You should be ready to see the horror. If you're not already there, it won't take long to feel the room getting red. You've begun sweating and you're feeling more agitated that you normally do. It's affecting you - the economy, the missus, the mister, those nagging problems that never solve themselves - and you're about ready to throw a hammer through a window. You're starting to stomp around more and your temper is shorter than a skirt. You're starting to hyperventilate and then…it's like you're a balloon that hasn't been tied at its end. You're let go and you go haphazardly flipping around the room, letting off steam and bumping into anything that gets in your way. It's Gallows for you. It's partially them, but it's a lot you. It's the part of you that they remind you of. They tap into those feelings that you tend to keep to yourself - those that would agree that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are throwing their legs over and onto their saddles, readying for a ride, the last one. You're sure that there's more shit out there than there is good and it's getting worse every day. The few things that seem good and pure are so few and far between that they're shocking and suspected as imposters, or pleasure with all the strings attached.
The Watford, England, punk band goes door-to-door selling the opportunity to burn in hell. You either want it or you politely decline. Either way, it's easy to get there if it's something you're into. They might be able to see it in your eyes if you're already on the right course. They might be able to see it in your mannerisms, in the way you treat others, in the way that they stare at your tattoos and wrinkle their noses. There's a lot of shit out there and there are a lot of shitty people. It's nice of Gallows to remind us of this and for those of us who make to hope for the best, these are good reminders that if we're really thinking straight, we'll see that everything's mostly off its axis. The problems are many and the solutions are few when the dickheads rule the world.
These are the first ever Gallows recordings with new lead singer Wade MacNeil at the microphone, having taken over for original singer Frank Carter in July over creative differences during the making of the band's upcoming new album. They arrived at 8 am for a 9 am session and over our morning coffees, MacNeil convinced us of the crumble and the breakdown of civilization. We were rallying around his screaming at us, at you now, when he barked, "You say 'Fuck the World'/I say it's already fucked." It's the anthem that he and Gallows live by. It could be the one that we all die by too. So it goes.