{"id":5410,"date":"2012-05-15T00:00:56","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T00:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=5410"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:16:59","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:16:59","slug":"album-review-shadows-fall-fire-from-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-shadows-fall-fire-from-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"SHADOWS FALL – Fire From The Sky (2012) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHADOWS FALL
Fire From The Sky<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nRazor & Tie (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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When looking back on the discography of Shadows Fall, they appear to have been regressing to the mean for the better part of a decade; two good \/ promising albums (1997’s Somber Eyes To The Sky<\/em> and 2000\u2019s Of One Blood<\/em>), two great albums (2002\u2019s The Art Of Balance<\/em> and 2004’s The War Within<\/em>) and two fairly mediocre albums (2007\u2019s Threads Of Life<\/em> and 2009\u2019s Retribution<\/em>). Interestingly, that is also the chronological order of their studio career. That leaves us with Fire From The Sky<\/em>, which could be a pivotal release for the band. After their well deserved success Shadows Fall went the major label route and fell flat on their face. Of course, this doesn\u2019t necessarily have anything to do with the quality of their product, but it is a reflection of the rise and fall of metalcore and the bands associated \/ pigeonholed into said genre.<\/p>\n

Shadows Fall\u2019s previous album Retribution<\/em> saw a hungrier, angrier band that turned back the clock a few years and went for a much more aggressive and thrashy approach, with less clean singing and more aggression. Retribution<\/em> was solid and full of good intentions, but in the end it showed absolutely zero growth. Therefore, Fire From The Sky<\/em> is perhaps their most important album to date. Do they want to play in bars or theaters?<\/p>\n

Fire From The Sky<\/em> immediately goes off the beaten path compared to most contemporary albums \u2013 it starts out slow. Yes, for once we\u2019re not treated to a front-loaded album that starts out strong and then stuffs the weaker cuts towards the end. Instead, it stumbles out of the gate like a three-legged horse.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Unknown\u2019 is an okay opener, but in the end a pretty mediocre track. \u2018Divide And Conquer\u2019 is in parts reminiscent of their first two releases, and the only redeeming quality of \u2018Weight Of The World\u2019 is lead guitarist Jonathan Donais\u2019 putting on a clinic in shred guitar. The first third or so of the album isn\u2019t bad by any stretch; the songs just don\u2019t go anywhere and lack that special something to catapult them to the higher level all bands strive for. <\/p>\n

After 15 minutes we\u2019re treated to the first really impressive tune, which also happens to be the title track. Mid-tempo, dark and heavy for the first couple of minutes and then thrashy speed metal with one of Jonathan Donais\u2019 best solos since \u2018A Fire In Babylon\u2019. The songs that follow also feed off the momentum built up and actually make the album better the longer you stick with it. <\/p>\n

Fire From The Sky<\/em> serves quite well as a retrospective of Shadows Fall\u2019s career. You have songs and sections that are reminiscent of the (not overly diverse) styles that they\u2019ve employed during their career. Unfortunately, the quality of the release is also indicative of said career; a handful of great songs, a handful of \u201cmeh\u201d ones and a few that don\u2019t really go anywhere. Much like Retribution<\/em>, good intentions can only get you so far.<\/p>\n

Petter Carnbro<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHADOWS FALLFire From The Sky Razor & Tie (2012)Rating: 6\/10 When looking back on the discography of Shadows Fall, they appear to have been regressing to the mean for the better part of a decade; two good \/ promising albums (1997’s Somber Eyes To The Sky and 2000\u2019s Of One Blood), two great albums (2002\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,277],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-shadows-fall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5410"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12003,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410\/revisions\/12003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}