I was introduced to "Goodbye to Gravity" the same way I think most everyone was. The tragedy surrounding the band is one of the saddest events in musical history with over 50 deaths and 200 injuries. However, I think that those who died, at least the band members, would prefer to be remembered for what they did in life rather than for the events that ended them. I will warn ahead of time, I will try to be as unbiased as possible, but I am probably going to either be too positive or too negative trying to compensate for being to positive.
In the most straightforward way possible, Goodbye to Gravity wasn't the band metalcore deserved, but the one it needed. They were melodic without totally sacrificing their heaviness. Their songs were anthemic and theatrical, while never crossing the line into camp or into being too "sing-a-long" for their own good. Not to say they were by any means perfect, but they brought a sound to the table that metalcore DESPERATELY needed in order to survive as a subgenre. Pro-tip for any upcoming metalcore bands, you could learn a thing or two from this band.
The vocals here are usually clean or a growlish shout. The clean vocals are truly singing, but never getting quite pretty. They remind me of traditional rock vocals, clean but with more power behind them than most bands with similar vocals. They aren't aggressive usually, but they aren't overly emotional or whiny. While the clean vocals are fine, I think the harsher moments steal the spotlight. Singer Anderi Galut's voice reminds me of Johan Hegg of Amon Amarth, but slightly higher pitched. They are used sparingly, which makes the moments that they are used far more impacting. They convey a good amount of energy, aggression, and emotion without letting one element overpower the others. I feel that the vocals were put too high in the mix, although if they had to focus on one thing I think they chose the best thing to focus on, as the vocals often carry the melody of the song in a lot of ways.
Musically, Goodbye to Gravity really stands out from the crowd. While the vocals are great, it's the music that makes Goodbye to Gravity's music worth talking about. The music here is melodic, but never pretty. Clean, but never without an edge. It's a bit hard to describe, but I think the best way to describe it is really smooth death metal. Most of the songs here easily could be made into death metal songs, but instead they took the approach to make the vocals super melodic and tone down the overall aggression. They seem to take little to no inspiration from punk rock, rather they take it from other metalcore bands, a bit of death metal, and perhaps even classic rock. I don't know if those were their main inspirations, but it sounds like it to me.
In short, this band is good. Very good. In fact, they would be on my "10 bands to keep an eye on" list for 2015 if I ever made that list. On top of being good, they were clearly full of potential. They were great, but had clear room to improve. While the most tragic part of this story is CLEARLY the 51 (as of the writing of this) deaths, musically there is a small tragedy too, this band will never get to reach the heights they could and should have. We should remember and learn from the tragic mistakes made here, but their deaths should be remembered for more than just being a sad story. They should be remembered for having one of the best and freshest sounds in metalcore and for being a band with great music, it's how they would want us to remember them.
