Guitars and angst often make good bedfellows. Coming out of a global pandemic, the formation of Shooting Galleries harnessed their own anger through the kind of thorny sounds that emo bands have been practising now for decades.
The Londoners clearly have emo inclinations themselves. You don’t write lyrics like ‘Some days I have these thoughts/They’re always bad/Because they’re about me,’ without being at least partial enthusiasts for the genre.
They’re debut EP ‘Atone’ saw release last year. ‘Swan Song’ is the new single that follows, a heavier and altogether meaner song. As the lyrics say ‘I excel at being uncouth’.
But it’s more than insolent rock music. The descending guitar riffs have a reflective quality while the song’s vocals are melancholy and dourly painted grey.
Shooting Galleries may well be fans of loud/quiet dynamics. The introverted verses are contrasted by explosive choruses. Overdrive guitar pedals are stamped upon and lyrics become altogether nastier. ‘Don’t choke yourself on your halo’ they say, in one of the song’s most vehemently scathing attacks.
Similar to the way Rage Against the Machine would structure their music, this polemical lyric is repeated at the song’s conclusion – it’s some seriously gutsy songwriting.
This kind of fury is welcome within a climate of somewhat sanitised guitar music. It could be punchier though; the savagery of these lyrics surpasses the occasionally too polite way in which they’re sung.
What matters most, however, is Shooting Galleries’ boldness. ‘Swan Song’ is brash and aggressive. That’s what makes it so bullishly stand out.
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