Grey britain is a release made earlier this month by Hardcore pioneers, Gallows. The West-Midlands five piece first appeared much towards the start of the emergence of the Hardcore scene with 2006's Orchestra of Wolves a brain-blasting record that saw the lads receive enough praise to break the windows of Sr. Paul's cathedral. Alas, first things first ; the negative attention. Some EPs and some tours later the boys were slaughtered for being sell outs because they sold out their shows, records and EPs that was for sure. After three years however are they sold out of material?
No. Grey Britain is a shift in the balance of power that Gallows; a band with the Hardcore Punk scene at their feet have made in the right direction. It is nothing less than the wonderful fact that Gallows can inch more towards their heavy metal element, write fairly political lyrics and throw producer Garth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Puzzle) into the mix and get away with it. Why you ask because it means they are not remotely concerned with having to the live up to the legend of Orchestra of Wolves; they are confident of one thing. Every release of 2009 will have to live up to the legend of Grey Britain.
Opening ambience "The Riverbank" soon turns to an opening of hell with frontman Frank Carter's vocals-not singing-vocals purging your brain of anything a gram less heavy than what is to follow. Purged clean, your ears and you for that matter only know one thing: what follows is what the f*ck you get. What you get is Boulder a violently heavy form of rock that picks up it's downhill pace with Carter's straggled Larynx becoming the be all and end all of thick thrash guitar runs and double bass machine guns "oh it sounds just like anything Machine Head could do" with all due respect to MH, go suck a guitar solo. It deals out beating after beating after beating of raked metal chords and of the mosh pit antagonising drums and of vein bursting bass.
Then you get half way through.
"Death Voices" is just a broken up chant by five broken up men, rudely interrupted by Steph Carter's low end dirge across a burning fretboard before dropping you into "The Vulture" a anarchic anthem of hate so huge it comes in two acts. You can only believe Carter's banshee scream of "THIS YEIIISSSSS D ENNNN" when your cochlea are left at the mercy of "The Riverbed"; simply one big riff with a bigger ball of hate deep inside. You're to petrified to ask "is this varied enough?" or "does this lack direction". Torn apart you will be left to be harrowed by the utterly seamless combination of heart-wrenching strings and gut-bursting rumble of "Misery".
All in all you get what you will never expect - you also get a sound, earthshaking Hardcore record- because you don't expect the red-raw emotion and OoW beating quality you most certainly get irreversibly harrowed by for seventy minuets.
Gallows are just rounding off the english leg of their world tour and will be hitting Ireland, the States and Europe in the coming months. Grey Britain is out now. www.gallows.co.uk
No. Grey Britain is a shift in the balance of power that Gallows; a band with the Hardcore Punk scene at their feet have made in the right direction. It is nothing less than the wonderful fact that Gallows can inch more towards their heavy metal element, write fairly political lyrics and throw producer Garth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Puzzle) into the mix and get away with it. Why you ask because it means they are not remotely concerned with having to the live up to the legend of Orchestra of Wolves; they are confident of one thing. Every release of 2009 will have to live up to the legend of Grey Britain.
Opening ambience "The Riverbank" soon turns to an opening of hell with frontman Frank Carter's vocals-not singing-vocals purging your brain of anything a gram less heavy than what is to follow. Purged clean, your ears and you for that matter only know one thing: what follows is what the f*ck you get. What you get is Boulder a violently heavy form of rock that picks up it's downhill pace with Carter's straggled Larynx becoming the be all and end all of thick thrash guitar runs and double bass machine guns "oh it sounds just like anything Machine Head could do" with all due respect to MH, go suck a guitar solo. It deals out beating after beating after beating of raked metal chords and of the mosh pit antagonising drums and of vein bursting bass.
Then you get half way through.
"Death Voices" is just a broken up chant by five broken up men, rudely interrupted by Steph Carter's low end dirge across a burning fretboard before dropping you into "The Vulture" a anarchic anthem of hate so huge it comes in two acts. You can only believe Carter's banshee scream of "THIS YEIIISSSSS D ENNNN" when your cochlea are left at the mercy of "The Riverbed"; simply one big riff with a bigger ball of hate deep inside. You're to petrified to ask "is this varied enough?" or "does this lack direction". Torn apart you will be left to be harrowed by the utterly seamless combination of heart-wrenching strings and gut-bursting rumble of "Misery".
All in all you get what you will never expect - you also get a sound, earthshaking Hardcore record- because you don't expect the red-raw emotion and OoW beating quality you most certainly get irreversibly harrowed by for seventy minuets.
Gallows are just rounding off the english leg of their world tour and will be hitting Ireland, the States and Europe in the coming months. Grey Britain is out now. www.gallows.co.uk