This is the first full length from Victory Records' Emmure. They are a 5 piece metalcore band from Fairfield, Connecticut. The problem with this album is that it pretty much has a similar structure to their EP
The Complete Guide To Needlework. This album pretty much takes all elements from the EP and develops them, and the final result is a slightly more varied album with higher quality. They also opt to include a few melodic elements which help improve their sound. Still,
Goodbye to the Gallows is another typical Emmure album chock full of chugging and breakdowns that I have heard before in multiple places. The vocals and lyrics are still pretty awful too.
The main problem with this album is that with the excessive use of breakdowns. I don’t think I’ve ever heard more chugging in my life. The songs all blend together. For example, “The Key to Keeping the Show Fresh Is... I'm Dead”, “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong” and “It’s Not Just A Party, It’s A Funeral” almost have the exact same structure and drumming patterns. That’s right folks, 3 songs out of 10 sound exactly the same. The latter just has a slower breakdown and uses the same double kick rhythm as the middle. Also, while having a nice melodic intro, “Sleeping Princess in a Devil’s Castle” is a lousy piece of filler as it basically just segues into a 2.5 minute breakdown which can already be found on the rest of the album. Lastly, “A Ticket For The Paralyzer” is like the intro track on their last EP. In fact, this song and the last album’s opener are the exact same length, and they are both generic breakdowns.
Frankie, the vocalist, doesn’t really improve much on GTTG in the screaming department. When listening to “It’s Not Just A Party, It’s A Funeral”, one can notice Frankie’s extremely monotone low register that is boring to listen to. He also utilizes his high register in “10 Signs You Should Leave”. His high shrieks are even worse; they sound really forced and he sounds like he’s hurting his throat by doing them. On a positive note, his clean vocals/cliché spoken word sections have become more confident and are delivered more aggressively on the album. However, the clean vocals have only gone from terrible to below average.
The lyrics on this album are pretty juvenile. This is an excerpt from “It’s Not A Party, It’s A Funeral”: “They will find my corpse on the shower floor. And with my bleeding wrists, will be a note that explains all of this.” The rest of the album’s lyrical themes more or less follow suit: Generic tough guy themes and teen angst.
Emmure’s debut full length, with all its faults, has baby stepped away from
The Complete Guide To Needlework though. “Rusted Over Wet Dreams” is actually a decent metalcore song with some melodic riffs. Another good thing about it is there is only one legitimate breakdown at the end of the song. Also, “Travis Bickle” is an interesting ambient interlude featuring a heart beat and some background hums and noises. It runs about a minute too long for its own good though.
With
Goodbye To The Gallows, Emmure steps it up a bit from their rather insipid
The Complete Guide To Needlework. A lot more work really needs to be done to improve more though. While displaying some more musicianship, Emmure still implements way too many breakdowns and chugging patterns into their music and they basically turned this album into a pile of brocore drivel. They’d also be better off just flat out firing their vocalist.
OVERALL RATING: 2/5
