Grey Britain: Gallows e o peso do mundo contemporâneo

Este post inclui os vídeos "The Vulture Act II" e "Misery" (Live, Warped Tour 2009) dos Gallows.

Grey Britain, não sendo um álbum de que se  gosta à primeira audição, foi uma das novidades de 2009, considerado por muitos um dos melhores trabalhos do ano.

Os seus autores são os Gallows, uma banda britânica punk/hardcore formada em 2005, com um álbum de estreia intitulado Orchestra of Wolves (2006). Este álbum, editado  no Reino Unido pela Deep End Records, foi posteriormente lançado nos EUA pela editora de Brett Gurevitz (Bad Religion),  e incluiu uma cover de "Nervous Breakdown" dos Black Flag.

Os Gallows têm também dado que falar pelo facto de terem assinado um contrato milionário (1 milhão de libras!) com a editora multinacional Warner Bros para a realização deste segundo trabalho, o que os próprios descreveram na altura como "o maior erro da indústria discográfica" (!!!), e pelo facto da mesma os ter deixado em Dezembro passado, talvez por não ter conseguido 'controlar' o conteúdo do trabalho, que pode ser descrito como "brutal"...

"We see other bands being told what to do by their paymasters, but we're not one of them,"(Laurent Barnard, guitarrista) in The Guardian (aqui.).

Os Gallows têm estado presentes em muitos dos festivais 'alternativos', e fizeram toda a Warped Tour 2009.

Aqui ficam alguns excertos de entrevistas, reviews, desse trabalho polémico que vale a pena conhecer.

The Guardian: entrevista a Frank Carter (Gallows):

"There's one central idea behind our new album, Grey Britain, and it is: the world is falling apart. Right now we're heading into probably one of the greatest recessions in the history of humanity, so we thought: "Fuck it, let's write something that has some historical, political and social relevance."

(...)

We've always been about substance over style. And we're a very stylish band anyway, so the substance has to equate to the same. It would have been easy to write a pop record, sell 100m albums and bow out laughing. But instead we did what Gallows should have done and wrote the album we would have liked to hear as kids. It seemed right to take that money and put it back into the music.

Music is our life, but it's not the end of it. We're very aware of our surroundings; we're very aware of what's happening politically and socially – not just in our climate, but on a global level."

The Guardian: "Gallows' great rock'n'roll swindle"

"Perhaps Warner Music was expecting a new Green Day or My Chemical Romance – inoffensive pop-punk for pre-pubescents – but those in the know recognised a great rock'n'roll swindle on a par with Malcolm McLaren's manoeuvring of the Sex Pistols through deals with EMI, A&M and Virgin over 18 months. "Cash from chaos," McLaren called it, while John Lydon quipped: "All we're trying to do is destroy everything.""

 (...) with their uncompromising sound and brawling live shows Gallows have gone further than any British hardcore band ever has. Spiritual forefathers such as Black Flag, Crass and Concrete Sox might have rightly railed against the establishment, but major-record deals were never an option for them. Gallows did the right thing. Knowing they could never be Green Day they took the money, toured the world and recorded an album so brutal no one could ever accuse them of selling out. Unlike so many landfill indie bands who have declared they have "made the album we always wanted to make" you suspect the Hertfordshire quintet have done exactly that."

The Guardian Review of Grey Britain:

"On one level, the result is as relentlessly horrible as you might suppose a melding of early 80s punk and prog to be. On another, relentlessly horrible is clearly what Gallows are aiming for: it's not like they intended to win over Lady GaGa fans with their scantily clad synth-pop, but ended up making a unremittingly gruesome prog-punk album by mistake. And there's no getting around the sheer power of the music, which grabs you by the throat and pins you against the wall, the better for Carter to scream in your face: the wolves are 'owling, we're all going to 'ell and so on."

The Vulture [Act II]

GALLOWS | Vídeos de Música do MySpace


Gallows - Misery Live at Warped Tour 2009

GALLOWS | Vídeos de Música do MySpace