I would have never guessed that Gregor Mackintosh had an album like this in him at this point in his career.  Indeed, I don’t think that it would be a huge leap to suggest that that Mackintosh himself would have echoed that sentiment if you had asked him a few years ago.  Mackintosh’s main band, Paradise Lost have drifted closer to their doom metal roots on recent releases, but they have never come close to revisiting the death metal elements that defined their first three albums.  In a sad twist of fate, it was the emotions that he dealt with in the wake of his father’s death that inspired Mackintosh to revisit the music of his youth.  Over time, that inspiration developed into Vallenfyre; a full blown band with an all-star lineup that includes Hamish Glencross of My Dying Bride, and Adrian Erlandsson of At the Gates. 

A Fragile King is a mixture of death and doom metal, with some songs bearing a close resemblance to the death/doom of early Paradise Lost, and others leaning on the mid-paced chug of the early the Stockholm scene.  Songs like “All Will Suffer” and “Seeds” revel in the soul crushing heaviness that Mackintosh mastered on the first two Paradise Lost albums.  These tracks fall almost exclusively under the death/doom banner, and are extremely well executed.  The bulk of the album is made up of gritty mid-tempo death metal that is enhanced by the inclusion of occasional down-tempo doom riffing.  I would compare these songs to the early works of Asphyx or Autopsy rather than the pure death/doom of early Paradise Lost.  “Desecration” is a good example of this, and is one of the album’s highlights.  There are a few songs, such as the album’s massive closing track “The Grim Irony,” that seem to teeter just between death metal and death/doom.

One thing that Paradise Lost fans will notice right way is Mackintosh’s guitar work.  He has a way of weaving simple little guitar leads around the riffs, and this little flourish is used early and often on A Fragile King.  It acts as a nice tie in to his other band, giving the listener something vaguely familiar to latch on to while adding something unique, and almost beautiful to the grim atmosphere that dominates the album.  Mackintosh delivers his vocal lines in classic death metal fashion; a deep growl with just enough enunciation to allow the majority of the lyrics to be picked out by somebody with an ear for the genre.  It’s a solid workman like performance, and fit’s the music really well. 

Given Vallenfyre’s back story, it isn’t surprising that the music comes across as being very genuine and organic.  Nothing here feels forced, and the album sounds much more like a real band than an all-star project.  The production is thick and filthy, the songs are memorable, and nothing strikes me as being out of place.  At the end of the day though, A Fragile King shines the brightest during its more doom focused sections.  If Vallenfyre continues (and I hope they do) I would like to see them focus a little more on the down-tempo side of their sound; perhaps becoming more of a true death/doom band, but keeping just enough of that nasty mid-tempo rumble to diversify their sound.   Either way, if you are a fan of old-school death metal, or death/doom A Fragile King is an album that is well worth your time.   

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  All Will Suffer
2.  Desecration
3.  Ravenous Whore
4.  Cathedrals Of Dread
5.  As The World Collapses
6.  A Thousand Martyrs
7.  Seeds
8.  Humanity Wept
9.  My Black Siberia
10.  The Divine Have Fled
11.  The Grim Irony

Total playing time:  41:48

Release Date: October 23rd, 2011
Label: Century Media

Vallenfyre - A Fragile King

Reviewer: Garett

January 7, 2012