SHADOWS FALL has launched a brand new single, “In The Gray”. The observe marks the band’s first new piece of music in additional than 12 years.
“In The Gray” was made out there by way of SHADOWS FALL‘s new document label house, MNRK Heavy.
The track is traditional SHADOWS FALL — galloping solos, riffs on prime of riffs, three-tiered vocals, memorable, stadium-sized melodics, and introspective lyrics.
“We’re extremely excited to share our first new music in over a decade with our single ‘In The Gray’ and are proud to announce our partnership with MNRK Music Group,” states SHADOWS FALL singer Brian Truthful.
“When SHADOWS FALL first bought again within the observe house to organize for our reunion exhibits, we didn’t know if it will result in new music, however the pleasure of jamming collectively and the entire riffs that Jon [Donais, SHADOWS FALL guitarist] had floating round in his head led us within the course virtually instantly. The concept started flowing, the vitality began constructing and new songs started taking kind out of the chaos.”
He continues: “‘In The Gray’ is a full-throttle thrasher that incorporates the entire parts which are the bedrock of the SHADOWS FALL sound, but in addition provides new parts and approaches that developed within the latest previous whereas all of us explorer different musical avenues. Lyrically, I used to be attempting to place into phrases and describe the bodily manifestation of the load and crushing energy that may include despair, that feeling that the load of gravity is crashing down on you or being trapped in the dead of night waters of our personal thoughts, attempting to rise to the floor and take a breath. It may be an amazing and lonely place however there may be all the time a light-weight on the finish of that tunnel and we all the time must preserve striving for a brighter day and escaping the gray.”
Truthful finishes: “We wish to sincerely thank everybody for the a long time of assist that you’ve got given SHADOWS FALL and we can’t be happier to be again and rocking as soon as once more. Crank up ‘In The Gray’, increase these horns to the sky, and bang your head as laborious as you possibly can. Keep tuned for extra music and information quickly…”
Scott Givens, MNRK‘s SVP of rock and steel, states: “Whenever you get the possibility to signal a genre-defining band like SHADOWS FALL, you do it. We at MNRK are proud they’ve chosen to work with us as they enter the following section of their profession.”
This previous August, Truthful instructed Sh!t Discuss Opinions about SHADOWS FALL‘s new cope with MNRK: “We positively have an awesome companion for the music. We’ve a really progressive sort of view. They’re gonna allow us to sort of launch it in a means that is sensible. So, yeah, we’re very excited that we bought sort of the infrastructure.”
He continued: “It is very completely different now. The normal type of document deal, it would not need to be the way in which it was once. There was such an business customary of, like, document a full-length, tour for a yr and a half, document a full-length, tour for a yr and a half, that sort of cycle. And it has been completely decimated now, ‘trigger you needn’t do the… The primary-week [sales] numbers do not imply what they used to, all that sort of shit. So it is cool. However, yeah, we have an excellent partnership.”
Relating to the progress of the songwriting classes for the contemporary SHADOWS FALL materials, Brian stated: “I am very excited to be making new SHADOWS FALL music, which we might all the time thought would occur, however did not know for certain. Once we sort of stopped touring, it wasn’t ‘trigger we did not wanna make music collectively or did not wish to play. We have been so burnt out. Life was taking completely different turns. Folks have been having youngsters. Jon ended up in ANTHRAX, so he was within the ‘Large 4’ [of 1980s thrash metal] unexpectedly. So as soon as we lastly bought collectively to begin taking part in exhibits once more just a few years in the past, the concept of recent music got here up virtually instantly. And Jon simply had a stockpile of riffs. And up to now we have most likely, instrumentally, bought, say, seven-ish songs recorded which are fairly performed. I do know there’s gonna be some overdubs and a few sweet tracks. Vocally, I’ve recorded two right through which are performed after which have most likely 4 extra which are written which are, I might say, 90 p.c there. There’s all the time adjustments whereas we observe, like little new concepts that pop up, but it surely’s going alongside tremendous effectively.
“We’re gonna take our time, ‘trigger there’s actually no deadline concerned,” he defined. “Additionally, I do not suppose we’re gonna launch it . I feel now, fortunately, fashionable methods of doing issues, you do not have to simply drop a 10-song album. You are able to do just a few identical to little chunks right here and there. So we’re hoping to most likely get some music out late fall, I am hoping, no less than a pair songs. And my plan, if all of it goes in accordance with me, can be to do this, drop two or three songs each chunk after which put ’em all out on vinyl on the finish like as one. So in my world, that is what we’re doing. We’ll see if it really occurs. However, yeah, getting again with [producer] Zeuss [Chris Harris] is simply superior. We have been working with him, actually, because the demos earlier than [2000’s] ‘Of One Blood’ [album]. And we’re recording most of it at Matt‘s [Bachand, SHADOWS FALL guitarist] home as effectively. So once I get again to Massachusetts, it is tremendous comfy, simply get in his basement and simply work on tunes. And it has been a blast… So hopefully issues preserve transferring the way in which they’re.”
