Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 03/12/07
Label: WEA

This is all wrong, wrong, wrong. When you're making a name for yourself as the most authentic, no-nonsense, f*ck-you punk rock troupe in the country, you can't allow your debut album to be re-released every other week. Fair enough, after coming out initially on the Nottingham indie In At The Deep End in September 2006, "Orchestra Of Wolves" was given a major label release in June 2007 - The Man was able to give the album the push it deserved, and the glowing press came flooding in. The job, surely, was done.

But six months and a ton of hype later, it's time to squeeze a few more dollars from this suddenly fashionable product. This, it seems, is what happens if your singer is voted number one in the "NME Cool List". You end up doing a pointless and fairly embarrassing cover of The Ruts' punk classic "Staring At The Rude Boys", with rapper du jour Lethal Bizzle and the student indie crowd get to tick off two boxes in one go. "Look, I've got some rap and some hardcore punk in my collection. I'm soooo edgy!" And the record company tacks the crappy single onto an otherwise decent album, and re-releases it just one more time for the road.

Hmmm: now you come to mention it, no Gallows don't feel so cool any more. Sorry to hammer the point home, but here's a direct message to Frank Carter and the lads: you f*cking idiots, you blew it. You should have put your foot down, nipped this bullsh*t in the bud. But no. You were too busy living up to the stereotype: getting a tattoo live onstage, cracking your skull during a riotous gig, blah de blah. For those punk rock souls who try to live their lives as if Jello Biafra and Steve Albini were looking over their shoulder, this all sounds dangerously like fleecing the kids in the name of rock'n'roll.

What's that? Review the album? It came out six months ago, motherf*cker. Go check the archives. For those arriving late to the party, it's a storming, spectacular, mind-blowing record, equal parts Black Flag, Poison Idea and Iron Maiden, pure, proper, kick-ass hardcore that spews righteous ire at its enemies and walks a cold, noble line. For the music, it's a hands-down 9 out of 10. For succumbing to the kind of business practices it's supposed to stand against, it's a zero out of 10. This may sound like splitting hairs, but THAT'S WHAT PUNK ROCK IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT. It's not part time. It's not this record.

    by Ian Watson