Massachusetts’ own Shadows Fall thunders back with its 2012 release, Fire from the Sky. It’s an engaging effort, long on aggression, but never short on melody. Achieving success in today’s music market is not easy. With so many genre-specific bands competing for space on fans’ iPods and hard drives, the ante has been upped for today’s artists to strike the right balance between art and commerce. In this era of instant gratification and disposability, bands face the pressure of nurturing the integrity of their trademark styles and the necessity of changing with the times to remain relevant.
In its career, Shadows Fall has been lumped, fairly or not, into a couple different categories: New Wave of American Metal and metalcore. To my ears though, this band just sounds like good, old-fashioned heavy metal. Regardless of labels, the thing that sets Shadows Fall apart from its contemporaries is the ability to blend anthemic choruses with forceful verses and soaring guitar solos into an arsenal of catchy songs, which gets better with every listen.
There was a time guitar solos were very out of style. However, that trend seems to have reversed itself with the advent of video games like Guitar Hero embracing classic and current hard rock and metal. This has exposed a whole new generation to flashy guitar playing and once again, heavy music seems to have caught a wave and is riding the crest. Shadows Fall and Fire from the Sky fit perfectly into this niche. With equal parts groove, melody and attitude, this may be the band’s most cohesive effort yet. It has something to appeal to multiple generations of listeners.