Gallows Restarts With A Self-Titled LP

Last year, Gallows did everything they could to survive a split with Frank Carter. Shortly after asking Wade MacNeil to fill the vacancy, they put out Death Is Birth earlier this year to prove what could be done. It took some guts to do it.

The 4-track hardcore outing has since became a marker of sorts for a band that wanted to remain true to their roots. It also gave them new material to prove themselves in person. Their shows are ferocious, enough so that some people wondered how hard they wanted to be.

Their new album answers any questions straight up as a self-titled restart. While the players are the same, Gallows is a new band. Their new material rubs up against Death Is Birth while making the case that they are anything but dead. There is nothing soft about this album.

Gallows is still a disenfranchised D.I.Y. punk band.

All of it has been a smart choice on their part. They knew that MacNeil could never be Carter. Instead, they made MacNeil the right fit for a Gallows without any frontman resistance. There is no doubt that the band is moving forward now. There will be no retreat.

Victim Culture opens with a 12-line definition of the song title, recited by a guest vocalist. As soon as she is done, Gallows defines itself. They don't care for any familiar victim outs and shout their defiance in a gang chorus: in us, we trust! Then MacNeil picks up the verse, embracing all the bad that finds them.

The song isn't the sharpest on the album. But neither is Outsider Art, which was also released as a video. It's good, but the pent up beginning holds on too long before breaking to the better half.


The video directed by Stuart Birchall was based on the band's vision for a twisted romance. The finished piece, however, feels like something different. The unavoidable collision isn't between mismatched lovers or anything like that. It's between two very different kinds of people who frequent the same scene, with the girl on the vicarious fringe becoming the brutal bruiser by the end of it.

Mostly though, the album plays better in its entirety. Everybody Loves You (When You're Dead) has the feel of real punk fury. Last June adds in the intensity of their earlier work as one of the most physical songs on the album. Vapid Adolescent fuses together beauty, brawn, and bawdiness that will make some blush.

After just these three songs, it's all very clear that Gallows is more cohesive. But it also reveals that MacNeil doesn't offer as much diversity in his vocals as Laurent "Lags" Barnard (guitar, keys), Steph Carter (guitars), Stuart Gili-Ross (bass), and Lee Barratt (drums) do on their instruments.

Why you might expect more from Gallows in the future. 

I'm not suggesting MacNeil broaden his range. He sounds his best when ratcheted up on anger, and is only less convincing or even distracting when he moves beyond it. The band covers some of it with more gang vocals. It softens up the growls, roars, and screams with some semblance of harmony.

That makes Gallows is a great album for its unrestrained brutality, its not fully formed in every song. Even in the most musically interesting tracks — Austere, Depravers, Odessa — how the vocals (or lyrics) fit can be hit and miss. Austere is perfect. Depravers is strained. Odessa hits is on and off. The same can be said about the bonus tracks. We Bite fits better than Borstal Breakout.

Gallows Comes Out Swinging At 4.8 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

The self-titled album is better than the Death Is Birth EP and a harder hitting sound than Carter could have delivered. While there may be rough spots, Gallows is shaping up to be a hardcore band to watch. Who knows? Maybe that means anyone put off by the split will find they will have two bands to like on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

Gallows can be picked up on Amazon or you can download the album on iTunes. You have to download the album to pick up the bonus tracks. Given the better of the two (We Bite) is only 71 seconds long, you might think twice. Barnes & Noble carries the CD. The band is currently touring in the United Kingdom before crossing over to the United States in November.

Ceremony Creates Some Hysteria

There may be something to look forward to with the upcoming release of Zoo by Bay Area punk band Ceremony. It's the first release by Matador Records and with it comes producer John Goodmanson (Sleater-Kinney, Girls, Weezer). The color vinyl release is long sold out.

What this means to anyone following Ceremony is they will stick with singer Ross Farrar's biting themes, but remain bent on polishing out those jagged edges from their debut days. Being called a sonically crude and destructive force in hardcore punk hardly fits anymore. The band, who once said they came together as a bunch of guys who didn't know what to do with themselves, knows exactly what they want to do.

That isn't a bad thing at all. The diversity split some people heard on Rohnert Park might be falling by the wayside as Ceremony seems much more likely to commit with their new single.

Hysteria is a different, moving away from hardcore.

"I have a little window I peer out of at my house in Rohnert Park where I sit at night and write things down that have come to me throughout the day," frontman Farrar recently wrote for the band's website. "Most of the stuff has to do with people, how we treat each other, and our ever increasing ability to hurt one another, as well as unconditionally love."

As the first single in advance of the album in early March, Hysteria is about the former but delivered in a way that long-time listeners would not expect from Ceremony. Where is works, however, is in laying down the primer for a new sound. It's one of their most well crafted songs, even if it doesn't carry the usual pummel.

At the opening, Hysteria kicks things off with stick clicks before descending into a grinding drum set and guitar teasers. As the drums settle into a steady thump, the guitars power up into a cross between revivalist punk and garage rock, setting up Farrar to fire up his distinctive lyrics and vocals.



Two minutes into the song, almost everyone expects something hugely deconstructive to wrap it up. But nothing ever really happens. The song drifts into a group chant providing Farrar a vocal backup to deliver the last chorus before the song whimpers out.

Any concern over the single is largely unfounded. It's good.

It's the anti-climax that seems to be the primary reason some reviewers are selling Hysteria short. And maybe they are right to a point. But what I hear is something very different. The end of the song provides the perfect set up to power into something heavier on the album or rip into whatever they want  during their live performances.

Since I don't know if that's true, I started digging around and came up with a review by Peter Lillis, who attended a recent live performance at Le Poisson Rouge. He says that is exactly what happens, writing that Hysteria thrives with a third dimension you would never hear off of a studio album.

But if Hysteria isn't enough to give you a sense of things of come, check out this recent video release by Matador with footage from the same concert Lillis reviewed. The song is World Blue from Zoo.



Since the beginning of the band, Farrar has said that what was most important to them was staying inspired. Unlike other bands that sometimes ride their sound into the grave, Zoo could be the right time for the band to change things up while still keeping their penchant for making loud sounds.

Hysteria By Ceremony Primes 6.2 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

The real measure of the music will come out in March with the release of Zoo. In the meantime, along with Hysteria, check out the band's last EP with Bridge Nine Records. It's packed with six covers, with Holocaust being the bright spot on the album.

Hysteria can be found on iTunes. The single is also up at Amazon. If you are looking for Ceremony on social networks, we'll save you some trouble. Visit their site where they point out that you won't find them on Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter.