The Gallows: Grey Britain

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Oct 9, 2004
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Hertfordshire punk band The Gallows are about to release their new album "Grey Britain" tomorrow.

The album is an anthem of modern Britain, with songs about knife crime and the recession.

Singer Frank Carter recently explained the premise of the album to Kerrang!, saying, "Britain is ****ed. Grey Britain is all about what's going on socially, politically and economically in the UK and how it affects us."

The album cover features two quinessential British symbols - a White Rose of York superimposed over a Union Flag.

In the 16th century, roses were often tattooed on people about to be sent to the gallows. Appropriately, the lead singer of The Gallows, Frank Carter, has a White Rose on his hand.

The album is said to be much louder than their debut album, 2006's "Orchestra of Wolves".

The Sun's "Something For The Weekend" interviewed the Watford punk/metal band about the album:

'We don't give a f**k what people think.. never have, never will'


By JACQUI SWIFT
Published: 01 May 2009
The Sun


GALLOWS - Grey Britain

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HARDCORE band Gallows paint a bleak picture on second album Grey Britain.

Their extreme mix of metal, punk and even strings plus dark lyrics deals with our country in gloomy times.

Harsh but also euphoric, Queensberry Rules calls for youths to give up their knives, while Graves features Biffy Clyro singer Simon Neil.

Here frontman Frank Carter tells JACQUI SWIFT why they had to get heavy and why it’s important for bands to be political.


THE GALLOWS ARE:

FRANK CARTER: VOCALS
LAURENT BARNARD: GUITAR
STEPH CARTER: GUITAR
STU GILI-ROSS: BASS
LEE BARRATT: DRUMS


EXPLAIN Grey Britain. How do you see it?
Grey Britain is a state-of-the-nation address. The record deals with all of our disgust and disappointment with the country we grew up in. Every song on the record is about some part of the broken society we find ourselves a part of now.

How can things get better and brighter?
I don’t have a particularly bright outlook on life at the moment. I think that, as the generation gap gets smaller, the economic depression gets larger and our Government continues to send the only young men willing to work to fight in a country we have no right in occupying. There is no stable foundation left to build a future on. I believe we are already working towards the end. Children no longer aspire to be doctors or lawyers or firemen, they want to be drug dealers, teen mothers or footballers’ wives. The lack of aspirations and the level of apathy in our country and mainly the youth of our country I find disgusting. There will be no future for England.


This album is much heavier than Orchestra Of Wolves. What influenced this darker side?
Gallows has always been a product of it’s time. We have always written about our lives and how they are directly affected by the world that we live in. Grey Britain is all about looking at our lives from a different perspective and trying to use our new position as effectively as possible. The album is a lot heavier but that’s because the problems on our shoulders are too.




Any outside pressures for this second album?
None whatsoever. We never feel pressure as we don’t give a f*** what people think about us. Never have and never will

You have surprise acoustic moments too, as on The Vulture.
I knew I could sing well enough to get away with it and we just wanted to show people a different way of looking at not only our band but all music. We literally took the same set of lyrics and made two songs at opposite ends of the same spectrum. We wanted to challenge ourselves and every band that will ever use this record as reference in the future.





How was it writing with your brother Steph?
Great, Steph and I have been writing songs together for a long time but never thought we would have a captive audience to play to. In Gallows we not only have the time and the means to write new material but we also have the perfect platform to deliver them from. Not only is he my brother, he is one of my best friends so we know that whatever we do together will be done with as much passion as is physically possible.

Tell us about the film which accompanies the album.
Every part of the record is consistent and flows into the next part. So we needed to make sure our music videos worked the very same way. I achieved so much by making it and working with the crew. They all helped us to realise our vision of a true dystopian Britain. A real look at life in a truly broken, grey Britain. I was inspired to write the film while I was putting the lyrics together.

You have guest vocalists on the album – Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro, Eva Spence of Rolo Tomassi and Liam Cormier of Cancer Bats. How were they picked?
We have all been big fans of those band for many years and it just made sense for those people to be involved.



Some people might be surprised at the string section, pianos and orchestral influences.
We have always been a punk band in the respect that punk is an ideal. It’s a lifestyle and way of thinking. It isn’t a form of music any more because it’s so much bigger than that. The most punk rock thing we did as a band was never holding back and doing everything we ever wanted to with this band and so much more.

A lot of the lyrics are very dark, doomy and deep. How do they affect you?
Gallows is the only music that has ever pulled me out of depression. It also put me there in the first place. Gallows fans tell me every day what my band means to them and it makes me really happy to know my band can change lives no matter how trivial the change.

