With the opening song giving you the sense of urgency akin to finding a fallout shelter as the air raid siren goes off, this album hits you hard from start to finish. The intensity doesn't let up either as this motley band of underground old-timers reminds why there's no school like the old school.
The distorted bass adds a fuzzy/grinding sound to the already heavy guitars. The drums have a very punky feel to them as well. While the crust influence is still present there is a more doom/death vibe. Calling the band doom/death based solely on their debut is a pure misnomer. There is doom in their sound for sure, but it's more of a latent influence than a style. 'Splinters' on the other hand slots easily in the actual doom category.
The guitars are mostly crunchy with simplistic leads and solos and an unusual amount of feedback. Gregor's lead style is hard to mistake and the few harmonized leads and tandem guitar parts work well. The angry bass tone really adds a lot of rage to the overall tone of the music. Combine the strings with the decidedly punky and blast happy drums and you get the awesomeness that is Vallenfrye.
The vocals are a little better than they were previously too. Either Gregor has learned more about singing or he's more confident in his abilities. Either way he blows Nick Holmes out of the water. Quite frankly he'd do better to front Paradise Lost at this point.
The music is dirty and raw and in this day and age of pristine sounding over produced albums it's refreshing to hear an actual band playing as if they're in a rehearsal space. Big sound plus big attitude equals lots of fun. In spite of the dark, dreary and painful lyrical content this is just fun. This gets a 7.5/10 and is recommended to all.
Words: Grimmdoom
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