Vallenfyre – A Fragile King debut album review

Life is full of surprises. Be it is the weather, the girl sleeping next to you looks ugly this morning, not like she did last night because you were drunk, etc. This morning I was surprised to hear that Paradise Lost’s guitarist, Gregor Mackintosh started a new band, VallenFyre.

One would wonder why I am surprised, because isn’t it normal that these artists typically have side projects? Correct but what surprised me is that Gregor Mackintosh is a vocalist. I guess everyone is so used to see him playing a guitar; very strange to see him with a microphone in his hand. VallenFyre is formed by:

Gregor Makintosh (Paradise Lost) – Vocals
Hamish Glencross (My Dying Bride) – Lead and Rhythm guitars
Mully (From the pub down the road) – Rhythm guitars
Scoot (Guess from the same pub) – bass
Adrian Erlandsson (Paradise Lost & At the Gates) – Drums

With influences from Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and At the Gates, Vallenfyre should produce some of the finest metal music. Obviously their music is heavy and dark. They fit somewhere between the very heaviest Celtic Frost and old school Swedish death metal. I haven’t stopped listening to the album yet and won’t stop for some time. It is one of the best metal records that most probably you’ll hear this year.

Vallenfyre was originally formed by Gregor Mackintosh himself. As he says “Spawned out of the death of my father in the end of 2009, so in early 2010 I kind of start to write things down to cope with the grieving process. That eventually turned into a few songs that I did. It just turned into something to like doing.” Later Gregor asked his friends to join in and a proper band was formed. Most of the lads know each other for a long time. Adrian Erlandsson, Vallenfyre drummer says “Music wise it got the slower elements that the early Paradise Lost had. It’s a lot heaver and this year playing wise they can’t be really compared to Paradise Lost. I guess why that’s why he (Gregor Mackintosh) is doing both Paradise Lost and Vallenfyre.” Below is a video (electronic press kit) of Vallenfyre’s new debut album; A Fragile King.

Vallenfyre first debut album A Fragile King is to be released on the first of November and you can already pre-order it. In the meantime you can enjoy the official music video of one of the album’s tracks Cathedral of Dread. If you are questioning what this song is about, Gregor Mackintosh said “The song we are shooting the video for, Cathedral of Dread is mainly a grag about religion I guess. It’s kind a bit more crypticaly done, so it’s not an obvious rant against religion. It’s kind of just more my view of how people are told what to think and follow it blindly and don’t really question what’s going on. That kind of sheep mentality that goes on behind the scenes in religion. There was a great quote once, if one man believes something, he is insane, but if ten thousand men believe it is classed as religion. It is kind based around that.”