Shadows FallThreads of Life | Atlantic  May 1,
2007 11:56:51 AM
|
Metal fans are a dogmatic bunch. Reveling in their self-appointed roles as arbiters of “true” metal, they can often turn on a band with a sudden, unexpected fury. With this in mind, it’s hard not to admire the courage displayed by Shadows Fall in releasing their unabashedly commercial new album. These Springfield metallurgists have emerged as the biggest name in American metalcore; 2004’s The War Within sold 300,000 copies and charted at #20. This success led the band to abandon respected metal indie Century Media Records for the bigger budgets at Atlantic, in the process providing countless headbangers with fuel for their internecine, scene-defending critical furnaces. Listening to the album makes it clear that they’ve decided to ignore any backlash. Threads of Life is rife with catchy, immaculately produced riffs, and singer Brian Fair has refined the gruff bellow heard on previous albums into a competently tuneful Hetfeldian growl; the call-and-response between Fair and the syrupy, multi-tracked clean singing of guitarist Matt Bachand sounds better than ever. Not a single note on the album seems out of place (their emphasis is less on “shred” and more on “julienne”), and in the end the album’s slickness is its strength, haters be damned.
Shadows Fall + From Autumn to Ashes + Haste the Day | Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, 79 Washington St, Providence | May 9 | 401.272.LUPO
|
 |
Vote now in over 100 categories including the best local restaurants, comedian, filmmaker, performance artist, and yoga studio
Vote now in over 100 categories including the best local jukebox, bartender, dance club, and tattoo shop
Vote now in over 100 categories including best beer selection, bike route, gallery, and movie house
|
- Fans are paying the price for the Sox success: inside the Fenway fiasco
- The soap-operatic significance of the Bay Guardian–Village Voice Media battle
- Some Things at Trinity
- Never mind its tough-girl alt-porn feminism: SuicideGirls has already moved on to a new generation
- The Big Hurt: Trent Reznor pushes the premium fabric-bound envelope
- The first political leader of my generation acts nothing like the rest of us — which might be how he’s gotten where he is
- Fans are paying the price for the Sox success: inside the Fenway fiasco
- Meet Adam Gaffin, Boston’s reigning Web czar
- The Clean House at New Rep; Gary at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
- The soap-operatic significance of the Bay Guardian–Village Voice Media battle
- Teatro Lirico I at the Majestic Theatre, March 2, 2008
- The first political leader of my generation acts nothing like the rest of us — which might be how he’s gotten where he is
|
-
The contradictory catchiness of Three
-
Pelican, Clouds, and Priestbird, Middle East Downstairs, July 23, 2007
-
National Free Culture Conference has a wiki good time
-
The US Army wants you . . . to take on-screen violence seriously
|
- The Pubcrawlers give you a reason to celebrate, March 17
- Get Awkward | Ecstatic Peace/Universal
- ECM
- Keep It Simple | Lost Highway
- All Things Are from Him, through Him and in Him | audioMER
- Kimbanda Nzila | iMak
- Nonesuch
- ATO
- Autumn Fallin' | Blue Note
- Words of Love | LML Music
|
|
|
|