Echoes in the Well is thrilled to present our first interview specifically done for this blog. VALLENFYRE is a death/doom super-group made up of members of PARADISE LOST, MY DYING BRIDE, DOOM and AT THE GATES. On top of their impressive resumes, their debut album A Fragile King (Century Media) is a brilliant, fully realized album full of sadness and dread menace that was two years in the making. Front man Gregor Mackintosh (PARADISE LOST) has turned a personal tragedy in to a work of art. Luckily he was kind enough to share some insights about the band with us.
A Fragile King is out now on Century Media Records.
EITW: How did the band come together initially?
GM: In late 2009 my Dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died that December. This really screwed me up as I was very close to him. As part of grief counseling I began to write down thoughts and feelings. I had a lot of anger and sadness. These slowly turned into lyrics. At the same time I was listening a lot to my old demos and LP’s and I decided to do a few songs. This really helped me at first, but after a while, it wasn’t really helping so I asked a few friends to join me. This was the beginning of VALLENFYRE. A friend of mine at Century Media heard a demo I did and asked us to do a record. We did and it was great fun to be playing the kind of music we all grew up with– with my best mates. I am happy that I managed to make something positive from such a horrible event, and I think my Dad would see it as a great tribute.
Gregor Mackintosh is front and center in VALLENFYRE.
EITW: Aside from the main inspiration for the album, what other things inspired the lyrics?
GM: The rest of the lyrics deal with my views on society, religion, and prejudice amongst other things. For instance, the song “Humanity Wept” is about Greed, and especially the fact that huge corporations are intrinsically linked to politics and governments. It talks about rich people getting richer by causing misery and war. Inflicting horrors on the poorest and most vulnerable people, and as long as their money piles grow larger, it doesn’t matter that the world burns outside their penthouse windows.
EITW: Musically, the blend of styles is seamless. Was that intentional or did it just turn out that way?
GM: Musically I just went back to the music that I first fell in love with as a young teen. Various death/doom/crust bands between about ’84 and ’90, like CELTIC FROST, NAPALM DEATH, AUTOPSY, NIHILIST, ANTISECT, CANDLEMASS, DISCHARGE, ST VITUS, DEATH, AMEBIX, CARNAGE, etc etc. It’s just a mix of all that stuff. I am glad you think the styles blend seamlessly because that was my goal.
Cool logo!
EITW: What elements did James Dunkley and Russ Russell bring to the table during recording and post-production?
GM: James is the live sound engineer for PARADISE LOST and a good friend of mine. We knew exactly how we wanted the record to sound, and we wanted to do it as true to how we would have recorded 20 years ago, so we didn’t need a producer. We went and stayed at James’ house, and he recorded all the guitars and bass in his home studio. For the drums and vocals, we went to Parlour studios in the UK where James recorded us again. We stayed at Parlour for the Mix which Russ did. I think Russ did a good job considering we gave him one of the dirtiest guitar sounds he’s ever mixed. It’s hard to get drums to cut through guitars like that, especially because we didn’t want any drum replacement or back up samples, which is how everyone pretty much does things today– but which I personally hate.
EITW: How did you come up with the name?
GM: I was reading a book about the old English dialect from hundreds of years ago, and some words really stood out to me. Vallen means strong or strength and fyre means fire. I just liked how the two words sounded together.
EITW: How much direction did you give Orion Landau on the cover artwork?
GM: I gave him the title, some lyrics, some examples of cover styles I liked, and he did the rest. I love how he captured that filthy, old-school vibe, and at the same time, the picture has a good sense of anger, grief, and decay.
EITW: What are the touring plans of the band in the near future?
GM: Our first gig is in February. There are offers coming in all the time and we have some European festivals booked. I would really love to tour the States with VALLENFYRE because a lot of you guys missed out on the first wave of European death/doom at the time, and I think VALLENFYRE are the perfect band to show you what you missed. If you want to see us in a town near you, then annoy your local promoter until he books us.
(Special Thanks To Gregor Mackintosh, VALLENFYRE and Century Media)
Happy Thanksgiving and Stay Metal!
Keefy m/
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