UK band GALLOWS have been around for just over a decade, with their fourth studio album a month or so away from being released at the time of writing. The single “Chains/Wristslitter” was issued quite a few months back though, so while nowhere near being a new production anymore it is the most recent material released by the band, at least to my knowledge.
As I haven’t come across this band on any previous occasion, I’d say that as a first taste of what this band has to offer this single does the job rather well in terms of captivating me as a listener, with two very different tracks too. The common denominators are massive riff walls and intense, shouted vocals with a clear punk or hardcore origin and style. The guitar riffs tends to have subtle, minimalistic melodic properties to the, with booming bass guitar and steady pounding drums as the core foundation.
On the A side Chains this style is combined with a recurring brooding, orchestral inspired section with female backing vocals and plucked guitar details that adds a gentler but still dark dimension to the proceedings in a manner that almost makes it tempting to add descriptive words such as art metal or progressive as far as style is concerned. On the B side Wristslitter the emphasis is more firmly based in punk and hardcore inspired metal, with a killer chorus section sporting melody based backing vocals and a nifty, gentler guitar motif Killing Joke style thrown into the middle of the song, and to very good effect to in my opinion. Personally I have to admit that I favor this B side more, despite it’s more simple and primal in your face nature.
Tight, aggressive and dark metal with strong and distinct punk and hardcore flavoring should summarize this band as they appear on the Chains/Wristslitter single quite nicely. I’d suspect that those who have bands such as Nuclear Assault and Killing Joke sitting side by side in their collections might be a fair guess as far as a key audience is concerned, alongside those with a general interest in aggressive but accomplished music with strong ties to hardcore, punk and related genres.
My rating: 90/100
