Wiry young Londoners return…
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[4.71]
Dave Moore: In Act I, Gallows hijack the bassist’s mom’s van so they can have an underground odyssey through shitty venues to prove themselves. In Act III, they’re dropped from Warner Bros. when their “hard-edged” synth-pop album tanks. The drummer goes on to pursue a degree in physical therapy.
[3]
Alex Wisgard: How to follow up the pressure of being voted NME’s coolest person in rock? Do more of the same and hope for the best. Boring.
[3]
Martin Kavka: Do we really need thrash music to realize, as the lyrics of this song tell us, that religious institutions are perhaps more interested in maintaining their own social power than in helping their adherents find happiness?
[2]
Martin Skidmore: This is billed as punk, but the act it sounds most like is Motorhead. This is not at all a bad thing, of course, and they are learning from the best of Motorhead, in that the tune here is not far from the great “Ace Of Spades”. The lyrics are more Sabbaf or Iron Maiden, or even Spinal Tap. I like to think they perform this vaguely Satan-worshipping number with an inflatable devil and horn-finger salutes. Yes, I am mocking a little, but this is energetic and fiery and I like it, even if it offers nothing even remotely new.
[7]
Eric Bieritz: Heavy music has largely forsaken the singles format in recent years, so I was pleasantly surprised after hearing “Vulture (Act II)” with no prior knowledge of the band (although I’m not sure what other sort of music I was expecting with a name like Gallows). The furious drum fills and American hardcore-style vocalization don’t hold back a sense of scale more common in heavy metal.
[7]
Ian Mathers: Given that this is a band whose most catchy single to date was a cover of, err, the Ruts, it’s admirable to seem them sticking to their post-hardcore guns and making a single that’s so uncompromising. It’s also nice to see that the kids are able to perceive this sort of thing with pop just the same as they can country, R’n’B and so on. But that doesn’t make “The Vulture (Act II)” anything I particularly want to listen to.
[6]
Tom Ewing: They seem like one of those bands who are going to make exactly the same music for as long as they can be bothered and sometimes Dame Fashion will smile on that and sometimes she won’t. You might consider that noble and artistic, or stubborn and unresponsive. Gallows probably wouldn’t care. “The Vulture (Act II)” is enjoyably vein-popping, with great dumps of chord hammering the point home. The point being…? Ah, now there you have me. At the end he sings “THIS. IS. THE. END.” though, which is helpful.
[5]