Shadows Fall

After a decade as one of the heaviest hitters in independent metal (both in sound and sales), Shadows Fall made the jump to the majors for Threads of Life. The corresponding bigger budgets and extra polish may be anathema for some underground metalheads, but it feels like a natural and beneficial move for the Massachusetts quintet. In many ways, Shadows Fall resemble ...And Justice for All-era Metallica: a band that can out-muscle and technically outplay many of their peers, while consistently tapping into harmonies and melodies palatable to the mainstream.

They still spend plenty of time in attack mode, though, as on the brutal thrash of "Failure of the Devout" and the churning call-and-response of "Dread Uprising." Jonathan Donais and Matthew Bachand stage a number of finger-blistering guitar duels, and dynamic frontman Brian Fair barks and sings with authority—although the vocals are intermittently overproduced.

In another parallel to Metallica's Justice heyday, Shadows Fall drop a sympathetic war ballad packed with guitar solos ("Another Hero Lost") into the middle of the album. This time, unfortunately, a fictional account wasn't necessary; Fair's cousin was one of the 3,258 American soldiers killed in Iraq to date. Presumably, the catharsis offered by the force of Threads of Life does not belong to the listener alone.

- Adam McKibbin
04.04.07

For anyone who thought Massachusetts' underground thrashers Shadows Fall may have sold out by signing to Atlantic, go look for the next underground big thing. This is a band well served by the move to a major. It sold over 300,000 copies of War Within on Century Media in 2004, and snagged a prime spot on the Ozfest tour. Like Mastodon and before them Slayer, Shadows Fall will benefit from better distribution, more tour support and bigger recording budgets. That said, the stakes are higher, too, and not just economically. Since 2004, when War Within was issued, the creative ante for thrash and death metal acts has been upped considerably by the sheer powerhouse excellence of Killswitch Engage and Trivium, who appeared on the scene and brought innovation, chops, and new blood to the underground. Shadows Fall looks back across the divide like a warlord and responds to the gauntlet being thrown down in the heavy metal world with Threads of Life. The most noticeable thing here is how bold it is. First there are the vocals of Brian Fair: he never hesitates to sing full-throated. Sure, there's a growl here and there (check the bust-up crack and smack of "Failure of the Devout" that sounds like a worshipful nod to Slayer,) and he digs right into the meat of the guitars and bass throb fury, and hurls his pipes up over the drums in the mix. But the cat is actually a singer. Check out the harmonies and all in "Stormwinds," or the political power ballad "Another Hero Lost," which ties on the New Wave of American Metal sign and wears it proudly. In other words, yeah, this is mainstream American metal, but it's so creatively compelling and so risky one has to hand it to them. That said, they've lost none of the fire, attack or attitude, check out "Just Another Nightmare," another thrasher, with words that can be understood at a hundred paces. Killer guitar breaks, big fat chugging riffs, power-slam skin work, cattle prod bass, and cool little hooks and melodic touches on top of those bludgeoning riffs make Threads of Life a major label debut of merit, and a metal record worthy of celebrating. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide