concept. The band is fantastic, we all contribute equally to the creative process and we’ve come up with some amazing things for everyone. The Empress is Coming!!^[3][4]

An EP was released in January 2014.^[5][6] Their debut album - Rise of the Empress - was released through Peaceville Records on September 29th, 2014. It was initially funded through a Pledge Music campaign.^[7] The album has so far received a mostly positive reception. Allender is focussing completely on White Empress, since his departure from Cradle Of Filth in April 2014.

References

External links

• TD Guitar video