What Is The Futrue of Shadows Fall?

"We haven't been dropped from Atlantic Records!"

Ever since the release of 2007's "Threads of Life", the major-label debut of Shadows Fall, one of the modern "Big 4" of the metal movement, rumors have spread that Shadows Fall was dropped from Atlantic Records. This was spurred by both poor reviews of the album and the fact that, since it's April 2007 release, it has sold only 100,000 copies! Compare that to 2004's "The War Within" on Century Media, which has sold over 300,000 to date and... well, it's safe to say that "Threads of Life" was a commercial flop.

I wrote a review about 6 months after it came out since I wanted to have a more objective review since... well, it's always a bad sign when you don't want to review something as soon as you get it, isn't it?

The album cover looks just about as rushed as the album sounds, like Atlantic Records demanded them to write the album as fast as possible and release it quickly to cash in on their fame. This isn't a new practice in the music world, of course, and Anthrax's "State of Euphoria" from 1988 is a testament of what happens when a great band is rushed to release an album. Scott Ian has even disowned it.

Since then, Shadows Fall went on a tour in 2007, but was mostly quiet for most of 2008, with no real notable tour I can recall. The name is starting to fade from the lips of the metal community, and as a fan of the band, I'm stuck asking... "Where are they headed to now?"

Despite what the band calls a "rumor", Roadrunner Records Europe HAS dropped Shadows Fall, and because of how poorly the album is doing, their relationship with Atlantic Records is on shaky ground. No offense meant to the band (I've met them and they're good folks), but it's a PR statement in order to keep the faithful happy. A major record label doesn't shell out a ton of cash to have a band not do well. This album got great promotion, so it's safe to say that the next one is going to have to slay, or we're going to be stuck with 5 "live albums".

Shadows Fall are playing a free show tonight and are releasing a new album this year.

Shadows Fall, PLEASE Make Sure this New Album Kicks ass!

Admittedly, this little blog of mine is teetering somewhere in between metal news and commentary spliced with Philadelphia spliced with Politics. Then again, that was the point of me renaming this blog after the election.

Shadows Fall is now in "Writing Mode" and I must admit, I'm a little worried. The last album, Threads of Life, was basically an unmitigated disaster in every sense of the word. The album was panned by fans, the critics of the major metal outlets all hailed it (sadly), basically doing so to save face in the metal community, a costly gamble like praising St. Anger and then saying, a year later, it was crap. We laready heard the line "Atlantic let us write what we want to write," but in the end, the album came out being more of a selling out, a call for acceptance by the main-mainstream and grasphing for commercial success. It isn't bad to try, unless you get caught and it doesn't work.

So Brian Flair and the rest of the band are writing a follow-up to that disc and, frankly, they can do better than that last album. Shadows Fall doesn't have to look far at what will happen if they fail again; The end of the Metalcore movement is coming closer and closer and its hard to tell who's going to make it after the doors close. Lamb of God is a complete lock, no questions asked. Killswitch Engaged has a chance, but so does Chimera. A bad album here will mean the band will be relegated to the same type of commercial and reputation hell as countless other groups, including Metallica, Megadeth during that "commercial" period, Motorhead during the 90's... pretty much what all metal bands went through in the 90's, and sadly, they would be first on the chopping block.

That's all I have to say. Brian, if your reading this, sorry if I bummed you out and made you stay up a little more each night. I love this group and I honestly can't wait for the new one! "Redemption" was incredible! Just write about 20 tracks like that with a touch of "Another Hero Lost" and BAM! Great album! Wait....