DANI FILTH Announces ASHOK’s Firing From CRADLE OF FILTH ‘Effective Immediately’; Latin American Tour Dates Proceed As Scheduled

Band keeps shows on the calendar while a temporary guitarist flies in. Management accusations called “unfounded.” Kelsey Peters covers after Zoë’s mid-tour exit.

By Orion Duarte

Aug 27, 2025

Ashok Explains Cradle Of Filth Exit: ‘Years Of Unprofessional Behavior’ And ‘Relatively Low Pay’ Cited As Key Reasons

Summary

Cradle of Filth fires Marek ‘Ashok’ Šmerda effective immediately; Latin American tour continues.
Shows proceed with one guitarist until a temp player lands; Kelsey Peters fills in after Zoë Federoff leaves.
Ashok cites unprofessional behavior, stress, and low pay; asks to remove his work from the Ed Sheeran collab.

Cradle of Filth cut ties with longtime guitarist Marek “Ashok” Šmerda effective immediately, hours after he told fans he planned to leave at the end of the current Latin American run. The shows are still on. Messy timing, to put it mildly.

Frontman Dani Filth shared a statement on the band’s socials announcing the decision: “It is with a grave heart that CRADLE OF FILTH officially announce the firing of guitarist Marek ‘Ashok’ Smerda from the band, effective immediately.” He added that the group will not cancel South American dates and asked fans to hang tight while they perform with one guitarist until a temporary replacement arrives “in a few days time.”

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Dani addressed the storm around the split. “Thank you for your understanding in this horrible matter, we are all in a state of shock over proceedings and will share our side to these unfortunate events in due course.” He asked people to “respect our decision to part with Ashok now rather than at the end of the tour and avoid speculation.” He also defended management, calling accusations “completely unjust and unfounded.”

He signed off with a nod to the itinerary: “Thank you once again fellow Filthlings and we look forward to the rest of ‘The Screaming Of The Américas’ tour here in Uruguay and beyond. Your fiend, Dani.”

Dani Filth shared a statement on the band’s socials announcing the decision

Tour status

The personnel shuffle started a few days earlier when Zoë M. Federoff exited mid-tour. She handled female vocals and keys for the past three years. Her announcement cited being “unable to continue” for personal reasons.

Dani quickly confirmed a fill-in for the live show: “Our keyboardist/backing singer Zoe Smerda has chosen to leave the band mid-tour, effective immediately. We, of course, wish her all the best for the future. And we as a band will continue onward and upward as always, with a replacement singer here in Kelsey Peters, one of the very talented CREWDLE members.”

Federoff later tried to cool the rumor mill with “a couple clarifying points.” Her post read: “Ashok isn’t cheating. While the turmoil of being in the band has taken its toll on us, we remain very much certain that we love each other. Please be kind to my husband. He is a good man.”

She added, “We were already planning to leave the band later this year. Certain events have sped that up for me.”

Ashok responds

Ashok posted his own long message earlier in the day. He asked for space: “Dear fans and friends, I ask you to please respect my wife and myself in this transitional period.”

He confirmed he intended to wrap up after Latin America and laid out why. “We simply do not feel like CRADLE can provide for our future, and in fact hinders it. 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 prioritizing/caring about members. It has been years of unprofessional behavior from people above us that led to our decision.”

He also distanced himself from one high-profile studio plan. “I have also asked all compositions of mine removed from upcoming releases including Ed Sheeran collab. 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.” Diplomacy with a side of air quotes.

The guitarist said he will still give the crowd everything on the way out. “I am going to finish this tour strong! For the fans and for my friends in this band and crew! It is my last ride with CRADLE and I am proud to give it my best.” He also backed Kelsey Peters stepping in for Zoë and drew a hard line on harassment: “This is all I have to say for now. Leave my wife alone. NEVER insult her or her choices in my presence… or else.”

Ashok joined Cradle of Filth in 2014 after receiving an invitation to tour Europe with the band.

The bigger picture?

Ashok and Zoë married in January in Tucson, Arizona. The personal and professional threads clearly tangled here. It happens, even in corpse paint.

For those keeping score, Šmerda first joined Cradle of Filth in 2014 for a European tour and became a full-time member soon after. His studio fingerprints are on “Hammer Of The Witches,” “Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness Of Decay,” “Existence Is Futile,” and “The Screaming Of The Valkyries.” The band and many listeners count those records as creative high points. Live, he put in two decades of grind with projects like Root, Equirhodont, Inner Fear, and Titanic, honing a style that fit Cradle’s blackened theatrical flair.

Here is where things land today: Cradle of Filth says the tour continues, a stand-in guitarist is inbound, and the band plans to share more context “in due course.” Ashok says the choice to leave was set long before this week, driven by money, stress, and what he describes as years of “unprofessional behavior.” Zoë says stop with the conspiracy theories and treat them like people. Reasonable request.

So a long partnership ended in public and in a hurry. The shows in Latin America move forward. The internet will speculate. The principals say they will talk when they are ready. Until then, it is guitars up, questions later.