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Shadows Fall - The War Within

 

	RELEASED: September 21, 2004 PRODUCER:Zeuss LABEL:Century Media BAND: Brian Fair Matt Bachand Jon Donais Jason Bittner Paul Romanko
+ Precision musicianship, headbanging riffs & solos, unique sound - Fair’s love-or-hate vocals, a few riffs seem to drag	TRACKS: 1.The Light That Blinds 2.Enlightened by the Cold 3.Act of Contrition 4.What Drives the Weak 5.Stillness 6.Inspiration on Demand 7.The Power of I and I 8.Ghosts of Past Failures 9.Eternity is Within 10.Those Who Cannot Speak

OVERVIEW

When a debut album by a new band on the label becomes the biggest-selling record your label has EVER had, and when an indie label record hits #20 on the Billboard chart, you gotta know that you’ve got something special on your hands.  I remember picking this one up a week or two after it came out and being absolutely floored when “The Light That Blinds” blasted out of my speakers, peeled the paint off my walls, and immediately sent my Phish-loving roommate into cardiac arrest.  Make no mistake; Shadows Fall may only be gaining national attention recently, but they’ve been honing and perfecting their craft since the mid 1990’s in the metalcore Mecca of Massachusetts.

Why this band gets labeled “metalcore” is beyond me, as their music easily has more in common with Testament and Ride The Lightning-era Metallica than peers and neighbors Killswitch Engage and Unearth.  The furious, thrashing guitar riffs owe equal debts to classic thrash and melodic death alike, which makes for an incredibly entertaining listen if you’re a fan of serious guitar work and gut-busting riffing.  Jason Bittner and Paul Romanko also combine to form a killer rhythm section, with Romanko’s bass slinking in and out with tasty Harris-esque fills around Bittner’s raging kit work.  The songwriting is generally pretty excellent, although a couple cuts just can’t hang with the sonic excellence of the better songs on here.

 

SONGS

In a smart move for their Century Media debut, Shadows Fall start things off with the thrill-ride “The Light That Blinds”, an incredible blast of the band’s signature thrashy riffing and pulverizing grooves, not to mention the sick tremolo-picking and guitar solos.  It’s hard to follow a song that good, but “Enlightened by the Cold” does just fine and is another one of my favorite cuts on here – don’t miss the melodic guitars on the choruses here.  “Act of Contrition” has one of the more memorable choruses on the record, but if addicting choruses are your thing, you’re in luck – “Act of Contrition” is followed by the absurdly catchy “What Drives the Weak”, and while the band has taken a lot of crap for the melodic vocals and mid-paced guitars on this one, I still say it’s excellent.  Unfortunately, “Stillness” probably takes the prize for my least favorite song on here, despite its excellent guitar solos, which you should really be expecting from the band at this point.  “Inspiration on Demand” was probably born a single, and the tag-team vocals from Fair and Bachand make for a great chorus, and the dual guitars on the solo combine melody and straight shred like very few can these days.  “The Power of I and I” is a straight kick in the face with its slamming riffs, and “Ghosts of Past Failures” is notably more down-tempo and melancholy, but good nonetheless.  “Eternity is Within” is another thrashy slammer, and just like great records of metal days past, Shadows Fall choose to bookend the album with two of their strongest cuts – “Those Who Cannot Speak” follows almost the exact template of “The Light That Blinds”, but still crushes and should erase any doubts that people may still have about Shadows Fall becoming a modern metal powerhouse.

CONCLUSION

If for some absurd reason you’re a hard music fan that still hasn’t heard of Shadows Fall (I’d understand if you’ve been in a bomb shelter or something), one spin of this record should be all it takes to prove that they’re here to play and taking no prisoners.  This record is heavy as crap, the musicianship is impeccable, and is definitely not the by-the-numbers metalcore lots of metal fans make it out to be.  One can only hope they keep cranking out albums of this caliber, cause this stuff is killer.

Review by Matt Rewinski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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