Emmure - Goodbye to the Gallows

Out of the glut of hardcore bands claiming their next album to be faster, harder and with even more breakdowns than the last comes Emmure's debut cd "Goodbye to the Gallows". The promotion for this album went something like this: Emmure, one of the heaviest new hardcore bands to have been seen in ages. For the person who simply enjoyed a good breakdown or base a song's quality on the aforementioned atributes of faster and harder, they had a new band to champion. However, those people who actually want to hear a song, rather than a breakdown, were more likely to sigh, shake their heads and simply move on without even giving the album a chance. In doing so some of those people have done themselves and the band a disservice.

Emmure is a very heavy band. There's no doubt about that, but one thing they also have going for them is the fact that they can actually write a song that goes beyond the typical 4/4 beat. "Rusted Over..." starts out with a guitar riff that any eighties power ballad would be proud of then goes into some typical machine gun stuttering before allowing the guitar riff back into the song. There's the acoustic guitar and slow build in "The Key to Keeping..." and the various dynamics in "When Everything Goes Wrong..." They're small accents to what would otherwise by a typical, no holds-barred hardcore song, but it's the little things like this that help the album differentiate itself from its' peers and let you know that actual time was spent on writing each song.

The singer varies his vocals from spoken word to a throaty scream and a death metal influenced growl. Vocalists with the ability to change the style of their vocals is nothing new, but those who use it skillfully and as an instrument rather than simply being a mouthpiece are few and far between. His lyrics are also different from the average hardcore fare as the album is actually a concept album detailing the falling apart of a relationship and the eventual suicide of one of the lovers.

Emmure is a hardcore band through and through, but instead of allowing that fact to limit them in their songwriting and subject matter they use it as a basis for their sound while exploring other territory not normally approached by other bands of this genre. If this is any sign of what the band might put out on their next release than the hardcore community, both those with a love of breakdowns and those who care more for good songwriting, has an excellent album to look forward to.