E-Mail This Article to a Friend Mass metal meets the mainstream Shadows Fall and God Forbid hit the road behind new albums BY SEAN RICHARDSON
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After wowing metal fans across the country on Ozzfest 2003, Shadows Fall sat this year’s model out and mounted a headlining tour of their own. But on the day before Ozzfest 2004’s July 10 kickoff in Hartford, the Massachusetts buzz band stumbled across the perfect opportunity to get stupid with the second-stage crew. They stocked up on food and drink, showed up for rehearsal day, and shot a video for "The Power of I and I," the first single from their current CD, The War Within (Century Media). The resulting clip, which is now in rotation on MTV2’s Headbangers Ball, opens with a caption that says it all: The World’s Heaviest Bar-B-Que.

"When we get a video budget, we try to use it as an excuse to throw a party," Shadows Fall frontman Brian Fair laughs. "The ‘Destroyer of Senses’ video was our three-minute beer commercial. This one is our barbecue. We shot it in a parking lot next to where the Ozzfest rehearsal day was. We were friends with a lot of the second-stage bands, and everyone who was finished with soundcheck came down. Jägermeister pulled in with an RV and started barbecuing and supplying beverages. It became the Where’s Waldo? of metal videos. Lamb of God, Atreyu, Hatebreed — everyone came out for a little while if they could."

Melodic rock choruses have always been important to Shadows Fall, and The War Within doesn’t disappoint in that department. But "The Power of I and I" puts its weight on the "core" side of the metalcore equation, leaving the fancy stuff to guitar gods Matthew Bachand and Jonathan Donais. The track’s title and "all is one" vocal hook are a shout-out to Rastacore legends Bad Brains, who once released a classic album called I Against I (SST). "Bad Brains are probably my favorite band of all time," Fair confirms. "[Frontman] H.R. is a huge influence. I don’t think I sound much like him, but he’s such a natural singer. I came out of the hardcore scene where positive lyrics are a big part of it, and I studied a lot of religion and philosophy when I was at Boston University. I have to have a personal connection with the songs. To come up with something evil or gory is out of character for me. It would be transparent."

Positive thinking and piledriving metal have taken Shadows Fall a long way since 2000, when their Century Media debut, Of One Blood, was released. That disc and its follow-up, The Art of Balance, were a big part of the metalcore explosion that led to last year’s Headbangers Ball resurrection. Right now, the band’s hype machine is working overtime: they’re slated to appear on the cover of Revolver magazine for the first time, and The War Within is poised to equal recent Top 50 chart debuts by Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God, and Atreyu. Shadows Fall are also out on a two-week headlining tour, with openers Candiria and All That Remains, that hooks up with the annual Locobazooka! festival this Sunday in Fitchburg.

Like Shadows Fall’s two previous releases, War was produced by Zeuss (Hatebreed) in his Western Massachusetts studio. But the success of Balance, which has topped 100,000 in sales, accorded the band a new-found luxury: time. "We took about five months off from the road," Fair reveals, "which was a total eternity for us. We wrote the whole record in one chunk. We had some ideas on the bus, but nothing solid. Our songs really take form when we start jamming as a band, seeing what transitions work."

The time off also had an impact on Fair’s work as a lyricist. "This record is a lot more introspective. I had more time to reflect personally because we were home for such a long period. I didn’t have much to do besides watch the Celtics and think about the last few years. I went deeper inside myself, as opposed to the more general philosophical themes that were on the last record. Sometimes that can come out dark, because you’re facing some real personal demons. But it was a positive experience for me."

Case in point: "Ghosts of Past Failures," which is longer on 1980s-style cheap thrills than its title implies. "I had imagined some goals for myself," Fair says, "but after a few years of chaos on the road, you realize how far off of that you’ve gotten. The only way to become the person you want to be is either to accept those shortcomings or try and overcome them. The working title was ‘Queensrÿche meets Ozzy Osbourne.’ We’ve become a pretty confident band, because we’ve gained some success by doing our own thing. A lot of bands will mess around with the traditional metal sound, but we’ve gone overboard."

