DEATH metal superstar Dani Filth has spoken out after being put forward as a surprise choice to be named an “Icon of Suffolk” in an online poll.

Shock-rocker Dani – real name Daniel Davey – has lived for most of his life in the county and is known to millions of fans around the globe as the self-styled “crypt-crawling” frontman of Grammy-nominated band Cradle of Filth.

He was nominated by fans as an icon of Suffolk in an online project to identify the people, places and images that best represent the county.

Dani said that being included on the website, run by tourism firm Choose Suffolk, was “a compliment” and that his heart lies in Suffolk.

Dani’s profile on the site – which sits alongside more familiar images such as that of a Suffolk Punch heavy horse, Broomhill Pool, a pint of Adnams and Dunwich Heath – has now been viewed nearly 4,000 times, far and away the most popular “icon” put forward.

Speaking to music website Spinner.com about the poll, Dani said: “I’ve spent the majority of my life either in Ipswich or Woodbridge and Hadleigh and I’m in the process of moving house, but to somewhere else in the county, so I guess this is where my heart lies.

“So in that respect it’s a compliment, really. Although I prefer a pint of Adnams myself.

“One of my friends did email at one point and said ‘you’re being beaten by a disused and empty swimming pool’. It’s funny that, because that’s how I feel sometimes – disused and empty.”

Cradle of Filth formed in Suffolk in 1991 and soon emerged as one of the UK’s most successful metal acts, selling more than a million records worldwide.

In 2005 Dani and his bandmates cemented their superstar status with a Grammy nomination for best metal performance for the song Nymphetamine (Fix). That song was taken from the Nymphetamine album, the band’s sixth studio album.

And they have stuck to their roots and recorded upcoming ninth album Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa at Monkey Puzzle studios in Woolpit, near Bury St Edmunds. It will be released on November 1 and all the lyrics have been written by Dani.

To find out more about Choose Suffolk’s Icons of Suffolk project, visit www.suffolkicons.com