Words by Maddy Howell

When Blessthefall wrapped up their Witness 10-year anniversary tour in 2019, it quietly felt like the end of something. With no formal farewell, the band slowly faded into the shadows, their two-decade long career and scene legacy seemingly reduced to indefinite silence.

Originally planned as a brief pause after years of relentless touring, Blessthefall’s break stretched from a few months to half a decade. The pandemic hit, life shifted, and priorities realigned. Still, the band’s members - frontman Beau Bokan, guitarist Eric Lambert, bassist Jared Warth and guitarist Elliott Gruenberg - knew they weren’t done.

Behind the scenes, the spark was gradually beginning to flicker again.

It started when Lambert received a message from a friend, who was working with a producer called Hiram Hernandez in Phoenix. Learning that Hernandez was a huge metalcore fan, and more specifically a fan of his band, Lambert decided to hit him up.

Working together with no real intention or goal, just looking to satisfy his curiosity and lockdown-induced boredom, the guitarist soon realised that they were onto something. Firing over some demos to Bokan, the frontman hopped on a plane to meet Hernandez himself.

“You probably think I’m going to say it was a fairy tale… But it started out really bad,” he laughs.

“I couldn't sing, I felt weird, and I thought that was my sign to quit. I thought that I just didn’t have it anymore, and we would never put out anything that we didn’t absolutely love. It was rough, but at the same time I just loved being back in the room with the guys, writing and getting things off my chest. They were bad ideas, but I was getting them out. I realised that I need art in my life. The catharsis, the camaraderie, and knowing that people can find some escape in the things I create.”

Rediscovering some of his purpose, Bokan decided to push forward with the process, working through the bad ideas in the hopes that something special would eventually come. With Hernandez moving to LA, Lambert continued sending demos to Bokan, the frontman feeling more of a buzz every time something new landed in his inbox. 

The result of that no-rush, pressure-free process is Gallows, the band’s first album in seven years and a record that embraces every version of Blessthefall. Celebrating their past, honing in on their present, and setting their future alight, the four-piece set themselves no firm target beyond creating the best songs they possibly could. The product of passion rediscovered, and fun reclaimed, its ten tracks are a love letter to both the metalcore scene and the community that has kept them afloat for the last twenty years.

“We played Warped Tour recently, and someone onstage was talking about their music saying, ‘We made this for us, and that’s it’,” the 43-year-old remembers.

“As an artist, I understand the sentiment, but that’s not what it’s about to me. I’m not buying the record, and the four Spotify plays from our band members won’t cover our bills. You have to keep the fans in mind, and that’s what we did when we were writing Gallows. We wanted to write a fun record, and we wanted it to be meaningful, deep, and super heavy. At the same time though, I love Michael Jackson and pop bands, and I’m not ashamed to embrace that. Creating this record came from throwing the overly serious artist thing out of the window.”

In true Blessthefall style, there are moments on Gallows that are steeped in raw, real emotion, but there are also many rooted in sheer nostalgic joy. Nowhere is that clearer than on the album’s opener, ‘mallxcore’, a track that takes a tongue-in-cheek snipe at the r/Metalcore Reddit haters and climaxes with a quintessential 2005 half-time breakdown.

Leaning into the silliness and locking into what Blessthefall means in 2025, it’s that injection of fresh energy that fuels the rest of the record, too. From the metallic fury of 'Venom' to the epic singalongs of 'This Ends With Us’, every track is laced with laser-focused intent. 

They’re also embracing collaboration more than ever before, with each guest clearly chosen not for clout, but for chemistry. Joining forces with Alpha Wolf’s Lochie Keogh, Story Of The Year’s Dan Marsala, and Caskets’ Matt Flood, each extra voice on Gallows adds its own uniquely special flavour. 

“It’s important to talk about the guests on the record, because each of them was picked for a reason,” Bokan explains.

“We have done lots of shows with Story Of The Year, and we grew up listening to them. ‘Fell So Hard, Felt So Right’ makes me feel like it’s 2004 again, going back to the music that we fell in love with. Dan made so much sense, and he totally nailed it. It feels like going back in time.”

