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Well, the new Shadows Fall album is here, and I've listened to it a few times now. Shadows Fall has always been one of my favourite bands, and also the band that really got into metal, I've seen them live four times, met them each time (they're incredibly cool guys) and I always like to support them by buying their new stuff. Well, they're trying new things on this album for sure, and some of it works, and some of it doesn't. Ken said in the purchases thread that there's a Crusade vibe to this; I haven't heard the Crusade, so I can't comment, but perhaps others agree?
In any case, here are the main changes in their sound, as I see them:
Greater number of thrash riffs: There is definitely a larger thrash element on parts of this album then on any other SF album, though the Art of Balance got pretty thrashy at times too. They're quite succesful at it: They've got the art of writing thrash riffs down for sure. Good job.
Big Choruses: There is a greater tendency on this album to rely on big choruses, with clean vocals and more laid back guitar leads. This is matched by an increase in singer Brian Fair's clean vocals. All in all, this fails. Some choruses (most notably Redemption's) succeed because the guitar line and vocal line are well written; however, I think the idea fundamentally doesn't work with Fair's voice and Matt/John's playing style, and most choruses come out a mess. It really is too bad, because a song like Failure of the Devout, which is completely thrashy and awesome in about every other way (excepting one, which I'll come to later) doesn't fit at all with its chorus.
Power/speed element: Interestingly, there are some power metal-esque/speed elements on this album; check out that riff after the first chorus on Redemption, or the intro riff to Storm Winds. Its well written stuff, and works very well within the songs; good job on this one.
Experimentation with vocals/new styles?: Don't really know how to refer to this other than that, but Shadows Fall does some really fucking stupid shit on here. Example: Failures of the Devout, a great thrash number, has this part at about 4:20 where the guitars and bass go out, and all we have is drums and distorted vocals. It sounds horrible, and completely ruins the flow of the song. There are other little moments of vocal experimentation, as on Venomous, which fall completely flat. Then we get to the ballad, Another Hero Lost, which is by far the worst song Shadows Fall has ever released. Its horrible; Fair tries to be emotional and out comes this giant emo mess; "forever, is waiting, the final steps you're taking"- aren't those vocal lines in just about every Simple Plan song? The song does get slightly power metal at the end, which is good, but it can't save the song.
Other than that, you get your typical Shadows Fall. Well done melodies at several points, and the metalcore which they somehow manage to pull off. John Donais is of course an amazing guitarist, and his solos are as good as ever. However, there is another problem with this album: For whatever reason, its simply not very memorable. Redemption, Forevermore, Failure of the Devout and Final Call stay with me... everything else, not so much. Even out of those songs, there is no song that really rocks me out; no Fire in Babylon or Those Who Cannot Speak or Of One Blood or Root Bound Apollo.
So, I'd say that this is the weakest Shadows Fall album since Somber Eyes to the Sky. I still give it a 70/100 and think it is good, but its definitely a dissapointment. Anyone else have any thoughts?
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