Noting that SHADOWS FALL drummer Jason Bittner lately introduced his departure from OVERKILL, one of many Sh!t Discuss Opinions interviewers then requested whether it is “protected to say” that SHADOWS FALL “is again” and is “not going to go anyplace anytime quickly.” Brian responded: “It isn’t going anyplace, however I do not suppose we’ll ever be the full-time touring band we have been. It is lots of household stuff and other people have simply bought various things occurring. Jon, being in ANTHRAX, that is gonna be sort of his important gig more often than not. Jason, yeah, he left OVERKILL, however he is additionally bought CATEGORY 7 with John Bush and Phil Demmel and all these guys, and that new document’s killer. So that they’ll be busy with that. However we’re positively gonna preserve taking part in exhibits. We’re gonna preserve doing festivals. We most likely will hopefully do some brief excursions right here and there, particularly when new music comes out, however we’re gonna sort of decide and select our battles, which is, once more, additionally a pleasant place to be in.
“When the band was our full-time job, you could not keep at house for too lengthy or there wasn’t gonna be a house to come back house to,” Truthful defined. “You have gotta exit and grind. So it is good to not have that strain, but in addition to do it as a result of it is enjoyable once more. Every present that we have performed have all been blockbusters in our minds as a result of there’s simply sufficient time between each that you simply get that excited once more. It ramps up after which it is identical to an explosion.
“Me personally, I used to be so burnt out by the point we stopped touring in 2015. We might been on a 15-year run the place I hadn’t been house for quite a lot of weeks by way of that entire factor. And bodily, my neck was shot, my again was shot. I used to be burnt mentally as effectively, so it was time to come back house for some time. However then, now I am, like, ‘Okay, cool. Let’s go have some enjoyable.'”
“The one technique to survive in a band like us… We’re not gonna promote 10 million information and have all that stuff,” Brian added. “So you have gotta go on the market and keep on the street to maintain your title in entrance of individuals, preserve all the things thrilling. You have gotta promote t-shirts — that is the way you make your cash, [by staying] on the market on the street. And, yeah, if a label is gonna spend a bunch of cash to drop a document and do movies, they’re, like, ‘You have gotta go advertise now. You have gotta get on the market and hit it.’
“What’s driving us to document now could be that we love the songs we’re writing. It isn’t ‘trigger there is a deadline. And the exhibits we’re taking part in is as a result of we’re simply, like, ‘That appears like a celebration, man. Let’s do it.'”
Elaborating on how he and his SHADOWS FALL bandmates selected their new record-label companion, Brian stated: “It’s very modified issues the place they’ve sort of realized their finest function is as a promotional companion and a producer, in the event you’re doing vinyl or no matter. CDs, they nonetheless make ’em, I suppose, however not within the numbers they used to. And lots of them downsized, as a result of they needed to. So it is extra about partnering with the band and label relationship and discovering a technique to make it make sense for everybody.
“The outdated mannequin would not work,” the 49-year-old singer, who now lives in St. Louis, Missouri together with his spouse and their two youngsters, added. “It is damaged. You’ll be able to’t simply throw cash at issues and suppose it is gonna hit. Folks have too many selections. You’ll be able to put out music your self, so there’s positively an oversaturation, sadly, as effectively due to that. So there’s simply a lot content material, you have gotta discover new and progressive methods to share it and preserve it particular. And I feel the labels which are surviving and thriving are those who’re versatile, prepared to evolve, prepared to work with the artists’ imaginative and prescient versus simply, ‘Cool, man. Let’s stick with the outdated technique.'”
Truthful and his SHADOWS FALL bandmates have performed numerous reunion concert events up to now, together with at Blue Ridge Rock Pageant in Alton, Virginia, on the Furnace Fest in Birmingham, Alabama, and on the Milwaukee Metallic Fest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The long-running Massachusetts-based metallers, who have been on the forefront of the New Wave Of American Metallic scene that dominated the ’00s, celebrated the twentieth anniversary of their “The Battle Inside” album by taking part in the LP in its entirety on March 16 on the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey, the location of the band’s many traditional exhibits. It additionally marked the primary time the band has carried out within the Backyard State in a decade.
In a latest interview with the WSOU 89.5 FM radio station, Truthful said about SHADOWS FALL‘s new music: “You’ll be able to inform it is SHADOWS FALL, however, man, it is bought new vibes, it is bought new influences and it is simply sort of a really contemporary strategy.
“Once we first began engaged on it, we have been frightened,” Brian admitted. “We have been, like, ‘Is that this gonna sound like us?’ We hadn’t written songs collectively in 5 to 6 years, the place it is gonna be. And, man, proper out of the gate, we have been, like, ‘That is the SHADS. We’re again.'”
Elaborating on the musical course of the brand new SHADOWS FALL materials, Truthful stated: “Truthfully, it is gonna be all the things that we have all the time performed, plus extra. And we’re most likely about — I might say we have six or seven songs which are really songs. They’re nonetheless gonna get some some tweaks right here and there, with just a few different concepts nonetheless floating round that should be labored on.”
