As announced last week, UK death metal band VALLENFYRE has signed a worldwide deal with Century Media Records. The band just released the 'Desecration' / 'Iconoclast' 7” on Imperium Productions and you can listen to samples of both songs at this location, where you can also find a link to order one of the last few copies of the 7” which is limited to 500 copies. It is guaranteed that at least the b-side, 'Iconoclast', won’t be released anywhere else in the near future.

Vallenfyre is the brainchild of Gregor Mackintosh, songwriter and guitarist of PARADISE LOST, along with members of MY DYING BRIDE, AT THE GATES and DOOM.

The full line-up is:

Gregor Mackintosh (Paradise Lost) - Vocals and Lead Guitar

Hamish Glencross (My Dying Bride) - Rhythm and Lead Guitars

Mully - Rhythm Guitars

Scoot (Doom, EXTINCTION OF MANKIND) - Bass

Adrian Erlandsson (At The Gates, Paradise Lost) – Drums

The sound of Vallenfyre goes back to Greg’s youth: “I was first introduced to more extreme music by my older brother in 1981. Over the next few years in my early teens I grew to love various early hardcore punk bands like DISCHARGE, ENGLISH DOGS, CONFLICT, etc. Around a similar time I was becoming aware of other more metal music like MOTÖRHEAD and BLACK SABBATH. In '84/'85 I got into bands who were fusing these styles like HELLHAMMER, ANTISECT and AMEBIX. A couple of years later I started tape trading with people all around the world which enabled me to hear lots of really cool, interesting, extreme music. AUTOPSY, NAPALM DEATH, MORBID ANGEL, REPULSION, NIHILIST are some of the more well known names I started to get into but there were many many more which never gained the same notoriety. At the same time I formed Paradise Lost with my friends. Our early stuff was a bit of a mixture of all this stuff but we also had a lot of doom influence from the likes of CANDLEMASS, TROUBLE and SAINT VITUS..”

The events that led to the conception and formation of Vallenfyre are not particularly happy or pretty ones:

“In the late summer of 2009, my father John Mackintosh was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Later in the Autumn as his treatment progressed, Paradise Lost embarked on the their European tour to support the latest album, Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us. A week into this, I received a call from my mother telling me that the doctors had found cancer in his lungs and it was terminal. He only had weeks to live. I made the decision to leave the tour leaving my very able guitar tech Milly [not be confused with Vallenfyre’s Mully] to take my place. I went and stayed with my parents for the next few weeks. After a very sad and painful time he passed away on the 2nd December early in the morning. Over the next few weeks I experienced all the famous stages of grief. It started to become very self destructive so I decided to channel it into creating something. To pay respects to the man that drove us to our very first gigs because none of us could drive. The only Dad I knew that listened to BOLT THROWER’s Peel Sessions on the radio. The guy who gave me my first chord book. I decided that I was going to go right back to the beginning. To my roots in death, crust and doom. It all started very Angst ridden. This wasn't originally meant for anyone else to hear. It was a release. After recording some material I realized that I was actually enjoying doing this but I wanted friends involved so it could actually become real fun.”

The 7” tracks and the upcoming album were recorded between December 2010 and April 2011.

Greg: “The album is called A Fragile King, which is a reference to my fathers' battle with cancer. The lyrics are predominantly about the same thing but also include gripes with society, religion, politics and relationships as well. It's all pretty grim.“

The Vallenfyre debut album, A Fragile King, will be released on October 31st, 2011 in Europe and on November 1st, 2011 in North America through Century Media Records.

Vallenfyre is not a one-off project but will continue as a band that will also play live in 2012. Stay tuned for more information.

More on Vallenfyre at this location.