Retrospective: Frank Carter’s Time With Gallows

By Ryan Germ
Gallows is one of the weirdest hardcore bands of all time. They weren’t super out there and doing extremely different shit like bands such as Ink & Dagger, Refused, Converge, and Coalesce, but they made a name for themselves adding slightly metallic elements into the classic 80’s hardcore formula. Frontman Frank Carter’s energy was the heartbeat of that band and his raw and unfiltered vocal style reminiscent of Justin Pearson pushed them to heights rarely seen for hardcore bands, and all of a sudden poof. No one talks about them anymore after Frank left in 2011 (atleast to the extent that a band of their influence should be talked about), and I believe that’s a disservice because the music they put out wasn’t lame ass mallcore it was real ass hardcore punk.

Gallows formed in 2005 (technically 04 but they didn’t play or have the name until 2005) and dropped a demo titled “2005”. It was ok, but not GREAT. The only standout is a song titled The Ballad Of… but the only reason I would consider it a standout isn’t because it’s necessarily amazing but because of how rare it is. The top upload on YouTube is a live version that only has 5.1 thousand views, nothing to scoff at but when compared to their top video (Misery music video with 2.7 million) it is absolutely dwarfed. The version from the demo has even less, with that respective upload only having 511 views. 

Despite putting out a very eh demo they turned around and dropped Orchestra Of Wolves about a year later in late 2006 on In At The Deep End Records. Holy shit this record is one of the best hardcore punk records of the 2000’s. For the punk side of our niche genre it is extra aggressive, grimy, and heavy as fuck, but also adding catchy choruses only rivaled by bands like Comeback Kid. If I had to pick 1 song off this record that exemplifies this I would choose Come Friendly Bombs because of the jangly riff and the chorus being juxtaposed with a breakdown with panic chords that only metalcore acts were doing at the time. Franks brother Steph joined around this time too. In March of 2007 they ended up inking a deal with Epitaph Records in the US and with Warner in their home of the UK after a bidding war and got major praise from Brett Gurewitz. Orchestra Of Wolves got a rerelease on Epitaph in July of 07 and this is when they really took off. Before you knew it they were in media like Guitar Hero III, Tony Hawks Proving Ground, and that one Jim Carrey movie Yes Man. There was no UKHC making waves like them since bands like GBH and Discharge. Maybe Splitknuckle and Special Move but let’s face it, as good as those bands are they were only really known in hardcore specific circles. They toured extensively in 07 hitting the Download Festival, the Reading and Leeds Festival, SXSW, Taste Of Chaos, and Warped Tour 07. 2008 brought way more touring and fest appearances such as a headlining US tour, Reading and Leeds Festival, Japan’s PUNKSPRING, and Reading again. But most of their focus was on recording a new record.