He continued: “However I am tremendous enthusiastic about these songs. I’ve additionally been pushing myself as a singer to essentially broaden my vary to strive new concepts, and having the time to work by way of that has been actually useful. ‘Trigger even when SHADOWS FALL was doing downtime, I used to be doing completely different initiatives and attempting to essentially deliver some new parts to what I do, and I am placing all that into this document. So it’s going to sound like SHADOWS FALL, however there’ll positively be some some new attention-grabbing concepts and approaches and stuff. So it is actually thrilling.”
He added: “For us, it is simply been nice to be again within the room jamming on new materials, ‘trigger once we bought collectively to do these [reunion] exhibits, once we’re rehearsing, we have been, like, ‘If we’re placing this work in, why not see what occurs with new music?’ And I could not be happier with the way it’s popping out. So, actually thrilling.”
In December 2023, Truthful instructed RichardMetalFan about SHADOWS FALL‘s resolution to reunite: “We might wished to play exhibits once more for some time and we simply wished the time to be proper. And as soon as the pandemic sort of hit, we type of realized, like, ‘Why are we ready round? It is the time.’ So we have been fortunate that we have been capable of sort of get everybody’s schedules collectively. And it was unbelievable. As quickly as we began jamming collectively once more, it simply felt enjoyable, it felt proper. So the exhibits have been a blast. We actually rehearsed like loopy for it. And we’re most likely higher ready for that than something we might ever been for earlier than that. And we additionally realized, like, man, we should always have been practising extra once we have been collectively. We used to hate practising. We all the time have been, like, ‘Ah, we tour sufficient. We needn’t.’ After which after we practiced a bunch, we have been, like, ‘All proper. Perhaps we actually ought to have.’ [Laughs] However then additionally once we began practising, we figured if we’ve concepts, why not write new music as effectively? If we’re gonna get collectively, let’s examine what we have. In order that began resulting in some new stuff. So [I’m] trying ahead to seeing the place it heads.”
Requested if the following SHADOWS FALL launch will probably be stylistically much like the band’s final album, 2012’s “Hearth From The Sky”, or if will probably be “a brand new starting” for the band, Brian stated: “When you heard these songs, you would be, like, ‘Oh, that is SHADOWS FALL.’ However no, it would not sound like… It is completely different. It positively sounds completely different.”
Truthful beforehand mentioned SHADOWS FALL‘s plans for brand new music throughout an episode of “Drinks With Johnny”, the Web TV present hosted by AVENGED SEVENFOLD bassist Johnny Christ. On the time, he stated: “We’re fairly deep into the method. I might say I am sort of a slacker, however I am actually specializing in getting issues pretty much as good as I can vocally as a result of we’ve no agenda. We’ve no time-frame. We’ve no document label strain. We’re simply attempting to write down the most effective music we are able to. And all of it sort of happened as we began jamming to do the reunion exhibits. And these guys have — Jon‘s been taking part in in ANTHRAX and Jason‘s been taking part in in OVERKILL, so their chops are nonetheless at top-notch stage. However they’d riffs, man. And I used to be, like, ‘If we have riffs and so they sound like SHADOWS FALL, if we’re gonna get collectively and jam, let’s make some new music.'”
He continued: “It has been a blast, man. It is humorous, ‘trigger the older we have gotten, it is gotten somewhat extra brutal, which was not a shock, ‘trigger I simply figured that may occur. We’re, like, ‘If we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna drop the hammer.’ So it has been enjoyable, man. I forgot how a lot of a riff machine Jon was. And he is identical to — concepts are simply flying out of him. And in addition in ANTHRAX, he simply will get to solo within the studio. So he is simply, like, ‘Lastly I get to write down some riffs.’ [Laughs]”
In July 2023, Bittner instructed the “Nothing Stunning Podcast” about SHADOWS FALL‘s resolution to work with Zeuss once more: “[Zeuss] did all of our information aside from… Nicely, he had a hand in all of them aside from ‘Hearth From The Sky’… So he is all the time been concerned with SHADOWS FALL ultimately, form or kind. As soon as this entire reunion factor sort of morphed from being only a one-show factor, we began speaking with him, ‘trigger he nonetheless lives two minutes away from Paul [Romanko, bass]. So, it is, like, ‘All proper. Nicely, in the event you guys are getting again collectively, what is the subsequent step? Are we making one other document?’ We’re, like, ‘Nicely, we do not know.’ And he was, like, ‘No matter we’re doing, let’s get on it.’ So sort of, like, we simply type of figured, ‘We haven’t any cash to pay you, as a result of we haven’t any cash as a result of we do not have a document label or something.’ However he was simply, like, ‘Nicely, let’s simply begin doing this and let’s do it collectively.'”
SHADOWS FALL launched a press release in August 2014 wherein the bandmembers defined that monetary difficulties made it nearly unattainable for the group to proceed as a full-time concern.
In August 2015, SHADOWS FALL performed just a few reunion exhibits on the U.S. East Coast, one yr after finishing what was being billed on the time because the band’s “last” European tour.
“Hearth From The Sky” was launched in Might 2012 by way of Razor & Tie. The CD offered round 10,000 copies in america in its first week of launch to debut at place No. 38 on The Billboard 200 chart.
Photograph credit score: Jeremy Saffer