{"id":5787,"date":"2012-05-15T00:00:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T00:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=5787"},"modified":"2012-06-09T20:41:49","modified_gmt":"2012-06-09T20:41:49","slug":"feature-shadows-fall-05-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-shadows-fall-05-12\/","title":{"rendered":"SHADOWS FALL – Everything Remains (May 2012) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHADOWS FALL – Everything Remains<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nMay 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

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Shadows Fall (l-r): Jonathan Donais, Matt Bachand, Brian Fair, Jason Bittner and
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On October 11th, 2011, it was publicly revealed that Springfield, Massachusetts-based metal outfit Shadows Fall had inked a multi-album North American recording contract with Razor & Tie. Previous record labels to issue Shadows Fall material include guitarist Matt Bachand\u2019s Lifeless (November 1997\u2019s Somber Eyes To The Sky<\/em>), Century Media (April 2000\u2019s Of One Blood<\/em>, September 2002\u2019s The Art Of Balance<\/em>, and September 2004\u2019s The War Within<\/em>), Atlantic \/ Roadrunner (April 2007\u2019s Threads Of Life<\/em>), and Ferret \/ Everblack Industries (September 2009\u2019s Retribution<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was brought to the table to us by our manager (Izzy Zivkovic), and he\u2019s been working with that company for awhile on various different projects,\u201d reveals Jason Bittner, drummer for Shadows Fall. \u201cHe felt that that would be one of the strongest moves for us to make, but we saw some of the other options that we had too. We just felt that the Razor & Tie thing was gonna be the best cohesive fit for us as a band. We had already worked with some of the people who work there too, so we knew they had our back and were fans from the start. I think that was really one of the reasons that we gravitated towards them, because they came to us as fans, and they had known the history of the band. It wasn\u2019t like they were just trying to cash in on something, or whatever. They came to us pretty genuine, so that always pays off some dividends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferret Records imprint Everblack Industries \u2013 which issued Retribution<\/em> as mentioned earlier \u2013 was Shadows Fall\u2019s own imprint. \u201cIt was what it was,\u201d the sticksman reflects. \u201cWe had a great idea on paper with Ferret for the Everblack imprint. If record sales were still what record sales were, then it may have worked out for us in the long run to stick with doing that. It worked out though in the sense that we did well enough where we recouped our money, but that was because we didn\u2019t owe anybody any money. Signing with Razor & Tie was just a thing where we felt the best option was to partner with another label, partnering with some new and fresh blood and some people that we thought could really take the ball and run with it. It was a good experience. Any label change we have or anything that we do is always another chapter that we have in the career book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shadows Fall began crafting material for May 2012 full-length Fire From The Sky<\/em> towards the conclusion of the 2010 Mayhem Festival tour. Taking place from July to August 2010, Shadows Fall performed on the J\u00e4germeister stage. \u201cWe had some riffs happening, and started working on stuff in soundcheck during the last week of our headlining run on the way home from Mayhem,\u201d Jason chronicles. \u201cThe songs started to take shape then. We just went on a writing spurt, and wrote maybe like six songs within the first few months of us being home off tour. We then kind of hit a lull, so we took a little bit of time, regrouped, got back together, and started the writing process again. We worked on it for over the good course of a year. We were actually gonna start recording in August, but then we put the kibosh on that and pushed it back to October of last year. It\u2019s a great culmination of all our hard work. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe started pre-production around July. Adam D started coming in and working on the full pre-production process with us, going through the songs \u2013 going through them with a fine toothcomb \u2013 and taking out the stuff that was just filler, and adding little things here and there for everybody. Drums, bass guitar, whatever. The guy is a songwriting genius, so he really helped our sound on this record. We spent a week at Zing Recording Studios in Westfield, Massachusetts in October recording the drums, and then everybody moved between Adam D\u2019s house and Matt\u2019s home studio to finish guitars and everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At the time of penning Fire From The Sky<\/em>, Shadows Fall wasn\u2019t contracted to a record label. \u201cWhen we started writing we weren\u2019t signed, but we had something that was already on the table,\u201d the percussionist notes. \u201cWe weren\u2019t exactly sure what was gonna be happening though, like whether or not we were gonna do the Everblack thing again or whether we were gonna go elsewhere. We had a few deals on the table, but we decided that the best option for us was to go to Razor & Tie.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first occasion since debut outing Somber Eyes To The Sky<\/em>, Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz handled production duties. \u201cAdam\u2019s been a good friend of the band for years,\u201d Jason enthuses. \u201cJon and Adam used to be in a band (Aftershock) together many, many years ago, so there\u2019s always been that connection. We\u2019ve always wanted to work with Adam in the past, but we just never got a chance to because our schedules just never matched. It just turned out that this time it worked. Adam is a very, very hard worker, and he definitely pushes you to get every little bit out of you that he can possibly get out. He helped the whole band with everybody\u2019s parts \u2013 drums, guitars, vocals. He was instrumental every step of the way. He\u2019s very good to work with. He doesn\u2019t let anything slip by; if you play something that he doesn\u2019t think sounded good, he\u2019ll tell you \u2018No\u2019 easily (laughs).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty confident that after 10 years of being in a band I can write my own drum parts, but you always wanna have that other ear that\u2019s not your own. When you think something sounds cool or something goes well with the music, you could be totally wrong. Just because you\u2019re working on this part that you think it\u2019d be awesome to put this cool right cymbal thing or double-bass thing on, you never know whether you\u2019re gonna be crushing the guitar line or coming in over the vocals. Adam was there to say \u2018Dude, take that part out,\u2019 or \u2018Let\u2019s change this part to that.\u2019 As I said, he helped with everything. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times, with me and my parts it was phrasing things. He was like \u2018You just played the hi-hat for the verse. Let\u2019s get off the hi-hat and go to the crash for the chorus instead of going to the ride.\u2019 It was just those little inflections that you really don\u2019t think are a big deal, but when you listen to it sonically it\u2019s like \u2018Oh yeah, that really opens up that part a lot better.\u2019 At first I was just a little bit apprehensive to start working with him because I know how hard he can be to work with as a producer, as far as busting your butt and getting everything out of you that he can. We really, really had no problems in the studio though. I think pretty much every suggestion that he had for me drum wise, I was in agreement with. As I said, there were no problems there. He got the best out of everybody in this band.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critiqued against other producers who Shadows Fall have worked with, the rhythmist feels that Adam \u201cjust works differently. Everybody that we\u2019ve worked with \u2013 Zeuss, Nick Raskulinecz, Adam \u2013 are all great producers at what they do but everybody has a certain style, a certain niche in something that they\u2019re good at. Adam\u2019s one of those musical genius guys, with a perfect pitch and everything. He\u2019s just one of those dudes that knows what to do; when we\u2019re like \u2018Alright, we need something here but what is it?,\u2019 he seems to be able to come up with that answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

