Album review: Blessthefall – Gallows

In the seven years since Blessthefall’s last record, 2018’s solid but unspectacular Hard Feelings, the U..S has had three presidents – although, sadly, two of them were that same guy.

With the lengthy period of reflection the pandemic provided, and a pretty sizeable run up for album number seven, there was little holding the Arizona unit back from giving this their best shot – which it needs to be, as it’s been a decade since they issued something truly noteworthy (2015’s To Those Left Behind).

It’s a shame to saddle Blessthefall with that kind of expectation, though, because only something truly excellent or innovative is going to provide a reintroduction that really makes an impact. The good news is: those ingredients are in there. The bad news is: it takes far too long to get to them.

The first half of Gallows is what we’ve come to expect from Beau Bokan and co., meticulously constructed metalcore with varying degrees of effectiveness – from the workmanlike (mallxcore, Wake The Dead) to the promising (Somebody Else, Drag Me Under, featuring Alpha Wolf vocalist Lochie Keogh). So far, so similar.

The title-track, however, heralds something of a gear shift. It’s not some drastic about-face, mind, but a recalibration – more refined, more relentless, sharper in its execution. Not all of the songs that make up Gallows’ latter half are stylistically as hard and heavy as that, but they possess a similarly devil-may-care attitude, as if the the band have suddenly shaken off the pressure of what people want them to be and just gone for it. As a result, one could easily imagine this record that was written and recorded chronologically.

What you get, then, is a raft of breezy epics in Light The Flame, Fell So Hard, Felt So Right – featuring Story Of The Year vocalist Dan Marsala – and Y.S.A.B., before This Ends With Us closes things on a crushing note.

Gallows is an album of two halves. Fifty per cent is familiar to a fault, 50 per cent is fresh. You just can’t help wishing there was more of the latter.

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, The Amity Affliction

Gallows is released on September 5 via Rise