aaamusic | On 30, Oct 2011

How doom-laden do you want your morning? A pre-noon Vallenfyre review is pretty similar to pouring tar over your cereal. Here we have the depths of death and doom pedigree, with members of Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride among others, and so if nothing else, this is guaranteed to be stylistically impressive.

 

The issue I have with this album may well be a guilt complex: having read the backstory, I was expecting a downtuned exploration of the artists. Instead, what we have is a sadly generic outing. Starting with the rumbling of ‘All Will Suffer’, a brilliant pile of riffing that bodes well until you realise that musically it is oddly… lacking. Flickers of lyrical power shine through, but it feels oddly contrived. The menace of ‘Desecration’ picks things up a bit, with spatters of crust in the drumming and the faster tempo, although keeping a doomy lead guitar squall. The structure of the song is pretty much by-numbers however, which feels a bit of a letdown given the clear musicianship. Same with ‘A Thousand Martyrs’, where familiarity overwhelms the tantalising work and put into the song and the lyrics that cut straight to the quick.

‘Ravenous Whore’ has a clearer death metal/crust punk influence, with a speeding drumbeat and sparsely-orchestrated yet heavy riffs that centre around chords, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. Thankfully, the fast yet complex ‘Cathedrals Of Dead’ pays off. The vocals are allowed to really come into their own, showcasing not only one of the clearest death-growls I have heard, but a great set of lyrics that really lay bare the thoughts behind the album, and of course this means that the instrumentation itself is also well-thought out, being fully realised in its layered heaviness and the way parts dip in and out to create a full sonic image. ‘The World Collapses’ is also a standout track, worth holding out for just for the great intro. Blending punk and metal effectively here, Vallenfyre take the riffs and the fast tempo of previous tracks to a new and much better level that makes me consider rethinking my opinion of the album as a whole. Likewise, the confessional lyrics of ‘Seeds’ can and does chill to the bone with its excruciating honesty, but it’s also a little too close for comfort – I feel almost voyeuristic in listening to it, especially when I haven’t followed the artists.

I do quite like the feel of ‘Black Siberia’, with its poetic aspects and the musicianship that fits like a glove, at once melodic and discordant, with some brilliant guitar soloing and well-executed scrapes amongst the stomping, seething maelstrom. Unfortunately ‘The Divine Have Fled’, despite theatrical gothic moments in the instrumentation, feels once again a bit lazy. Likewise ‘The Grim Irony’, despite its good moments and cutting political lyrics, seems like they spliced together various other songs.

 

Overall, ‘A Fragile King’ is an album I want to love. The musicianship is fantastically talented, and the vocals are stellar, but the lyrics can fluctuate wildly between moments of startling clarity and moments of feeling like the man at the bar telling you his philosophy and life story, and the music is odd, an uncomfortable patchwork of tropes that can either go really well or become recognisably the sum of others’ parts. Vallenfyre is a valiant and in its own way commendable band given its history, but I really expected something more. Many songs here should have remained small personal projects.

 

Katie H-Halinski