Strigoi announce debut album ‘Abandon All Faith’

STRIGOI have announced their debut album!

Titled Abandon All Faith, the upcoming album from the new band featuring PARADISE LOST guitarist Greg Mackintosh is scheduled to be released in November this year via their new home at Nuclear Blast Records.

When Greg Mackintosh put to rest his VALLENFYRE side project in 2018, he closed a difficult, but an ultimately cathartic period in his life. Created as a tribute to his father John, who passed away in 2009, VALLENFYRE originally served as a sounding board for Greg’s grief, but then delved into his nihilistic take on the world. A mere few days after VALLENFYRE played its last live show in September 2018, Mackintosh announced the formation of a brand-new band, STRIGOI.

Named after the troubled spirits in Romanian mythology who could rise from the grave and assume an entirely different form, the lineup lineup is rounded out by former EXTREME NOISE TERROR and VALLENFYRE bass player Chris Casket. (PARADISE LOST drummer Waltteri Väyrynen provided studio drums but will not be a full-time member.) Recorded at his Black Planet studio between January and March 2019, the resultant 12-song Abandon All Faith debut finds Mackintosh culling from his love of old-school death metal, grindcore and punk for a visceral, but cinematic offering of extreme metal. Whereas VALLENFYRE was down-and-dirty and crusty, STRIGOI conjures feelings of both dread and hostility.

“With VALLENFYRE, we went down this path where it got more and more crusty,” Greg Mackintosh explains. “I thought we couldn’t take it any further, so I needed to put in some new elements. With STRIGOI, there’s a bit of spookiness, even some subtle elements of industrial and even black metal. The goal was to switch it up a bit. I was perfectly content with what I was doing in VALLENFYRE, but for STRIGOI to stand on its own, I wanted to try new things to separate ourselves from the pack.” 

Abandon All Faith is set for release on November 22nd via Nuclear Blast Records.

For more information on STRIGOI like their official page on Facebook.