Desolation Sounds

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.

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