 
When Frank Carter announced his departure from
the Gallows back last July the band were quick
to announce that they weren’t splitting
up and that a new vocalist had been found, after
many weeks of anticipation and rumours the vocalist
was revealed to be Wade Macneil from Alexisonfire
who were calling it a day after ten years as a
band, but as soon as this was announced people
started to bad mouth the Gallows saying that they
will be nothing without Carter and that Macneil
shouldn’t be allowed to front an English
hardcore punk band.
Well after a long 12 month of proving themselves
on the live circuit the new look Gallows are set
to release their first album with Macneil fronting
the band and it is a self titled album marking
the first of what they hope to be many albums
with the current lineup of the Gallows.
It’s hard to tell if the Gallows let these
negative comments bother them but either way they
have come back with the most brutal sounding hardcore
album of the year so far, as soon as you put the
opening track ‘Victim Culture’ on
you are greeted to a bit of a spooky sounding
spoken word introduction and then at the 48second
mark the guitars come in like a machine gun and
Macneil screams his lungs out shouting “In
us we trust, in us we trust, in us we trust, in
us we trust” and from that moment you just
know that the next 30minutes are going to smash
your ears to pieces as you try and resist sharing
the same anger and passion as the band and trashing
everything in sight.
The album continues as it means to go on with
back to back hardcore songs running between 2
and 3 minutes flowing so damn well with outstanding
instrumental work with deafening drum beats, pounding
guitar riffs and baselines all coming together
to create a beast of a sound whilst Macneil lays
down really raw and gruff sounding vocals which
you will come to terms with in seconds and not
to forget the gang breakdown vocals which has
been a big part of the whole Gallows sound since
the very beginning.
One of the first new tracks that the Gallows premiered
to the world was ‘Last June’ a song
that they gave away as a free download to people
who signed up to their mailing list and I am sure
that people flocked in their thousands to download
the track as it is an absolute beast of a track
that will have you throwing your fists up in the
air chanting the repetitive vocals of “Last
June, Last June”.
The whole of the album is outstanding but ‘Vapid
Adolescent Blues’, ‘Nations/ Never
Enough’, ‘Everybody Love You (When
You’re Dead) and ‘Cult Of Mary’
are easily some of the strongest sounding tracks
on the album that you will find yourself coming
back to listen to time and time again.
Most of the time when a front man leaves a band
the band either call it quits or they recruit
a new vocalist yet let their fans down and end
up fading out over a short matter of time but
on the odd occasion some band’s have managed
to come back fighting and that is exactly what
the Gallows have done here as they have created
one of the best hardcore albums of the year, is
it as good as or better than ‘Grey Britain’
or ‘Orchestra Of Wolves’, well in
my eyes it can’t be compared but what I
do know is that the Gallows have easily proved
the haters wrong and lined themselves up for a
very healthy future as a band.
5/5
Review by Trigger
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