A press release issued in conjunction with Fire From The Sky<\/em> states that the record \u2018features some of Shadows Fall\u2019s most melodic material in years.\u2019 \u201cI don\u2019t think this is the most melodic output from the band at all,\u201d Jason dismisses, however. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely tons of melody on it, but I think this is definitely on the more heavier, brutal side than it would be melodic. If you want me to pick the most melodic record we\u2019ve done, I\u2019d say that would be Threads Of Life<\/em> personally. Don\u2019t get me wrong, we didn\u2019t leave out the melody because there\u2019s plenty of melody on there \u2013 there\u2019s plenty of sing-song choruses. There\u2019s definitely a few songs that definitely could be on active rock radio, but I\u2019d say as a whole it\u2019s definitely towards the more heavier side of the band without a doubt. <\/p>\n

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Shadows Fall (l-r): Brian Fair, Matt Bachand, Paul Romanko, Jason Bittner and
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\u201cI think the song \u2018Divide And Conquer\u2019 that we\u2019ve been playing live is a perfect example. \u2018Save Your Soul\u2019 is an amazing melodic song, and has an incredible chorus part to it. There\u2019s a song called \u2018Walk The Edge\u2019 as well, and that really is another one of those that walks that line of melodic heaviness as well. I would say Fire From The Sky has got a perfect balance of heaviness and melody, just like The War Within did. That\u2019s what I would compare it to. It\u2019s another step in the evolution of this band; with every single record we do, we put out the best record that we can put out as a band at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

