Emmure - Goodbye To The Gallows
Victory Records
Metalcore
10 songs (29:34)
Release year: 2007
Emmure, Victory Records
Reviewed by Khelek
Archive review

American metalcore band Emmure is a band I had never heard of before so I decided to check out their debut release Goodbye To The Gallows. What we get here is, for the most part, a lot of simple, chugging riffs with half-growled, half-clean vocals from frontman Frankie Palmeri. Already you can tell if this is going to be your kind of music or not. For me, it is not, but I try to keep an open mind and if a band can surprise me, I will listen. Unfortunately the good moments on this album are few and far between.

The intro gets you ready for big, heavy riffs and growled vocals, but that's all; it gives you no real sense of character from the band. As soon as the next track begins and I get a taste of Palmeri's mixed cleanish/death vocals and it just sounds like a mess. Is it supposed to? I hoped so. But as the song wore on I found myself bored by the generic guitar riffs and almost constant breakdowns. I'm really not a fan of the clean vocals either, they remind me too much of other second-rate metalcore bands. The growled death vocals aren't bad, but they don't stand out. The guitar work in When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong sounds interesting for about 10 seconds, but the whining vocals grate on me once again, especially towards the end. Rusted Over Wet Dreams starts out sort of interesting with some melody and spoken word vocals that have me interested and even the first few heavy riffs sound pretty good. My problem here is the vocals once again. They are varied, but not in a good way, going between death metal growls and weak, whiny clean vocals. Also I have to say something about the song titles here. Yes, they are original, but only in the way that any modern pop culture is original, catching your attention for 30 seconds and then being quickly forgotten. Sleeping Princess In Devil's Castle has the first guitar parts I actually can connect with emotionally, very melodic and smooth, and the death vocals manage to come in and add something positive the atmosphere. Unfortunately the song isn't varied at all after this and gets a bit monotonous after only three and a half minutes, though I would not say it's a bad song. It would just be nice if other songs on the album felt as planned out as this one. The last track is just another repetition of chugging, heavy riffs over and over that we've all heard a thousand times. Blah.

I started listening to this album with an open mind, but the long procession of breakdowns, simple riffs, and little else, made me realize that this album has little to offer to an extremely overcrowded genre. The only real use this music has is to get a crowd moving. If you want something at least mildly entertaining and thought-provoking, look elsewhere. Once or twice the band manages to create an interesting atmosphere, but it's not worth spending the money or even listening to the rest of the album to get to it.

Killing Songs :
Sleeping Princess In Devil's Castle is the best this album has to offer
Khelek quoted 45 / 100
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