Queensberry Rules calls for violent teens to throw their knives into the Thames. Tell us about that.
Violence, as a whole, is pretty futile. It’s important because I really believe that something needs to be said about the current fad that rules the streets of London right now. We need to bring our troops home, end the second Vietnam we are a part of and focus on saving the lives of the teenagers being killed right on our doorsteps.

This album can be seen as a political statement. Do you see yourself as a political band?
I don’t know whether musicians can change anything. I do believe that if you have a platform like we do and you don’t use it to try and change bad situations then you are part of the problem.

Is it difficult keeping up the intensity of your performances on tour?
It’s always difficult to keep the level of intensity when you play in a band like Gallows, but it’s the only way we know how to play. As difficult as it is, we will always play at that level because if we dropped it we would feel like we cheated ourselves.

When people say you’ve made a classic album in Grey Britain, does that have an impact on you?
Not really. It’s extremely humbling and I’m very glad they feel we made a great record. But I won’t ever let those opinions change the way I feel about it.

Did you mean it when you said there would be no more Gallows in 2010?
Ask me after the 18-month tour we have booked!

All songs written and composed by Gallows.

1."The Riverbank"
2. "London is the Reason"
3. "Leeches"
4. "Black Eyes"
5. "I Dread the Night"
6."Death Voices"
7."The Vulture (Act I & II)"
8 ) "The Riverbed"
9) "The Great Forgiver"
10 "Graves (featuring Simon Neil)"
11) "Queensberry Rules"
12) "Misery"
13) "Crucif ucks"

thesun.co.uk
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GREY BRITAIN PREVIEW

What we know: Gallows are expected to deliver big on their first album release proper as part of their (insert the figure you’ve heard) deal with Warner Brothers.

Quite simply, ‘Grey Britain’ has to be the dog’s proverbial and the rest o’ the beast an’ all. Too much is at stake for it not to succeed, critically and commercially.

What we didn’t know ‘til now: ‘Grey Britain’ dares to venture where the band’s debut LP of 2006, ‘Orchestra Of Wolves’ (released via In At The Deep End prior to a re-issue on WB the following year), didn’t even dream of exploring. The ambition on show, the risk taking in stretching the band’s trademark sound to incorporate strings and acoustic elements… It’s enough to leave one wholly bamboozled first play out. And the whole thing is, in essence, a concept album, and one featuring contributions from members of (absolutely out-there acts) Rolo Tomassi and Biffy Clyro. Things are different. Very Different.

But don’t go assuming they’ve mellowed. That is the last thing you’ll think after hearing ‘Grey Britain’ for the first time. Sure, opener ‘The Riverbank’ is a swerve ball to trump all swerve balls, the gentle lapping of water accompanied by ominous orchestration for well over a minute, a crow calling from afar, bells ringing in the distance – but it’s a scene-setter for an LP that dissects what it means to be British in an age when expressing national pride is so easily mistaken for small-minded xenophobia. In short: Gallows are pissed off, and from the top down everyone’s getting theirs…

“The Queen is dead / and so is the crown”

All bets are off. The order is rearranged. “God help us now / We are ready to die”. And so begins ‘Grey Britain’ in all its snarling, savage glory, ‘London Is The Reason’ ripped into with nary a second’s silence between opener and successor. Here, the band’s hardcore sound battles to the surface with fists flying – “We hate you / We hate this city”. Guitars squeal, vocalist Frank Carter spits guttural couplets with the tones of a man road-hardened after two years promoting the **** out of a rightly respected debut, and most importantly of all the catchiness of ‘Orchestra Of Wolves’ presents itself to the fore – while ‘Grey Britain’ is bristling with aggression, tempered though it has to be, never do Gallows forget to match their sonic might with melodies enough to offer newcomers a way into the maelstrom.

But let’s not delve too deep, not yet – the album is not in stores until May 4, giving us plenty of time to digest ‘Grey Britain’ and present a detailed review nearer its release date. Clash needs to spend a few hours more in the company of this multi-faceted LP – right now the acoustic strums of ‘The Vulture (Acts I & II)’ – check that title! We said it was a concept album! – catch us out every time, leaving us vulnerable for the track’s devastating second half. Talk about knock-out blows. And then there’s the closer, ‘Cruci****s’ – be you a fan old or new of Gallows, the way in which the album slides to its final silence is going to leave you tongue-tied, stunned into an impressed silence.

It’s a grand statement, ‘Grey Britain’; a genuinely ‘big’ album that is going to expose this little hardcore band from Watford to the kind of audiences they’ve never before courted. It has to, or else their evident effort, all the spilled blood and sweat, has been for **** all. Frankly, I can’t see that happening.

What we’ve learned: Gallows haven’t just avoided making ‘Orchestra Of Wolves’ part two, but may have raised the bar for hardcore worldwide. Be excited.

Gallows - 'Grey Britain' Previewed | Clash Music Exclusive Best of Clash
 
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