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Emerging from England in 2005 were a punk band called Gallows. Two things stood out instantly when you saw this band. The first was their lack of pretension in this day and age of Disney punk, eyeliner and fringes. They seemed to be doing it for the love of the music, pure aggression and testosterone. The other thing that caught the eye was frontman Frank Carter. A skinny redhead with a very un-punk name, he was wallpapered in tattoos and sang with a neck bulging ferocity that left no doubt that he was the real deal.

In 2009 Gallows have re-emerged with their sophomore album Grey Britain. An observational attack on the current state of play in England it shows that they have lost none of their knife-edge, slash and burn precision. Musically they travel the same path of clipped punk metal guitar riffs and marching drums from hell. Over the top of the music Carter delivers his screams, barks and bellows like a Sergeant Major hell-bent on revenge. His vocals are fairly indistinguishable for the most part but the key here is the delivery, and anyway we have the lyrics to pore over in the liner notes.

Carter hits his lines with words of despair, destruction, darkness and the evil underbelly of London. He paints it as a lifeless wasteland when in ‘London Is The Reason’ he sings “We hate you and we hate this city / The river Thames is running dry, the bodies have been piled high / All the corpses washed up on the shores / We’ll drag them out because they are yours.” You could almost transpose those lyrics into any of the other twelves songs, such is the unrelenting thematic assault on Grey Britain.

Punk isn’t the only line these boys trade in. Metal is an ever present influence with the double-kick rumble at the end of ‘Black Eyes’ and during ‘I Dread The Night’. They also take a left turn into acoustic ballad badlands with The Vulture (Acts I & II). Carter’s voice takes on a totally different vibe over the guitar and strings backing. The song could almost pass for a Suede slow burner and it shows Gallows taking a chance and allowing some respite from the intensity of the rest of Grey Britain. Of course the passive approach doesn’t last long and they build the song up in an almost Guns n Roses crescendo before charging into the galloping Iron Maiden-like part II of the song.

If you can endure the constant hardcore atmosphere and pummeling musical attack you may well find a gem amongst the rubble and rabble here. It has touches of the intent and the freshness that Refused captured on their defining The Shape Of Things To Come and like that band you wonder where these angry young men can take their sound from here. This kind of music is a young mans game and it feels like Gallows are peaking right about now.

Reviewed for LiveGuide.