Since day one, the traditional metal band whom Shadows Fall have most resembled are pre-MTV Metallica, and they continue to live up to those high standards on The War Within. "The Light That Blinds" kicks things off the same way James Hetfield and company used to, with placid acoustic guitars that signal the oncoming storm. One of Fair’s best choruses is the one on "Enlightened by the Cold," a soaring tale of loss that the singer says he wrote one night when he was "really drunk, listening to a lot of Jeff Buckley." Without sacrificing aggression, The War Within is more streamlined and more melodic than its predecessor.

The metalcore scene has always been marked by an intense camaraderie, one that Fair insists has only gotten stronger as the bands have infiltrated the mainstream. "The only competition is who can get to the beer first. Any time anyone’s gotten a leg up, we’ve helped our friends get back with us. We were all playing small shows together not that long ago. There’s competition between our labels and management over who gets the best first-week scans, but we don’t give a shit. We feel like we snuck in the back door, so we’re going to hold it open and let all our friends in."

And though Shadows Fall appreciate the excitement surrounding The War Within, Fair says their priority is staying in it for the long haul. "We’ve exceeded all the little goals we set as a Massachusetts metal band. We’ve been given a rare opportunity, so we’re trying to push this record as far as it can go. The type of success we’ve had has been that old-school mentality of building a following through touring, not worrying about catching on to this trend or that trend or having a hit or whatever. We’d rather be Iron Maiden, who will always be able to tour and have had dedicated fans for decades."

ALONG WITH LACUNA COIL, Shadows Fall are pushing their LA specialty label, Century Media, to new heights of commercial success. Another band on that label, God Forbid, are also making a bid for cult stardom these days. The New Jersey act’s current CD, Gone Forever, builds on the razor-sharp metalcore foundation of their 2001 Century Media debut, Determination. With an Ozzfest 2004 stint under their belts, they’re about to do two months in Europe opening for Machine Head. Before that, the group are launching a short headlining tour, with openers the Red Chord and a Life Once Lost, that hits Springfield on Sunday.

God Forbid have many things in common with Shadows Fall, but an upbeat lyrical perspective isn’t one of them. The young star of their video for "Better Days," which has received some Headbangers Ball airplay, deals with his anger and depression by scribbling in a notebook. Of the song’s two vocal hooks, the one with melody ("I won’t understand better days") isn’t much cheerier than the one without ("Contempt is a lifestyle"). Frontman Byron Davis’s harsh growl adds to the ugliness, and the riffs come from the Slayer school of evil.

The gutter-level angst of "Better Days" is a God Forbid trademark, but it’s not the only emotion they explore on Gone Forever. "Antihero" gives its rage a political backdrop: "When does the war against war begin?" "Precious Lie" is a catchy rock ballad that suggests Skid Row gone metalcore. "She was the precious lie/I always dreamed of/Took lust into love," the boys harmonize, their guitars refusing to go soft on the disc’s only love song. Davis is a fierce vocalist throughout, always managing to enunciate his way through the din.

Produced by Jersey metal mainstay Eric Rachel, Gone Forever features a pair of key guest appearances on the standout "Soul Engraved." Vext frontman Tom Cummings lends his streetwise howl to the track, one of the few here that yields to optimism: "Give me the strength to make this change." In true old-school fashion, Nevermore guitarist Jeff Loomis drops in for a quick, fiery solo that leaves a lasting impression. On "Gone Forever," the band chase a paranoid verse with a propulsive chorus that looks for a way out: "Will I be gone forever?/Will I disappear?" God Forbid’s world may be a bleak one, but their metalcore future is bright.

Shadows Fall perform at Locobazooka! this Sunday, September 26, at the Fitchburg Municipal Airport; call (978) 345-9580. God Forbid perform the same day at the Fat Cat Bar & Grill, 232 Worthington Street in Springfield; call (413) 734-0554.