When Frank Carter left Gallows in 2011 the band were met
with scepticism and dismissal over their decision to move forward with Wade
MacNeil as their new front man. Long term fans criticised MacNeil before they
had even heard a single note of new music, and maintained that Gallows would
never be able to live up to the greatness they had already cemented with Frank
Carter and their first two iconic albums. As new music started to emerge in
late 2011 this scepticism continued and many wrote Gallows off as sounding too
generic, and becoming a typical hardcore band, indistinguishable from the next.
Many claimed MacNeil, though a great singer, lacked the charisma and ferocious
tenacity that Frank had, making their live shows suffer, and by doing so
weakening their name and their legacy. As time progressed and Gallows released
their eponymous third album, their debut with MacNeil, many fans argued that
despite the albums cut throat, violent punk sound, it just wasn’t Gallows
without Frank Carter and that they should drop the name altogether. However
upon the release of their fourth album, Desolation Sounds, their second with
Wade MacNeil, Gallows remain as united as ever, a gang, defiant, not deterred
by public opinion.
Gallows as a band, since their inception, have come to
represent the embodiment of the punk spirit, free to do whatever they want and
not answering to nobody. That has not changed. The band are known for their
violent, bleak, nihilistic brand of punk rocknroll and their live shows are
unrivalled, filling dingy clubs across the world with such volatile chaos, no
band can teeter on the edge of destruction and annihilation the way that
Gallows can. Their nihilistic attitude and angular frenzied noise is present on
each of their four records. However the defining characteristic of what makes
Gallows ‘Gallows’ isn’t their sound or the music they play, but the attitude
they have regarding it. They are not punk because they sound punk. They are
punk because they do what they want. It is by this definition that the name
Gallows must stay intact, no matter who is singing for them and no matter what
their music sounds like. Each record, though different and hugely diverse,
pushes the boundaries of what punk rock can be. The four Gallows albums are not
unified by sound, but the knowledge that only Gallows can be responsible of
creating such music. Their music is aggressive, violent, chaotic, bleak,
melancholy, destructive and cathartic and all those elements are still as present
today as they were in 2006. The name Gallows remains because Gallows is more
than a band, it is almost a brand, a seal of quality, integrity and fearless
individuality.
Since joining Gallows, Wade MacNeil has time and time again
proven himself to be an equally great front man, capable of not only laying down
ferocious vocals on record, but cutting the mustard live too, with an equally
threatening stage presence and unpredictable volatile energy that continues
to make Gallows' live shows one of the best in the world, somewhere between the
blurred lines of chaos and grace. With UK tours taking them back to the clubs
and dives, and festival appearances all over the world, Gallows 2.0 or Gallows
A.D were here to stay and they couldn’t care less about your opinion.
The bands third album, 'Gallows', where Wade finally proved to
the world that not only was he worthy of your acceptance, he wasn’t asking for
it. ‘Gallows’ their eponymous record is the most streamlined, hard as nails,
piss n vinegar punk record the band have ever released. Gone were the heavy
production nuances of ‘Grey Britain’, the orchestras and the samples, instead a
visceral thirty minute fuck you to any doubters that Gallows were dead or
should have stayed dead. If ‘Death is Birth’ wasn’t enough for MacNeil to prove
himself, ‘Gallows’ ushered in a new chapter of the bands career and stamped
out any trace of the past. Gallows were moving forward, and they were never
looking back.
The Gallows we have today in 2015 are indeed an entirely new
band. They are in every way different to the band that released their legendary
2006 debut ‘Orchestra of Wolves’ and generation defining ‘Grey Britain’ in
2009. The band, now a four piece and Carter-less, have intentionally divorced
themselves from any association with their former selves and rebranded every
facet of their aesthetic to define a new chapter in the bands career. Since
MacNeil joined the band, all their artwork has been uniform, congruous and
monochrome, their music videos have been entirely without the bands inclusion
and their sound has grown much darker, the visual aesthetic dictating the
direction of the music. Gallows in 2015 are an incredibly blackened gang; their
musical influences now have more to do with black metal, Sabbath and the occult
than the Pistols, the Clash or The Ruts. Yet these influences have always been
there, present in the bleak orchestral arrangements of ‘Grey Britain’ and
present throughout the Victorian, gothic tales of misery that that records
lyrics documented. Gallows have always been a dark, heavy band, yet now, they
have just comfortably found a true art form, in shining a light on those
aspects of their sound, in a way that has enabled them to create the heaviest
and lightest record of their career.
‘Desolation Sounds’ the bands fourth full length record, is
among the bleakest and darkest of their career however despite containing some
of the heaviest tracks the band have ever written it also includes much lighter
songs, much more focused and pop structured, testament to a band continuing to
push themselves creatively and constantly finding new ways to be heavy without
being aggressive. Songs such as ‘Cease to Exist’, ‘Bonfire Season’ and ‘Death
Valley Blues’ give the album an all new texture that previous records never had,
the pop structure of those tracks, though accessible, allows the heaviness of
the subject matter and the weight of MacNeil’s haunting words and melodies do
their job without cramming the entire record with noise, distortion and violent
slabs of fast punk rock. Of which there are plenty, songs such as ‘Mystic
Death’, ‘Leviathon Rot’, ‘Chains’, ’93 93’ and ‘Leather Crown’ are among the
heaviest the band have ever written. Gallows have artistically pushed the
envelope on this record in a way they never have before. There is the
impression that they are now finding creative fulfilment in the process of song
writing, and creating a body of work, instead of finding it a chore to produce
an album like in the past, merely thrashing out riffs to make numbers,
exhausting their creativity in the process.
If ‘Desolation Sounds’ were to be the last album Gallows
ever produce, they can die happy knowing that their legacy is one to be
monumentally proud of. There is no such thing as a bad Gallows album, each
record defines the band as it existed in that time, each are vital, progressive,
timeless examples of true punk rock in a world bereft of artistry and
individuality. Gallows are a truly rare type of band in the world of music
today, a band with vision, passion, fire, and a creativity that simply will not
fade. But more importantly than that, they are a band with purpose; vital,
unparalleled, irreplaceable and immortal.
Mondo Gallows.
‡
