Gallows and I have history. The last time I reviewed anything Gallows related – their 2015 album Desolation Sounds, I said I’d “rather eat a wasp sandwich” than listen to it again, to which they Tweeted back with the words “please do!“, and our editor had to face pretty much a 24 hour torrent of abuse from disgruntled fans. To be fair, the band had a point – the kind of music they produce is pretty much meaningless to me, and I admit that I was probably (ok, definitely) the wrong choice of reviewer for that particular release.
Frank Carter, of course, used to be the frontman of said band, but left some years before the aforementioned long player and has since distanced himself considerably from the brand of hardcore punk with which they made their name. The result, of course, was a new band, The Rattlesnakes, and this is Carter’s second record with them. Happily, it makes a heck of a lot more sense to me.
‘Bluebelle‘ is a surprisingly sparse but very pretty tune, picked out on a slightly reverbed guitar. Before long though, we are assaulted with the easily palatable rock of ‘Lullaby‘, which lies somewhere between Muse and Black Sabbath. The sound throughout Modern Ruin is urgent and tough, while rather bizarrely, sometimes the melodies suggest that Arctic Monkeys may have been present on the turntable at the Carter residence. That isn’t a criticism, incidentally; quite the opposite in fact, it is more an indication of just how accessible these songs are. They are very, very easy to enjoy. ‘Thunder‘ even has an air of Bowie about it. It’s a brave man who can attempt to pull that off, and an even better one who succeeds.
The song ‘Modern Ruin‘ itself is, according to Carter, “the only hardcore song on the whole record, but it’s the defining hardcore song of a generation, I hope.” It certainly works well enough, bearing similarities with Scottish alt rockers Foil, or perhaps more obviously, Nirvana. But this is more to do with Carter’s vocal performance than anything else, and the contrast between that title track and the following ‘Neon Rust‘, which closes the album, is colossal, proving that there are clearly many strings to the bow of Frank Carter, and some of those have only just started to be plucked. It is extremely encouraging to see an artist develop themselves to this extent and I, for one, am intrigued to see which path he follows next.
Modern Ruin is out now on International Death Cult.
