Tonight was never going to be a gig for the feint-hearted and, since the announcement that Frank Carter was heading for pastures new, it seemed like it was the only place to be on a rather pleasant Sunday night in Wales.
 

It is 2011 and with no bus services into the city centre after 4.15 on a Sunday you realise how fuckin' grey Britain can be at times. Anyway I digress, after shelling out for a taxi I finally arrive to catch the crushing crescendo of Bastions' set; fuckin' great start, 30 seconds of very loud noise - Not! Up next were something of a local South Wales collective, gathering parts from other bands from all across the South of this often bleak country to force feed the rabid Sin City audience their brand of no frills, in your face UK hardcore for the next 20 minutes or so. Taking prisoners was not an option, certainly the pre match goal for 33 was to get up on the stage and pound the audience into submission. I can't advise you on the best song because I couldn't make out a word before, during or after each pounding stab of hardcore, a bit hit or miss musically but they were in the zone and seemed like they had a right ball up on stage and performed like their lives depended on it and, in a flash of chaos, they were gone. Short and sweet.

Onto Gallows and, on the evidence of tonight's performance, it was the same old same old; top notch hardcore punk rock delivered from a very dark place played by a band intent on playing even harder and enjoying every minute of what they do. A band who on their day are easily the best in the land for brutal metallic punk hardcore. Tonight's rabid audience snarl back every word that was spat from the sometimes frantic, sometimes chaotic stage. Frank Carter was on fine form as were the rest of the band, it would be fair to say. After the announcement was recently made that this run of shows would be Frank Carter's last as frontman it might have been a case of going through the motions but the five men on stage were showing none of that and seemed like a unit still high off a triumphant Sonisphere show and shaking off any cobwebs before work begins on the follow up to the epic 'Grey Britain'. Following a later than announced stage entrance they get down to business with a set that goes for the throat and took no prisoners; 'Leeches', 'Swansea Is The Reason', 'Death Voices' and 'Abandon Ship' sounded spectacular as Frank Carter was keen to get amongst it and the pit starts to take shape as he musters up a superb wall of death in such a confined space that resulted in a smashed spotlight (work that one out).

I hope from seeing such a passionate set this band who had it all don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I only hope that they carry on without Frank Carter and it works and they can continue to pull in the punters, and I hope his new band have a fighter's chance of doing the biz because he is a passionate and a compelling frontman even if he has a potty mouth dropping the C bomb like no other. Tonight this orchestra of wolves were howling fucking mad and bang on form. Always a pleasure and definitely never a chore. 
 

An amusing moment was when Carter went into a rant about some spotty oik who was having a pop at him on Twitter and then pulled out the offender onto the stage, gave him heaps about "looking like the cunt off Family Guy who's eyes are too close together", to much hilarity both on stage and off - it was a quality moment and one that showed how bands like Gallows are needed and an essential part of our musical fabric in a world where fakers get column inches and gobble up the media oxygen. Gallows kept it real and dished up a set of genuine passion and for that alone I salute them whatever the future may hold because, tonight, they most certainly rocked.

If they do vanish forever then Neil Young was right, it is better to burn out than fade away.