“With Alpha Wolf, obviously, they’re crushing it right now. We played a festival together, and we met them backstage,” he continues.

“Lochie told us he was a big fan, and that their bass player [John Arnold] wore the same Blessthefall shirt onstage for a year straight. The shirt fell apart, and he just bought the same shirt again. That felt like an affirmation that we had picked the right band to work with.”

“Then, we became good friends with Caskets whilst touring with them, and I felt like a big brother to Matt and the guys,” he nods.

“They’d ask me for advice, and it felt cool to be that figure for somebody coming up in the scene. Picking ‘Somebody Else’ for Matt to sing on was a no-brainer, and he smashed it. My only fear was that he’d sing so well that it’d make me sound bad!” 

No matter how many mind-blowing musicians you have in your corner though, releasing an album after seven years away is no small feat. The world changing by the day, and the landscape of the scene changing alongside it, it’s hard to overstate the role Hernandez had on making Gallows the record it is.

A passionate metalcore fan himself, and a multi-instrumentalist with a killer voice, the producer became an unofficial member of the Blessthefall crew throughout the writing process. From laying down background vocals to pushing for the perfect take, his presence was integral to the energy of the record.

“There aren’t many producers who are talented on every single instrument. Usually if we’re hitting a wall, we have to bring extra musicians in, but he’s got everything in his book,” Bokan explains.

“From early on in the process, I felt like I'd known him for years. We'd go to a corner store down the road from the studio to grab lunch, and we developed all these inside jokes. We have the same kind of humour, and it became a really cool friendship. We started writing in 2020, so we’ve spent five years growing together by this point. Often when you’re writing music, it’s like ripping your heart out. You need to be comfortable with the people who are there alongside you, and it was a great match with Hiram.”

That dynamic is partly responsible for the distinct self-awareness woven through Gallows too. Acknowledging that everyone in their camp is a fan of heavy music first and a musician second, it doesn’t run from the past, but it doesn’t live in it either. Inspired by the current wave of artists killing the game, for every breakdown and soaring hook, there’s a subtle evolution coloured by their renewed confidence.

“We listen to the newer bands, and we know that we need to update a bit. Obviously, it has to sound like Blessthefall, but we can't just pull out all the same weird tricks again,” Bokan acknowledges.

“That's another reason why Hiram was important, because he’s so plugged into the current state of music. He knows exactly what people are doing, and the sounds that bands are trying to capture. He’d bring things to the table that we had no idea about, and it helped keep things current. It’s a balance though, because we want to evolve without compromising who we are as a band.” 

Colliding the classic metalcore sounds of the mid-2000s with the cutting-edge production techniques of today’s heaviest hitters, Gallows is a record that stands proudly in both camps. As a band who helped shape the scene, now stepping back into it with fresh perspectives, the moment feels more potent than ever for Blessthefall.

As Bokan speaks, the pride in this project is palpable. Every lyric, every collaborator, every laugh shared in the studio - it all comes together to write the story of four musicians who still deeply love what they do. More importantly though, now, they’ve remembered exactly why they do it.

“When we did the Hollow Bodies anniversary tour in 2023, we noticed a lot of younger fans. We’d ask how they heard of us, and they’d say that their older brother or uncle got them into the band,” the frontman recalls.

“There's a new generation of heavy music fans now. With music, you never know what's going to go out of date and what's going to stick around, but I think there’ll always be an appetite for metal. As long as we keep inspiring the next generation and show them how fun the genre can be, it’ll keep it alive.”

And as for what he hopes people take away from the new record?

“I would love for people to walk away feeling inspired,” Bokan finishes. 

“We’ve been around for a while, and for all intents and purposes, we could have been done by now. We gave this our absolute best shot though, and we dumped our hearts back into this album. I want people to recognise that you don't have to quit doing something that you really love. You can always come back to it, and you can always reinvent yourself.”

-----

Gallows, the new record from Blessthefall arrives September 5th via Rise Records. Pre-order the album - HERE