SHADOWS FALL SHOWS METAL THREADS

Shadow’s Fall singer Brian and guitarist Matt talk about their latest album and the state of Heavy Metal in Part 1 of our interview.

Shadow’s Fall is proud to be an unabashed metal band, and they let more of their roots show on the just-released effort Threads Of Life. The album was released on Tuesday, and they’re crossing the country as part of the Jagermeister tour with Stone Sour and Lacuna Coil.

Vocalist Brian and guitarist Matt talked about their approach to letting it all hang out on Threads.

“We’ve always seen ourselves as a metal band. There’s always… People want to put a million hyphens in front of it and tons of different subgenres, but our common influences are old thrash metal and old school metal — Maiden, Judas Priest, and even rock bands like Thin Lizzy, old ’70s Aerosmith, bands like Boston. So, we really wanted to let some more of that shine through — especially with so much heavy music coming out these days. It’s starting to get a cookie cutter effect. And we also didn’t want to repeat ourselves and write War Within, Part 2. We wanted Threads Of Life to totally stand on its own and be a step forward, production, songwriting, performance, everything. That was really our goal. We no longer care about hiding any of those influences. It’s about letting them all out. After ten years you get a little selfish (laughs).”

Shadows Fall was asked if they’re expressing their full musicality on Threads of Life.

[Brian] “Definitely, definitely.” [Matt] “Absolutely.” [Brian] “And also to showcase the songwriting as well. There’s no longer that ‘need to prove yourself’ anymore. We all know we can play, and we also know when to pull back. And that balance is what it’s all about right now for us.”

So do they think there will be any backlash from the die-hards with this album?

[Brian] “I don’t think it’ll be shocking at all.” [Matt] “No, no, no. It’s a natural next step for us. I think every album that we put out just moves a little bit further, and a little bit further, and this is just the next step in that.” [Brian] “There’s still the brutal parts, there’s still the technical side, we just wanted to put that in a framework of great songs and also in the vocal department we really wanted to try some new things and sing a little more naturally than always try to be, ‘Well we haven’t screamed enough yet, we haven’t done this enough yet, we haven’t had a big melodic chorus. If it was there, it was there, if it wasn’t don’t force it, and that was real key on this — not putting a square into a circle. It’s all about writing to the song and to the riff and making the most of it.”

Shadow’s Fall is currently on the Jagermeister tour, and they’ll be on the road through May 4 in Des Moines, Iowa. The band will then go back out on the road for a few extra club dates with Lacuna Coil and also as solo headliners.