The Hardcore Thread Genre • Page 310

major label hardcore that isn't really strictly speaking hardcore and broke through to the mainstream/seemed to be every other musician's favorite hardcore band

 

I love Turnstile takes.

 

i mean i love both bands. idk how saying that is a slight haha.

 

I am not saying your opinion is wrong. I just love hearing everyone's opinion on them.

 

I guess I wouldn’t have thought to make that connection. I would imagine their front man leaving the band at the height of their success really did a number on them. Could be wrong.

 

Gallows had a few things going against them, IMO:

1) Didn't help that their major label follow-up was a bit underwhelming compared to Orchestra of Wolves. Grey Britain had some good songs on it, but Orchestra of Wolves was a hard act to follow. You could argue that Turnstile releasing an album as good as Glow On at their current peak as helped.

2) Sound. Gallows was still a somewhat abrasive punk band with their major label debut whereas Turnstile has gotten exponentially more accessible since their early days. Having a backlog of more than a few releases probably also helps too.

3) This is probably a bit too much of an inference, but Gallows had a bit of an abrasive outsider attitude that wanted to keep themselves distanced from other acts. In particular when I saw them at Warped 2009, they played a great set but were openly antagonistic towards the scene acts playing the show and wanted to "up the punx". IIRC from an interview, they were also pretty happy to "fleece" Warner Brothers for 1 million pounds as they put it. Overall, it's a dope attitude from the underground perspective, but Turnstile doesn't really have that gatekeeping attitude as much which makes them feel a lot more inviting towards the mainstream perspective leading them to probably get warmer offers from places like Coachella and Lolla that are just gonna increase their exposure over here in the states.

4) Frank leaving the band in 2011 was a death knell. Wade was a capable replacement, but they lost a lot of their distinctiveness after that IMO.

Tribe Dream. Tape label for those fellas that point out the first C4 demo. Burning Lord, Blast Furnace, and Chaos Cross have all put out great tapes there too.

 

Yeah, those Frank era Gallow's album were deeply rooted in punk and they carried an attitude as well. Not nearly as accessible as bands like Rise Against and even something like Anti-Flag,

 

Gallows is still one of the most fun live bands I’ve seen, watching Frank scream in people’s faces was so dope

 

Saw them at warped in 09 and wasn’t super familiar with them at the time. Frank jumped off the stage, walked through the circle pit and screamed directly in my face. I was kinda scared

 

oh im sure haha. it just seems weird that it actively stopped listeners to that album too. it was massive and seems lost to time a bit. frank's solo stuff still does huge numbers so it's a little weird that it's carried over there but not really for the album he's probably most well known for.

 

fwiw i didn't really mean "i don't get why gallows still isn't big." as mentioned, it totally makes sense they'd fall off after losing frank. it's more that i don't really get grey britain not really having a longer-lasting impact than its had. also, i totally disagree about grey britain / orchestra of wolves haha. to me its similar to time & space and glow on in that the follow-up progressed the sound of the one before it into a more "smooth" but still aggressive sound.

i think the third point might have a lot to do with it too. it was a time with a lot of legacy hardcore bands ending and right before a lot of the current crop would be starting up, so they got lumped in with more of the punk side of things than the hardcore one. i totally get them being openly antagonistic on a tour where they're playing with, like, Less than Jake and 3OH3 haha, as opposed to bands they're more aligned with. but yeah, im sure that didn't help.

ultimately my point is less "idgi why gallows didn't continue to be big after frank" and more why those two albums seem "forgotten" within the scene

 

Grey Britain probably didn't have as much as of a lasting impact because it still was pretty firmly rooted in punk and hardcore, but tried to be a lot more expansive and epic. Bands on a mainstream level always seem to be kind of boom or bust when they make those kind of overtures, but I guess the world wasn't ready for it at time. Just spitballing here - maybe there was a bit of a regional bias with it as well because they were so overtly British? IDK.

And you just caught me on a day where work is slow so I have a bit more time to think about these things. Kills the boredom.

 

I wonder how Grey Britain would hold up against the recent bad times in the UK with Brexit and all that, considering the album was about how Britain was falling apart in their eyes.

 

i also feel like hardcore is in a much better place than it was in 2009.

 

I would argue from 2009 to 2012-13, hardcore was pretty meh aside from choice releases.

 

The 2010’s were a pretty low point. A2G talk about it on the recent episode.

 

I wish frank Carter and the rattle snakes kept up the intensity from their first release. Because i loved gallows but everything after their debut fell pretty flat for me.

 

I liked some of those Pure Love jams he did with the dude from the Suicide File

 

This was peak TUI, Power Trip getting going, Iron Age, the rival mob.

 

Yep, those are the bands they mentioned lol

 

lol god's hate with a pretty sick merch drop tomorrow

 

This is gonna be fantastic

 

all I know about Gallows is the shark song on guitar hero and this one which sounds like an ETID b-side

 

Going to buy this now so I can sell it in 10 years to pay for my kids college tuition.