I can’t lie, 2008 was a very boring year as they only toured and released singles that didn’t change the hardcore landscape like Orchestra Of Wolves. But ultimately it was an important step because that year was spent recording their follow up. In early 2009 they announced the name of their sophomore effort, titled Grey Britain, and on March 31st announced they signed a £1 Million (about 2.3 Million USD adjusted for inflation) deal with Warner Bros internationally. No that is not a typo. Even in the modern HC landscape we see today with bands like Knocked Loose, Turnstile, and Drain blowing up, an album deal that lucrative is unheard of. Grey Britain was released on May 2nd, 2009 to critical acclaim. It was a concept album about a post 2008 financial crisis UK with bleak but truthful predictions of intense xenophobia, racism, and knife crime. The bleakness spills over musically too with eerie samples of dying pigs, slushy atmospheric water, orchestral pieces in between songs, and a darker guitar tone with none of the jangly-ness from Orchestra Of Wolves to be found here. There’s more hooks and gang vocals here but it’s somehow more grim than Orchestra Of Wolves. Franks vocal style sounds less like Justin Pearson and more like a pissed off everyman you could encounter on the streets of England. The rasp in his voice. There’s 2 sides to this record, the more punk edges shown by the intro/London Is The Reason that features leads seemingly inspired by that odd, feedback heavy style of guitar playing prevalent in post hardcore that was pioneered by Don Devore with melodic gang vocals suitable for pile ons in the hooks. The other side of the record is more metallic as shown by Misery, with slow samples, riffs taking the back seat to the rhythm section, lots of crunch in the guitar tone, and brutal breakdowns suited for spinkicks, windmills, and crowdkilling. Immediately they went on a generational touring run, hitting major festivals again, playing every Warped Tour date, and touring with AFI and Flogging Molly in October. Unfortunately Grey Britain didn’t sell as well as Warner wanted and they were dropped from Warner in December of 2009. They were still riding an insane level of momentum heading into 2010 though, as getting dropped didn’t take away the rabid fanbase Gallows cultivated on their tours from 08 and 09. In 2010 they hit Canada with Billy Talent, Against Me, and Alexisonfire before the latter’s original disbandment in 2011. Gallows appeared at Reading and Leeds for the 4th consecutive year (billed as “The Rats” for that show), Sonisphere, and Soundwave. But the biggest thing they did this year was pulling double duty on December 17th playing Orchestra Of Wolves in full at a matinee and following it up with Grey Britain in the evening. They also were in the center of breakup rumors at the time, which Frank countered by announcing that they were heading to the studio in January 2011 at a show on their “back to the dives” tour.

Now in a perfect world they would have went to the studio in January, and it seemed like that’s what they were doing at the time because setlist.fm has 0 Gallows shows even in their database from December 18th, 2010 to April 23rd, 2011. After that break it seemed like they were hitting the ground running, immediately embarking on a run in Italy and then doing a small run of shows across Europe a couple months after their Italian run. But on July 9th it was announced by Frank that starting on August 1st he would no longer be the frontman of Gallows due to creative differences, his final show with Gallows was on July 23rd, 2011. 2 days after their next tour was announced for that fall. On August 8th the Frank Carter era ended as Wade MacNeil from a recently disbanded Alexisonfire, they did the AP Tour with Title Fight, and Frank Carter formed Pure Love with Jimmy Carroll. As I mentioned people don’t talk about Gallows much, and when they do it is not the Wade era. So what happened to Gallows after Wade joined. In short, nothing much. They dropped an EP called Death Is Birth in December of 2011 which picks up right where Grey Britain leaves off and takes it in a more chaotic direction, they started a label called Venn Records and dropped their Self Titled, full length follow up to Grey Britain in 2012, after this record Steph left. This is where the issue of the Wade era of Gallows starts to peer through, it’s not fucking Gallows. The unique vocal style? Gone. The lyrics on deeper and taboo topics? Gone. The ferocious stage presence? Gone. Around this time it seems like Gallows realized that being a hardcore band wasn’t working with Wade anymore, so they switched into a post punk direction. But another issue arises because of that, not only do they alienate their whole fanbase that came for hardcore but also only a couple months after Frank left Steph said the reason he left was because Frank “wanted something that took us to the next step of being a big, successful, straight-up rock band, like Queens Of The Stone Age”. They transformed into the antithesis of what they wanted to be.

Now how does one cap this retrospective off after well over 1,400 words? Well probably what Frank was up to. He formed a band called Pure Love with Jimmy from The Suicide File and The Hope Conspiracy, but it didn’t make seismic waves in the scene like one would expect. They broke up after only a year or 2 so Frank went back to basics and started Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes, bringing the best elements of Pure Love and Gallows together. Those first couple records were damn good but not every band lasts forever. To bring this full circle Steph said on a podcast in 2023 there were 2 nights at Brixton on hold for a reunion with Frank, these plans ultimately haven’t come to anything and Frank is the new frontman for The Sex Pistols on their reunion tour. But I would bet good money this isn’t the end of the Gallows story.