Really pleased with our latest review for ‘Savour Your Scars’  which featured in Metalhammer Magazine’s May Issue.

Check out the review on the right by clicking it… great confidence booster!

So pleased they totally get our ideas behind the more ambient build up in certain songs and the likes and don’t just ignore it.

Good plug leading up to the tour in July also, so fingers crossed this helps grab the attention of more English folks to make it to the shows with ‘Kill ‘Em Dead Cowboy’.

GACY’S THREADS…first off, what a truly great name for a group who channel such murderous ferocity and aggression into their music. Hell, what a cool moniker anyway. And when it comes to wedding bands these guys hold a niche market all of their own.

If you happen to be going through a nasty divorce and the usual vaseline, Fairy Liquid, and clamping your hand in the freezer drawer methods just aren’t aren’t budging that heartbreaking Til Death Do Us Part bugger, just bung this earthquaker of an EP into yer Hi-Fi at full volume and the thing will literally drop off in seconds.

Laying down slabs of riffage in line with the early releases of Bay Area bands like Machine head and Skinlab alongside stylings of hardcore metal akin to early Killswitch Engage and now defunct UKHC legends Stampin’ Ground and Iron Monkey. All bands who gave the UK and US underground scenes a royal kick up the arse on their arrival, which is a good sign. It’s good too see a metal band actually sticking to their 50 caliber cannons and gunning it out the way it’s meant to be. Though that’s not to say Gacy’s aren’t completely devoid of dynamics, the EP is laced with a few darkly mellow intervals and pretty proficient clean vocals between all the gutteral growls and screams UKHC-esque solidarity shout-a-longs.

While Gacy’s aren’t really bringing anything overly fresh to the table and therefore probably won’t have the steel-toecap in the tush impact those bands that appear to have influenced them did, there always has been and always will be a strong and loyal following for their brand of straight up no messing metal. And besides, new research from the University of Florida has indicated that eating too much fresh fruit can produce negative effects on the body, as the fresher the fruit the more sugar it contains. So clearly fresher isn’t always better and as the Death Metal band Carcass once said sometimes it’s best to just to stay rotten to the gore. That way you can be assured more people will pick up the stench and probably kick up a fuss. Incidentally, Death Metal originated in Florida, but that’s neither here nor there. Yeah.

Anyway, getting back to Gacy’s Threads…what we have here is a four-tracker which on first spin for some reason didn’t really grip me at all. Second time round though it started digging its claws in ripping and my face off. Probably something to do with the difference between weakling laptop speakers and 120 watt hi-fi daddios, justice is only served when this band is cranked up full welt. And on that matter production here doesn’t suffer at all even at the extreme top end, it gets a little dirtier but it suits their sound. To put it very briefly these guys were the perfect little bros and follow up act to Burnt By The Sun’s latest effort, Heart of Darkness which I had been spinning just before burning the Gacy’s mp3 tracks to disc and playing ‘em LOUD. That strictly speaking made them the headliners of my hi-fi that night, that ain’t much but I reckon they could go on to headline much greater auditoriums than my room if they just keep doing what they do.

If you would like to book Gacy’s Threads for your divorce ceremony get in touch with the band via their website below.

Check out: www.myspace.com/gacysthreads

Writer: Adam Gough

Artist: Gacys Threads
Title: Savour Your Scars
Type: EP
Label: Self Released

Introducing Gacys Threads; no, it’s not some new, hip clothing range that will make you look like a serial killer. Gacys Threads are Irelands newest export in the metal department and if your idea of music constitutes some big fucking bloke shouting down a mic surrounded by arm-swinging, tight-t-shirt wearing goons then this one is probably for you!

Yes, Gacys Threads have their crowd already cut out for them and if metalcore just isn’t your bag then you’ll probably run a mile after ten seconds on their MySpace. As far as this style of metal goes they don’t do a bad job it has to be said. They have that crushingly heavy wall of sound that even brings a touch of death to the table, while the guitars lay down a serious dosage of chug and there is a general blunt hardcore application to the sound on ‘Savour Your Scars.’

The band break things up with some nice clean guitar lines on ‘Hate Them, Hate Us’ and I will say they incorporate some atmospheric touches that work much better then similar bands of their ilk who too often mistake melody for whininess. Similarly there’s a slick transition from ‘Nothing Personal’ to ‘Nothing Sacred’ while later in the track some clean guitars come and haunt the mix adding a tinge of melancholy. All in all a well crafted EP and while not the best thing this side of Killswitch this shows the band have more to offer than your average one-trick metalcore mob.

http://www.myspace.com/gacysthreads

Luci Herbert

http://www.metalteamuk.net/feb10reviews/cdreviews-gacysthreads.htm

Gacys Threads offer a decent indicator as to their live power on this deput EP. The title is fine shorthand for what to expect, as this is a band not given to delicacy, nor to addressing anything but the most primal human emotions – guilt, sorrow, hate anger.

That said, the lyrics booklet – though a help in deciphering the Cookie Monster vocals – doesn’t do much to pin down exactly what these songs are about, as the band have a tendency to communicate in slogans. But maybe the lyrical content isn’t the point.

Fans of Converge, Norma Jean and even Enter Shikari will feel at home thanks to the throat-shredding vocals and serred riffage, while the title track even starts off like early Metallica before descending into all-out mayhem.

A cautious endorsement, then, for the fans of metalcore  and related genres.
CJ

Gacy’s threads do quite a good job of getting themselves around. They’ve gigged as far afield as Hungary, and the effort has paid clear dividends in their recorded material. Production here is just a little thin on it, with the high end emphasised all over the place, and no apparent mids to thicken things up across the board. That’s something of a shame as it prevents the full weight of the riffs to come through. That aside though, it’s a strong showing if somewhat rooted in it’s genre.

It’s actually quite easy to distinguish yourself within metalcore – just keep the dissonant chords to the bare minimum, write punchy hooks and you’re more or less there. Gacy’s Threads are at least on the right path. It would have been easy to just thow a thousand kronking chords at the wall and see what sticks, but the band have elected instead to actually focus on moving the songs on melodically.

In fact, there’s almost a nod or two to late period Sepultura in here as well as the assortment of Norma Jeans, Converges and all the other noisecore luminaries. That makes itself apparent when the guitars go into real chug mode, with the whole band seemingly aware that it’s time to lock down and get the job done. ‘Nothing Sacred’ impresses as well with a touch of moody clean guitar that isn’t actually all that common in this kind of setting.

The only thing that really lets the demo down is a feeling of not just 100% tightness across the songs. The bending lead at the start of ‘Hate Them, Hate Us’ sounds plain sloppy, thin, and like it was done through a Zoom 505 fx processor set to ‘Budget’. Elsewhere, as in opener ‘ Savour Your Scars’, it isn’t always apparent where the time signatures following each other are coming from. They don’t always keep a feel of flow. Disconcerting shifts is what noisecore is all about. These kinds of shifts however seem down to timing issues.

It’s decent though, and it’s good solid metal for the Metal Hammer youth. No harm in that. I’d counsel a bit more investment in the production next time though, given what the general standard is like these days. Nice art though.

-Ciaran Tracey ::: 08/09/09