Gallows

Losing key members of a band is always tricky.  In the case of Gallows, it arguably knocked their career back several years.  To the NME crowd who had embraced them, Frank Carter was the band, without him they may as well not exist.  However, that didn’t stop them releasing an awesome slab of hardcore punk in 2012.  For their fourth album, Desolation Sounds, they have trimmed down even further, losing their second Carter, but that doesn’t mean they are not in the mood for kicking some serious arse.

‘Mystic Death’ kicks us off with a slow, almost doomy riff, that eases things into life.  It’s heavy and it’s intimidating and it’s the perfect intro to an album that is looking to be all of those things.  McNeil’s vocals come snarling in and the track kicks into life, becoming the kind of bouncy hardcore that Wade McNeil lead Gallows have made their stock in trade.

Gallows haven’t gone soft though, as ‘Leviathan Rot’ is a throat wrenching piece of heavy music, which sees McNeil continuing his impressive showing.  This is some of the best work he has ever done and throughout this album he shows he can snarl and roar with the best of them.  The rest of the band keeps up their side of the bargain, with this new stripped back four man line up not failing to deliver the riffs and high-octane smash, shit-up sound that made Gallows who they were in the first place.

‘Chains’ is the first true departure.  Dreamlike female vocals leading us in, before a crunching riff comes barreling in over the top.  It’s more of  trudging track and sees Gallows stepping things back a notch in order to ramp up the heaviness. Elsewhere, ‘Bonfire Season’ goes in the other direction, sweeping into an almost gothic rock sound, which sees Gallows having a Cure moment.  It’s an interesting switch up of their sound and they pull it off with aplomb.

The biggest surprise however, is ‘Cease to Exist’, a slow and melodic track that may well be the closest Gallows ever come to writing a ballad (it’s not a ballad).  It’s so far from everything they have ever done that it will catch most by surprise and where you stand on it will probably come down to how whether you believe all music should be played at a hundred miles per an hour or not.  Either way, as McNeil sings ‘If I told you this was killing me/would you stop’ it’s hard not to believe every word of it.

‘Swan Song’ sees us out in a more traditional Gallows way and as it comes to an end it’s hard to not smile.  If all that Gallows are to you is Orchestra of Wolves, then this album probably isn’t for you.  However, it is a cracking album.  Gallows have reinvented themselves and with Desolation Sound they show they are still perfectly capable of being one of the top hardcore bands in the UK.