VALLENFYRE — Fear Those Who Fear Him (review)

VALLENFYRE — Fear Those Who Fear Him album cover Album · 2017 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
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 Drummer Adrian Erlandsson has been replaced by Waltteri Väyrynen (B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.
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Nightfly wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I do like this but have a preference for the last one.

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