UMUR "Fear Those Who Fear Him" is the 3rd full-length studio album by UK death metal act Vallenfyre. The album was released through Century Media Records in June 2017. It´s the successor to "Splinters" from 2014 and features a couple of lineup changes as bassist Scoot has left Vallenfyre. He hasn´t been replaced which means that the bass parts were recorded by guitarist Hamish Hamilton Glencross. Drummer Adrian Erlandsson has been replaced by Waltteri Väyrynen (B>Paradise Lost, Hypothesis, Abhorrence). The last member of the three-piece lineup is vocalist/guitarist Gregor Mackintosh.

Vallenfyre was specifically formed as an outlet for the band members old school death metal ideas, which their day job bands couldn´t incorporate. And brutal and sinister old school death metal it is. Ranging from fast-paced, D-beat hardcore punked, mid-paced and heavy, to ultra brutal and doomy, "Fear Those Who Fear Him" has it all when it comes to old school death metal traits. Mackintosh has a brutal yet intelligible growling vocal style, which suits the darkness of the music well and paired with the rawness of the sound production (the guitars have what I´d characterize as an early 90s Swedish death metal tone), the album comes off as one of the more successful contemporary retro sounding death metal releases.

The change in pace and rhythm style are some of the great assets of the band´s music. Fast-paced tracks like "Messiah" and "Nihilist", are paired with the mid-paced brutal grooves of tracks like "Degeneration" and "Amongst the Filth", and the slow brutal death/doom of tracks like "An Apathetic Grave" and "Cursed from the Womb". And it all sounds pretty natural too. Nothing contrived about it. It just feels like the band have composed exactly what they wanted, when and how they wanted. When you play a music style like this these days, no one expects your music to be of a groundbreaking character, because the whole idea behind playing this type of music is to have a derivative approach to composing your material, but that doesn´t mean you can´t still try to forge a personal sound, to set yourself apart from the pack. Vallenfyre are relatively successful in doing that. At least to a certain extent.

The real asset on "Fear Those Who Fear Him" is how well performed the material is though. These are some really well playing guys, and there are tons of conviction and passion behind the delivery. There´s a great raw and organic touch to the way the music is played, which is greatly charming, and ultimately suiting the old school death metal material perfectly. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Nightfly Vallenfyre started as a side-line and a bit of fun for Paradise Lost guitarist Gregor Mackintosh and now ex-My Dying Bride guitarist Hamish Glencross, but since their debut album “A Fragile King” released in 2011, they’re still going strong and back with their Third outing “Fear Those Who Fear Him”. Adrian Erlandsson no longer occupies the drum stool, no doubt too busy with At The Gates, the Haunted etc, so in comes current Paradise Lost drummer Waltteri Väyrynen. The band has now shrunk to a three piece with Glencross also taking on bass duties.

It’s pretty much business as usual with once again a strong retro Swedish death metal influence prevailing with its raw guitar sound - think Dismember and Entombed. There’s also a hefty doom element capped off with a dose of punk. It’s another winner – this is heavy as hell and if anything they’ve gone and made the sound even rawer. The first couple of plays didn’t click with me but as soon as I cranked it up it began to make sense – this stuff needs to be played loud. Full of riffs that’ll pummel you into the ground, whether it’s the faster songs like “Messiah”, “Temple Of Rats” and the short sharp burst that is “Nihilist” Or doomier tracks like instrumental opener “Born to Decay” and “Cursed From The Womb”, either way its sledgehammer approach really hits the spot. Tracks like “Degeneration” add some Celtic Frost groove to the proceedings. It’s all aided by a thick organic production and an immense drum sound. Mackintosh once again supplies a convincing death growl and the band as a whole put in a strong performance.

I think I might slightly prefer last album “Splinters”, mainly down to the overall sound rather than anything lacking in the songwriting, which wasn’t quite as raw. Don’t let that put you off though as this is a great dose of retro doomy death metal.

UMUR "A Fragile King" is the debut full-length studio album by UK death metal act Vallenfyre. The album was released through Century Media Records in October 2011. "A Fragile King" may be a debut album, but the lineup features several quite prolific names. Among others lead vocalist/guitarist Gregor Mackintosh (Paradise Lost), guitarist Hamish Glencross (My Dying Bride) and drummer Adrian Erlandsson (Paradise Lost, At the Gates, The Haunted, Cradle of Filth...etc.)...

