GALLOWS HYMN

"Controlled by faith, fear, and lies"

Among the various aspects to the term "assayer", these definitions seem to strike closest to the center of this track from GALLOWS HYMN:

2. To examine by trial or experiment; put to a test: assay one's ability to speak Chinese.

3. To evaluate; assess: assayed the situation before taking action.

4. To attempt; try.

Darkly, Richly Down-tuned and Brutally Complex

And that's because in this new track, GALLOWS HYMN founders Nicholas Spevak and Zach Hornung, along with some talented vocalists, seem to be exploring the divide and contention between spiritual views.

Who gets to decide what is 'true' and what is 'heresy'?

In this intelligent and poetic exploration, GALLOWS HYMN employs a variety of instrumentation including down-tuned clean guitar passages (opening), deep and resonant bass guitar lines, gritty and mean guitar riffs, and snaky, sinuous lead guitar, plus what sounds like mellotron choral sounds.

The Vocals

Olga Nuit brings her clean, high-register voice, interlaced with Jeremiah Johnson's menacing growling, and enhanced with Laura Gonzalez's additions- to suggest the interplay between those who believe they are competent to determine truth from heresy, those who 'assay' for themselves in whatever ways make sense to them, and meanwhile suggesting that one's truth may look like heresy to another?

The Inquisition

I thought of nothing so much as the destructive and disgraceful ways super-religious folk seek to impose their truth on others- as exemplified among other examples in the long centuries of Inquisition.

This particular track opens with dark down-tuned guitar lines and we hear the punchy deep bass enter, then solemn mellotron choral effects. The clean high-register female vocal soon enters.

This grows and there is that effective call-and-response male and female vocal work. Guitars get heavier and crunchier, and again that soaring female voice.

This subsides, and an active deep bass guitar line underlies echoing clean lead guitar. Again heavy riffs enter and that growling male voice.

Another extended deep bass guitar line intertwines with sinuous lead guitar, and back to those crunchy guitar riffs.

And the ending

In a satisfying way, those grand and solemn mellotron choral effects accentuated by guitar and bass notes bring this complex and rich track to a close.

My Conclusions

GALLOWS HYMN brings mastery, intelligence, complexity, provocative thematic lyrics, and progressive musical ideas, and mixes these into a spiritual brew well worth quaffing. Easily four stars.

The Court of Destruction

In "Marriage to the Sea", Washington, USA band GALLOWS HYMN appears to have honed down to a duo + guests, from a trio+ on their second album, and a quartet+ on their debut release, with Zach Hornung: Lead, rhythm and 12 string guitars, bass, keyboards and drum programming, and Nicholas Spevak: Lead guitar and drum programming, as the two consistent members in the band.

Death growls also seem to have been replaced, at least on this track (a run-up to their third full-length album coming later 2021), in which we hear gothic- and opera-tinged clean male and female vocals, courtesy of Olga Nuit: Lead and backing vocals; Jeremiah Johnson: Lead and backing vocals; and Laura Gonzalez: Backing vocals.

Symphony of Cacophony

The track opens with a classical guitar duet that quickly gives way to technical and power-progressive metal dark energy, with those gothic-tinged male vocals singing in seeming soliloquy looking back on a damned, tormented, power-mad life of debauchery.

Operatic female vocals replace him over the busy, complex instrumentals, capably capturing the anguish and struggle within the tale. She suggests for her part that her sexual exploitation is part of the subjugation within the grasp for power and 'pleasure'- yet ultimately destroys.

Then, as if to underscore how both the male and female perspective are united in misery, the vocalists use octaves to create a mood.

The Sea

The tune transitions into dark, down-tuned guitar/bass riffs and the first mention of "Wed to the Sea" with vocals punctuating the heavy guitar licks. 'The Sea' in biblical literature often suggested evil, the menacing underworld, and chaos; and in more contemporary themes the juxtaposition of the power, majesty, and beauty of the sea- yet it's terrifying, death-dealing power alongside.

We hear a symphonic passage with punchy bass guitar accents, then the band blasts back in with searing lead guitar lines. More dark bass/guitar riffs, and the lead guitar re-enters over busy backing riffs.

Then, the Close

Soon we hear the dark heavy passage give way to an orchestral passage with dancing flute sounds and string textures, which end the track. I had to think of 'Paradise Lost' and other reveries on the illusive nature of human searches for power and pleasure.

In Conclusion

GALLOWS HYMN has given a glimpse into a different realm of music from their first two albums- one that effectively and stirringly presents intelligent lyrics and weds these to complex, heavy, technical and symphonic musical elements.

I think this one rates a furious four stars- and excellent addition to any progressive music collection.