GALLOWS - Orchestra of Wolves

Gallows - Orchestra of Wolves

12 songs
35:58 minutes
***** ***
In At The Deep End

Bandpage

The very tasteful cover in pink, black and white hints already that you won't get standard alt rock fare with British noise band Gallows. And my first impression didn't disappoint, only left me a bit clueless. What you hear is excellent noise rock, but loaded with so many different styles and influences that your brain works hard to find words to describe it. Punk, noise rock, math core, emo all coalesce into something very modern and contemporary, but also rather innovative. The guitars have a certain Jon Spencer blues quality to them, and it's the fact that they are not too distorted which gives Gallows a certain indie rock flair, although the vocals remind me of hardcore innovation pioneers The Refused. The dynamic short opener Kill The Rhythm is a perfect way to start the album, and the following Come Friendly Bombs adds a lot of melody, showing you how Blood Brothers would sound if they had a knack for accessibility. This track is only topped by Rolling With The Punches which is spiced up by freaky keyboard sounds.

Orchestra Of Wolves is an album that begs to be listened to many times before you get every single detail, probably a curse in a time and age where we are flooded with so much music that we are not always willing or able to give a band so much time. But if spend a whole weekend only listening to this album (like I did this time because I was just too lazy to listen to something else), you will realise that Gallows are one of those bands that may not reinvent angular indie rock, but they have such a fresh and invigorating take at the genre that they just have to make it, if there's any justice in the world.

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