Gallows - Gallows Review
Gallows are ready to take on the world. Again.
rating:4.5
Ive seen Gallows live three times (I may or may not have seen them another time the jury shall forever still be out on that one), the first time in a tiny tent at a tiny festival in Pontypridds Ynysangharad Park called Full Ponty. It was my 17th Birthday, Id not long been woken from a semi-comatose/semi-conscious powernap on the field floor by being dragged into a portaloo and having speed forced in my gums. I say forced. The tent was rammed, the queue was huge and they were limiting who else was allowed in. Amphetamines fuelling the already confident but dazed drive of the valium and vodka, I decided I could wait no longer, I tried to break into the tent around a side, security saw me and gave chase. Somehow I managed to stumble into the front of the queue and was allowed in. It was amazing, it was chaos. My first hardcore gig proper. I later had a photo with the Gallows as lostprophets headlined the main stage, after having a photo with three random guys I was too fucked to notice werent Gallows after a friend pointed me in the direction of where hed just had a photo with Gallows. The second time was the Lock-Up Stage in Reading 2007, the same again intense, incendiary, brilliant. Larger scale. The may or may not have third time wouldve been Reading 2008 when Frank Carter got tattooed live on stage mid-set. I loved Gallows with Frank, he was (and is) an amazing front man. However, times change, things change, people change people leave. Whilst with Gallows, Frank was perpetually in a state of leaving for some time either fed up or promising that hed quit to pursue a career as a tattoo artist. In that time though Gallows released two brilliant albums, managed to make British hardcore (almost) mainstream and generally kick up a fiery fuss on the music scene. I bring all this up because in spite of what people might say, generally speaking a front man makes a band and without said front man said band is not the same. Im looking at you Queen and Alice in Chains. Frank left, giving up on music. By which he meant starting Pure Love and following a less aggressive and angry musical path think Gaslight Anthem meets The Darkness, but good. Gallows remained undeterred by this, and refusing defeat sought out a new front man. Said front man just so happened to be Wade MacNeil. Oh, you know used to be guitarist/vocalist/growler in Alexisonfire and also fronted his own brilliant side project Black Lungs? Yes, that guy. Anyway, this caused many a stir, mostly based on the differences between Wade and Frank, the fact Wade is Canadian and Gallows has always been a very British, very London kind of punk. Though most of all just that Wade wasnt Frank. In spite of this they released the knowingly titled Death is Birth EP. It was good, not great but it was good. Short, sharp blasts of hardcore albeit a little generic, a little American hardcore. It didnt sit right, it didnt make sense. Fast forward to 2000 Trees Festival 2012 and my third (or fourth) time of seeing Gallows, this time with Wade. It made sense. It made violent, mud-covered, screaming Fuck the World until my voice gave in sense. Wade worked.
Gallows third album. Gallows Mk IIs debut album. Self titled to enforce a point with Frank, with Wade, it doesnt matter, its Gallows. Though more so than that, often self titling occurs on debuts or on albums that signify a significant turnaround. This is both the latter and the former, a rebirth. Victim Culture starts the album with an ominous and cold female voice questioning the listeners own paranoia, anxieties and insecurities. She falls silent and in barely enough time to take a breath the full band erupt. It is immediately clear that Death is Birth was a quick testing of the water. This is Gallows. The riffs immediately bring an aggressively comfortable familiarity, harking back to the kind of riffs Orchestra of Wolves was sporting, but more serrated, vicious. Wade sits atop barking like a rabid dog. Everybody Loves You (When Youre Dead) is a solid signpost for where Gallows are at soundwise now bringing together the Gallows of Orchestra of Wolves, that very British and raw hardcore but so too there is the raucous swagger of North American/Canadian Hardcore Punk. Showing that Gallows are no longer just a British concern theyve gone international. Wades background and nationality bringing the lyrics out and aiming their anger outside this island, though... http://youtu.be/PFPZPlHWtII He lives in Britain now and of course the rest of the Gallows boys are British, so when Last June deals with the riots that set fire and looting to the cities of Britain last Summer it becomes clear you dont have to worry about these boys having forgotten where they come from and where they call home. Outsider Art was a preview before the albums release and you can see, it is genuinely brilliant. Punk rock through and through with slow builds and adrenalin rushes, including perhaps Wades best vocal performance on the album as he switches between his vicious bark, strained shouts and a low, grumbling almost spoken verse that brings to mind both his time in Alexisonfire and classic hardcore punk. Vapid Adolescent Blues has got a mouthful of a name, but one hell of a chorus, and goes to show that Gallows still have that sense of melody that always brought them a cut above the rest, with the band adding full backing vocals this is sure to be a firm live favourite to get the crowd screaming until their hoarse. Speaking of band backing vocals, for anyone missing that Watford charm that Frank brought with his vocals youll be pleasantly pleased with Austere. In amongst the harcorenroll riffs and doomy breaks... there it is for all your listening pleasure courtesy of bassist Stuart Gil-Ross I believe or guitarist/main songwriter Laurent Lags Barnard. Ill be honest I dont know, feel free to tell me but I think its Gil-Ross. http://youtu.be/_-utOgEJ3hs Depravers is well, depraved in its relentless drive but again in among some fucking huge riffs, and I mean huge, it sports some hooky vocal lines from Wade showing that accessible melody they do so well. Odessa displays Wades confidence in his place in the band as he makes things very personal dealing with his Ukrainian heritage and his Canadian homeland. Does it sound out of place? Not at all, not when the band run the course of punk, hardcore, rocknroll and a huge sounding dramatic ending that brings to mind post-hardcore and the very spaciously inclined sound of modern American hardcore. Whether its all the previously mentioned, or Nations/Never Enoughs panicked, vitriolic, stop/start urgency, or Cult of Marys minor driven anguish or Cross of Lorraines filthy, driven swagger boasting another brilliant Wade vocal, melodic and passionate, the point is regardless of your initial concerns, Gallows with Wade works. This album works. Its not perfect but Gallows never released a perfect album with Frank. Wade can occasionally get lost in the mix due to his low-end bark and rumbling riffs, but when he comes out as with Alexis and Black Lungs hes brilliant. Gallows are ready to take on the world. Again. website facebooktwitter