Shadows Fall: “A Bright Future Despite The Name”

Is there something in the air in the U.S. State of Massachusetts? Or maybe it’s the water? Perhaps a contagious virus? I pose these questions only because of the remarkable fact that so many of the biggest and baddest metal, hardcore, and metalcore bands of the 1990s and the present originate from the Bay State. The examples really are endless, there’s Killswitch Engage, Unearth, All That Remains, Since The Flood and of course Shadows Fall. All these bands are products of a very healthy metal scene that has been greatly promoted by the ever popular New England Metal And Hardcore Festival staged every year in Worcester, Massachusetts. One of the aforementioned bands, Shadows Fall, has been a solid contributor to this festival and the scene overall for now over ten years and the band is still going strong with the imminent release of their latest album Threads of Life.

The dawn of Shadows Fall as a band goes back a little over a decade ago in Springfield, Massachusetts. Lead guitarist Jonathan Donais got the idea to start his own band after playing with a local metalcore band known as Aftershock on their first demo. Donais got together with fellow guitarist Matt Bachand and with the help of Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz (though he never was an official member of the band), Shadows Fall was born. Besides Donais and Bachand, the initial incarnation of the band was rounded out by vocalist Philip Labonte, bassist Paul Romanko and drummer David Germain.

With the lineup of the band in tact, the group set out to make their debut disc which resulted in 1997’s Somber Eyes To The Sky. The disc did very well for an independent release, garnering the band high praise and a local buzz in and around the Massachusetts area. The guys carried the momentum from the success of their debut release throughout the rest of the millennium, touring like crazy and finding the time to make their sophomore disc Of One Blood released in 2000. This was Shadows Fall’s first record with singer Brian Fair who replaced Labonte and has settled in quite comfortably as the band’s permanent vocalist.

While Shadows Fall had been together for several years at this point, the band’s sound was still shaping and coming together. The band’s third disc, 2002’s The Art of Balance was a good example of this musical progression as the band acquired a new drummer in Jason Bittner and settled on a more traditional thrash metal sound. The release of The Art of Balance eventually got the attention of the organizers of Ozzfest who asked Shadows Fall to play the summer 2003 edition’s second stage. This invitation turned out to be the group’s first big break as they were the surprise second stage hit.

Legions of kids started to flock from the main stage to the second stage to see Shadows Fall and along with subsequent tours with Killswitch Engage and Lamb of God, Shadows Fall were well on their way. Riding off this high, the group quickly got back into the studio and recorded their fourth album The War Within released in September, 2004. The album did incredibly well, reaching number one on the Billboard Independent Albums Chart, taking the number twenty position on the Billboard two-hundred and eventually selling over three hundred thousand copies.

Now approximately two and a half years later, Shadows Fall are back with their major label debut on Atlantic Records Threads of Life. The group sees their jump to a major as another launching point for the band, allowing them more resources to get their music out to the public while still maintaining business as usual with some hectic touring. Produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Stone Sour), Threads of Life sees the band take their musicianship to a whole new level of excellence.

Threads of Life’s first single “Redemption” has been tearing up charts since its mid-February release and the band seems destined to break out in a big way this summer. To coincide with the release of the record, Shadows Fall is currently starting up The Jager Tour along with Lacuna Coil and Stone Sour. This trek will last right up until the beginning of May and the band also has some summer tour plans in the works. Look out for Shadows Fall because they might just end up being the biggest rock band of 2007.