Paul Allender was born on November 17, 1970, in Colchester, Essex, England. The guitarist’s work with Cradle of Filth included “Her Ghost in the Fog,” from the band’s 2000 album Midian. That recording came after a spell away from the group, beginning a second chapter that lasted until 2014.
Guitar initially competed with another commitment. His father introduced him to martial arts at six, and training remained his priority after he received his first guitar at 14. Allender later told MusicOhio, in an interview preserved by RPG Punk, that he began taking music seriously around 20. The route into Cradle of Filth was direct: members of the group watched his early band play its first hometown show, and an invitation to join followed.
Allender played on Cradle of Filth’s 1994 debut, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, before leaving and working with The Blood Divine and then Primary Slave. Returning wasn’t an immediate decision. He recalled that Primary Slave was approaching a record deal when Dani Filth called to ask him back. Allender spent three or four months considering the offer before meeting the singer. Their conversation persuaded him to return, and Midian brought him back onto a Cradle of Filth album.
That second spell eventually led him to reconsider how the band made records. For 2012’s The Manticore and Other Horrors, Allender wanted to recover some of the punk aggression he heard in the earliest material. He told Icon Vs. Icon that he and the drummer spent seven months writing, deliberately changing an approach he felt had become too familiar. They also recorded together, largely live, to get away from the heavy editing he associated with previous albums. He wanted the guitars farther forward in the mix, with the physical act of playing carrying more of the record.
“I use the guitar to write songs,” he explained in the same interview. That distinction mattered to his arrangements: he judged a riff by how it worked with the drums, bass and vocals. He was willing to keep something simple or complicated, provided it gave the whole passage the feeling he wanted.
White Empress offered another setting for those ideas. Allender moved to the United States in 2012 and began developing the project while his work with Cradle of Filth continued. After his 2014 departure, it became his focus. With vocalist Mary Zimmer, he could build songs around a voice that moved between harsh singing, clean passages and operatic delivery.
Speaking to Roppongi Rocks in 2015, Allender described matching those vocal approaches to particular sections of the music. He gave Zimmer an initial direction, then she adapted it. He also explained that the project had begun with material assembled before the full band existed. Once the other musicians joined, he invited them to change what they heard. His aim was a group whose members had an equal say, even though the first recordings had started with his ideas.
White Empress released its debut album, Rise of the Empress, in September 2014 through Peaceville. Recorded at the band’s studio, it was mixed and mastered by Kit Woolven. By the time of his 2015 interview, the musicians were exchanging recordings between their studios in different countries. Allender valued the space that gave each player to work through a part before sending it back.
