"We had taken some mushrooms. We saw ghosts and all manner of things." Hallucinogenics, Tim Burton and The Battle Of Hastings: the story of the song that turned a British black metal band into household names

Cradle Of Filth in front of an altar surrounded by fog.

It's a beautifully sunny day in the summer of 2000, and Cradle Of Filth are tripping balls in a field in East Sussex. The band have temporarily relocated from their native Suffolk to the town of Battle, and are currently standing in the exact spot where, 934 years prior, William The Conqueror and King Harold II waged The Battle Of Hastings. As they bake in the sweltering heat, they see long-dead soldiers trooping past them.

“We had taken some magic mushrooms,” Cradle Of Filth singer Dani Filth recalls today. “We saw ghosts and all manner of things.”