Shadows Fall - The Art of Balance

[Nate The Great]

Shadows Fall
The Art of Balance
Century Media
2002
by Nathan Pearce

Shadows Fall of the past was accused of being one of the forerunners of the Gothenburg-hardcore sound. Shadows Fall of the present is now helping lead American metal into the spotlight again. The Art of Balance finds the band dropping a heavy melodic-death metal influence for more Americanized thrash influences. Blast beats are a thing of the past. Even the use of low growls is kept to a minimum. Luckily, Brian Fair’s outstanding hardcore roar/yell is kept intact. However, Brian adds in a lot more clean vocals in the style of bands like Anthrax, Overkill, and early Pantera. There are even ballads that could have easily been popular ten years ago thrown in the mix. While these ballads bring back memories of “Cemetery Gates” or “Fade to Black”, Shadows Fall retains an edge to their music that keeps them firmly planted in the 21st century.

Shadows Fall seems ready to pick up the torch that a band like Pantera has carried into the present. While Pantera might not be ready to give up that torch, Shadow Fall is ready to take it from them. Guitar work on The Art of Balance is nothing short of awesome. Twin guitar melodies that rival anything from any Swedish band in recent years, riffs to topple any other American band this side of Mastodon, and solos that actually accomplish something in the song. When Shadows Fall throws a solo into a song, the solo is very technical, very precise, and very cool; furthermore, the solo fits perfectly with the rest of the song.

Like In Flames in Europe, Shadows Fall is on the brink of blowing up into the American mainstream. Frankly The Art of Balance is about as far from a “sell-out” album as the band could get. While a large majority of metal fans will find a place for this album in their lives, I can’t see MTV (yes MTV has run clips of the band on the air) embracing this band. Is that a good thing? Probably not monetarily for the band, but this band has no intention of pleasing anybody but their own metal worshipping selves. If fans seem to embrace the band along the way, so be it. The Art of Balance is METAL with horns held high.



www.shadowsfall.com

 

[MadManWithSword]

they kick azz all around, check out their previous release "Of One Blood" I've had it for 2 years and still appreciate it more now instead of getting tired of it like other cd'z.

 

[Darkmatter]

They are not polished and hardly "astonishing". The guitars are inventive, but not as tight as they should be for how much people praise their playing. The solos are better than the rhythms, the vocals get pretty tedious after a while and the cleans are specially off. Just a thought.

 

[Soilent Goat]

Hey Darkmatter, anyone ever tell you that you don't know shit? If not, now I am. You don't know shit. Go release an album with half the balls of The Art Of Balance and then come back and talk some shit. Lamer.

 

[trippel]

this album blows century media wants to market these guys like their version of a money making machine the songs on this album run the gamut from an insipid floyd cover to mediocre acoustic interludes to mallcore tunes please don,t support this crap their are so many better more original bands than this what a joke

 

[Yeah]

This album serves as contemporary (which is a generous concept to describe Shitows Fall with) opium for the masses of beer chugging head banging peons, ingeniously adding the right amounts of nostalgiac plagarism and "contemporary" hardcore conventions to make profit from the nameless metal scene sheep.

 

[King Chaos]

Shadows fall are immense live. Ive seen them numerous times and they are truely excellent. Because the album is being marketed doesn't mean to say they arn't a good band. All the people who criticised shadows fall should be ashamed of themselves. You are clearly over critical pricks who have no place as metal fans. Yes there are better bands (Skyfire, Omnium gatherum, Detonation) of similar genre, but to be honest of all the melodic deathmetal bands an american one are obviously going to be easiest to market and are most likely to break melodic deathmetal in to the mainstream. You people who violently criticised shadows fall should seriously consider whether or not your contributions to the metal scene are making things better or worse! Because you hate it doesn't mean you should force your opinions on to others which you have done.

Lost in a garden of stars

 

[Yeah]

No, in fact, I don't desire anything but a complete destruction of the metal scene. It's simply a vapid institution of sensationalist thinking, devoid of any intellectual independence, with apes pretending to lord their superiority over others with superficial physical intimidation. And this is to say nothing of a status as dorky and narrow minded as "metal fandom."

If people want to discover true death metal, they will be drawn to it out of similar ideological premises. And art form based on independent thinking finds independent thinkers. You can't market an obscurist art form to the commercial masses--both concepts simply negate each other. There is no way to sell an art form that doesn't want to be sold to the masses.

As for melodic death, it will likely grab hold of the commercial masses, because it either removes or balances out everything completely confrontational in the original death metal ideology, watering it down to a level low enough to be comprehended by every angsty fucktard peon with a record store nearby and a cable TV subscription.

 

[King chaos]

yeah, you are a smart guy. All that stuff about independant thinking is true. I want to be able to buy Skyfire records from shops on my highstreet instead of having to have them imported. I don't care how metal gets popular I just think the world would be a better place if it did. shall we agree that shadows fall are puppets of a system based on an art form that shouldn't be forced down the masses throats, but are good puppets none the less.

Yeah... if u read this my MSN address is

feast_of_burden@hotmail.com

I'd like to chat with a metal fan who isn't just a gothy kid who hates his shitting parents

 

[LoneWolfMusic]

I feel they are an overinflated hype...............

Not anything mindblowing or inventive. SOS...........

Solos are good though............

-----------------------

We are a new prog label seeking unsigned bands. Check us out.

www.lonewolfmusic.com

 

[Razorjack]

It's so unbelievable that a band manage to be so good live, and so completely shit on record. Either they had the most incompetent producer ever or they really need to get their act together if they want to stay in this buisiness for longer than two albums.