With members of Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Solstice, the British band Vallenfyre forms one of the few bands that can combine doom and death in an outstanding way. The band was formed in Halifax, west Yorkshire, in 2010. Fear Those Who Fear Him is only their third full-length release and it’s 38 minutes of raw, old school death metal mixed with a massive doom sound. This combined with lyrics about religion, society, death and politics, makes Vallenfyre one of the most remarkable bands in their genre.
With Born to Decay, they open up with a blend of noise and voices -if you listen closely, you’ll hear them say ‘Fear those who fear him’- that sounds like it could be Hell’s soundtrack, followed by the first guitar riff and massive, slow drums. The second song on the record sounds like it could’ve been recorded during the 80’s. We already got a taste of what the band sounded like in the intro, but when George Mackintosh (ex-Paradise Lost) opens up his strut, Vallenfyre‘s picture is complete. Messiah is two short minutes of pure, raw death metal and seems to leave no trace of doom metal.
Degeneration has a different vibe. Even though it’s still death metal, it seems to have more of a modern touch to it than their previous songs. It has a slower pace and has so much groove, which makes it a perfect ‘circle pit-song’. During An Apathetic Grave, the album takes a huge turn. The speed and blastbeats from the previous songs have to make way for massive, slow drums that introduce the first doom track of the record. Cursed from the Womb is so dark and so ominous it could be the soundtrack of a horror movie. The title of the album is also explained here. When Mackintosh screams “Do not fear Satan, fear those who fear him!”, I got shivers down my spine.
Even though pure, fast death metal tracks like Nihilist, Amongst the Filth and Kill All Your Masters take the majority of the album, the few, long doom tracks like An Apathetic Grave, The Merciless Tide and Cursed from the Womb, make a perfect alternation to keep the album interesting. It’s not easy to make an album and drastically change inbetween two genres, but Vallenfyre pulls it off nicely!
Release date: June 20th, 2017
Label: Century Media Records
Tracklist:
1. Born to Decay
2. Messiah
3. Degeneration
4. An Apathetic Grave
5. Nihilist
6. Amongst the Filth
7. Kill All Your Masters
8. The Merciless Tide
9. Dead World Breathes
10. Soldier of Christ
11. Cursed from the Womb
12. Temple of Rats