That very same press release also states that Fire From The Sky \u2019features some of Shadows Fall\u2019s most complex material in years.\u2019 \u201cI think it\u2019s a Shadows Fall record,\u201d the skin-beater muses. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty much what I think about it. We\u2019re always gonna have that level of complexity to our songs and we\u2019re always gonna have a few songs that are on the \u2018simpler side,\u2019 but we\u2019re a technical metal band. That\u2019s what we do. We have guys that are proficient at playing their instruments and we\u2019re proud to do that, so we\u2019re never gonna write a dumbed down chug-chug record. I think it\u2019s never gonna come out of this band (laughs). We always like to push the envelope. It\u2019s just like Iron Maiden; when Iron Maiden puts out a record, you know it\u2019s Iron Maiden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason feels that memorability is a greatly important facet of a chorus. \u201cWhen I find myself singing along to the chorus all the time, that\u2019s when I know it\u2019s a good chorus \u2013 one that sticks in your head,\u201d he reckons. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter where you hear it, like on the radio or wherever. If it has a good chorus \u2013 something that sticks in your head \u2013 and two days later you\u2019re humming some melody and you\u2019re like \u2018What\u2019s that song? That\u2019s that song I heard on the radio the other day,\u2019 then that\u2019s a good chorus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The drummer\u2019s responsibility to the material is to keep Shadows Fall musically together. \u201cMy job is to be the glue,\u201d he judges. \u201cI\u2019m lucky to be in a metal band where I have the ability to be able to play a little bit more than just a standard punk band or rock band or whatever, but my approach to writing drum parts is always thinking about serving the song. That\u2019s the drummer\u2019s responsibility. If this was the Jason Bittner Project then I would just do whatever I wanted to do and whenever I wanted to do it, but that\u2019s not the case. There\u2019s four other guys in the band; there\u2019s two guitar players, there\u2019s a bass player, and a singer. I have to be aware of what they\u2019re doing as I\u2019m creating my parts, and that\u2019s why we go through the pre-production process repeatedly. If I come up with some cool fill or something, who cares if it\u2019s stepping all over the chorus line? If Brian\u2019s trying to sing something that\u2019s an important part of the song and I\u2019m just there wailing, it kind of defeats the purpose. You\u2019ve gotta think of the big picture, so that\u2019s really what the drummer\u2019s goal is. As I said though, in this kind of music we\u2019re lucky enough to have a little bit more of a chance to spread our wings so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

One might deem the role of the drummer largely a supporting one, though Jason disagrees. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a supporting role, but an integral part of the whole complex,\u201d he suggests. \u201cIt\u2019s peanut butter in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; you can\u2019t have one or the other. You need both of them. You need bass, you need lead guitar, you need rhythm guitar, you need drums, and you need vocals. It\u2019s one-fifth of the whole mixture. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anybody in this band that has a supporting role. We\u2019re all in this together, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fire From The Sky<\/em> was mixed by Brian Virtue. \u201cWe wanted it to sound sonically huge, to be able to have audibility on all of our parts,\u201d the sticksman divulges. \u201cWe wanted to just kick people in the ass when they hear it (laughs). This one was a little bit more challenging though, because we were trying to basically listen to the final mixes when we were in Australia on tour. It was definitely a challenge to try to keep up with the process while we were on the other side of the world with limited email access sometimes, but it worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Shadows Fall (l-r): Matt Bachand, Paul Romanko, Jonathan Donais, Brian Fair
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Forefathers designed its cover artwork, meanwhile. \u201cForefathers did an amazing job,\u201d Jason beams. \u201cIt just looks like what might happen if you had an apocalypse (laughs). The fallout so to speak, no pun intended. To me, Fire From The Sky is just explained by just looking at that picture pretty much (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Unknown\u2019 has been touted as Fire From The Sky\u2019<\/em>s lead cut. \u201cThat song came from riffs that we were starting to come up with on the Mayhem tour, and was the first to be written,\u201d the percussionist discloses. \u201cLike I said, it\u2019s a collaborative effort. Sometimes someone comes in with a part, and sometimes we jam on stuff when we\u2019re there. This record was really done through a lot more jamming than we\u2019ve done in the past. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The Unknown\u2019\u2019s music video is a storyline, a whole concept video. It\u2019s pretty crazy. There\u2019s a crazy guy in there. It\u2019s pretty intense. It was filmed with Kevin Custer. Who knows if we\u2019ll film more videos though? We don\u2019t even know yet. It\u2019s a day by day thing. Usually it depends on what happens once your album cycle starts; if you start getting a buzz and momentum usually that stuff is in the pipeline, but we don\u2019t know. We don\u2019t have any plans. We didn\u2019t even know that if were gonna be shooting a video; we kind of got surprised that we were doing this one as quickly as we did, so anything\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fire From The Sky<\/em> was released on May 15th, 2012 through Razor & Tie.<\/p>\n

Interview published in May 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHADOWS FALL – Everything Remains Anthony Morgan May 2012 Shadows Fall (l-r): Jonathan Donais, Matt Bachand, Brian Fair, Jason Bittner and Paul Romanko On October 11th, 2011, it was publicly revealed that Springfield, Massachusetts-based metal outfit Shadows Fall had inked a multi-album North American recording contract with Razor & Tie. Previous record labels to issue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[277],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shadows-fall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787","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=5787"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5896,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787\/revisions\/5896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}