...and experience sometimes can´t be matched by anything else. Be it youthful energy, hunger for success or whatever else you can think of. Vallenfyre deliver their performances with great conviction and passion, but also with an attention to compositional detail and album flow that only seasoned veterans are usually able to muster.

The music on "A Fragile King" is old school death metal. There are references to early doom/death period Paradise Lost (the debut album) on tracks like "All Will Suffer" and "Seeds" (and a couple of melodic lead guitar themes, that sound unmistakably like Paradise Lost), but there are an equal amount of references to the old school Swedish, Stockholm based death metal scene and especially early Dismember comes to mind. The guitar tone in particular reeks of the early 90s productions from the now legendary Sunlight Studio.

The material on "A Fragile King" are generally well written and most tracks are memorable. There are a couple of not so remarkable tracks on the album too, but they are outnumbered by the great ones. The album opens on a particularly strong note with the opening trio of tracks: "All Will Suffer", "Desecration", and "Ravenous Whore", which each represent the three dominant death metal styles on the album. As mentioned above "All Will Suffer" is a brutal doom/death metal track, while "Desecration" picks up the pace a bit to a mid-paced to fast-paced groove and incorporate quite a few catchy hooks, and "Ravenous Whore" speeds things up even more incorporating blast beats and a lot of aggression. As a result "A Fragile King" is within the boundaries of it´s genre, a relatively varied release.

While the band are very well playing, and as the seasoned veterans they are, deliver their music with seamless ease, it´s lead vocalist Gregor Mackintosh I need to give a special mention. Who would have known that he could deliver such a convincing and grim growling vocal performance? The man is a natural talent and almost reach the heights of his Paradise Lost bandmate Nick Holmes in the latter´s growling heyday. And that is praise if I ever heard praise considering in how high regard I hold Nick Holmes as a growling vocalist.

So does the world really need yet another old school death metal album? Yes I say! If it´s as well played, well thought out (yet naturally flowing), well produced, and passionate as this one is, there is definitely room for one more old school death metal release. "A Fragile King" is highly recommendable to fans of the genre and a 4 star (80%) rating is well deserved.

UMUR "Splinters" is the 2nd full-length studio album by UK death metal act Vallenfyre. The album was released through Century Media Records in May 2014. Vallenfyre is down to a four-piece on "Splinters", as guitarist Mully has jumped ship since the release of "A Fragile King (2011)". The lineup therefore now features lead vocalist/guitarist Gregor Mackintosh (Paradise Lost), guitarist Hamish Glencross (My Dying Bride), drummer Adrian Erlandsson (Paradise Lost, At the Gates, The Haunted, Cradle of Filth...etc.) and bassist Scott (Doom, Alehammer, Extinction of Mankind, Hellkrusher).

Stylistically the music on "Splinters" pretty much continues down the same path as the music on "A Fragile King (2011)". That means old school death metal with some excursions into doom/death territory (like on "Bereft", which sound very much like early Paradise Lost, or "Aghast"). It´s predominantly old school Swedish death metal that I´m reminded of though (especially Dismember), with crushingly heavy buzzing guitars, melancholic and gloomy lead guitar themes, D-beat drumming and some brutal yet intelligible growling vocals in front. Vallenfyre are not a one-trick pony though, and they are pretty successful in varying their riffs and their rhythms throughout the album. Everything from blast beats to D-beats to slow and doomy beats and just about anything else that you would regularly hear on an old school death metal album are represented on this album. So while "Splinters" is through and through an old school death metal album, it´s a pretty diverse one within the boundaries of the genre.

The sound production is massive, brutal and raw, which suits the music perfectly. I never get tired of listening to those buzzing über distorted guitars. Pure early 90s nostalgia right there. The musicianship are solid and the material are well written and effective, so all in all "Splinters" is another great album release by Vallenfyre and along with Bloodbath they are arguably among the elite contemporary retro death metal acts featuring prolific musicians from other acts. The surprise element that was part of listening to "A Fragile King (2011)" when it came out is naturally not there when listening to "Splinters" and probably as a consequence of that, I rate the debut slightly higher than "Splinters", but "Splinters" is still a high quality release by Vallenfyre deserving a 4 star (80%) rating.