Long-running Massachusetts-based metallers SHADOWS FALL, who were at the forefront of the New Wave Of American Metal scene that dominated the ’00s, celebrated the 20th anniversary of their “The War Within” album by playing the LP in its entirety last night (Saturday, March 16) at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey, the site of the band’s many classic shows. It also marked the first time the band has performed in the Garden State in a decade.
When the show was first announced last November, SHADOWS FALL frontman Brian Fair said: “20 years… cannot believe it will 20 years since SHADOWS FALL dropped ‘The War Within’ on the world. This record changed my entire life and took me around the world. We had been surprised by the success of ‘The Art Of Balance’ and definitely felt a little pressure to take things to another level, but we did not allow that pressure to change our vision of the band we wanted to be. Our goal was to allow all of our influences shine through while pushing metal into a new direction, creating the music we had always wanted to hear ourselves.”
He continued: “‘The War Within’ may be the closest we have come to achieving these goals and that hard work and vision allowed us to get on our first arena tour, our first Grammy nomination, and countless other firsts along the way. Since this is an important birthday for the album, we wanted to play a special set to celebrate ‘The War Within’ in its entirety, every track, some of which has rarely been played live.”
He finished, nodding to the Garden State’s pivotal role in the band’s history, saying: “New Jersey has always had some of the craziest crowds we have ever played to so doing this show at The Starland Ballroom seemed like the perfect choice! Dirty Jersey has always felt like a home away from home to us and we have had so many full-on parties on that stage. We cannot wait to party there again! Start stretching now and get ready to come out of mosh retirement so we can give ‘The War Within’ the birthday rager it deserves. See ya soon!”
In an interview with the WSOU 89.5 FM radio station, Fair discussed the status of new SHADOWS FALL music, two and a half after he and his bandmates reunited for a concert at The Palladium in Worcester in their native Massachusetts. The 48-year-old singer, who now lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife and their two kids, said: “We’re working on new music right now that’s — you can tell it’s SHADOWS FALL, but, man, it’s got new vibes, it’s got new influences and it’s just kind of a very fresh approach.
“When we first started working on it, we were worried,” Brian admitted. “We were, like, ‘Is this gonna sound like us?’ We hadn’t written songs together in five to six years, where it’s gonna be. And, man, right out of the gate, we were, like, ‘This is the SHADS. We’re back.'”
Elaborating on the musical direction of the new SHADOWS FALL material, Fair said: “Honestly, it’s gonna be everything that we’ve always done, plus more. And we’re probably about — I’d say we’ve got six or seven songs that are actually songs. They’re still gonna get some some tweaks here and there, with a few other ideas still floating around that need to be worked on. But I don’t know what time frame — we’re not pushing any sort of deadlines on ourselves ’cause it’s been, man, since 2014 since we dropped any new music so we’re not in a rush. We wanna get it as perfect as we can, we wanna be as happy with it as we can, and [we’re] not having label pressure to finish by a certain time. It’s also a new day and age where you can release it in such different ways than we were used to back then, and that’s really exciting as well. I don’t know if we’ll drop some songs here and there and then put it all out together on vinyl at the end. I have no idea about that stuff yet. We’ll work all that out, but I’m super excited about these songs. I’ve also been pushing myself as a singer to really expand my range to try new ideas, and having the time to work through that has been really helpful. ‘Cause even when SHADOWS FALL was doing downtime, I was doing different projects and trying to really bring some new elements to what I do, and I’m putting all that into this record. So it’ll sound like SHADOWS FALL, but there’ll definitely be some some new interesting ideas and approaches and stuff. So it’s really exciting.”
He added: “For us, it’s just been great to be back in the room jamming on new material, ’cause when we got together to do these [reunion] shows, when we’re rehearsing, we were, like, ‘If we’re putting this work in, why not see what happens with new music?’ And I couldn’t be happier with how it’s coming out. So, really exciting.”
Last December, Fair told RichardMetalFan about SHADOWS FALL‘s decision to reunite: “We’d wanted to play shows again for a while and we just wanted the time to be right. And once the pandemic kind of hit, we sort of realized, like, ‘Why are we waiting around? It’s the time.’ So we were lucky that we were able to kind of get everyone’s schedules together. And it was incredible. As soon as we started jamming together again, it just felt fun, it felt right. So the shows were a blast. We really rehearsed like crazy for it. And we’re probably better prepared for that than anything we’d ever been for before that. And we also realized, like, man, we should have been practicing more when we were together. We used to hate practicing. We always were, like, ‘Ah, we tour enough. We don’t need to.’ And then after we practiced a bunch, we were, like, ‘All right. Maybe we really should have.’ [Laughs] But then also when we started practicing, we figured if we have ideas, why not write new music as well? If we’re gonna get together, let’s see what we’ve got. So that started leading to some new stuff. So [I’m] looking forward to seeing where it heads.”
Asked if the next SHADOWS FALL release will be stylistically similar to the band’s last album, 2012’s “Fire From The Sky”, or if it will be “a new beginning” for the band, Brian said: “If you heard these songs, you’d be, like, ‘Oh, that’s SHADOWS FALL.’ But no, it doesn’t sound like… It’s different. It definitely sounds different.”
Fair previously discussed SHADOWS FALL‘s plans for new music during an episode of “Drinks With Johnny”, the Internet TV show hosted by AVENGED SEVENFOLD bassist Johnny Christ. At the time, he said: “We’re pretty deep into the process. I’d say I’m kind of a slacker, but I’m really focusing on getting things as good as I can vocally because we have no agenda. We have no time frame. We have no record label pressure. We’re just trying to write the best music we can. And it all kind of came about as we started jamming to do the reunion shows. And these guys have — Jon‘s [Donais, guitar] been playing in ANTHRAX and Jason‘s [Bittner, drums] been playing in OVERKILL, so their chops are still at top-notch level. But they had riffs, man. And I was, like, ‘If we’ve got riffs and they sound like SHADOWS FALL, if we’re gonna get together and jam, let’s make some new music.'”
He continued: “It’s been a blast, man. It’s funny, ’cause the older we’ve gotten, it’s gotten a little more brutal, which was not a surprise, ’cause I just figured that would happen. We’re, like, ‘If we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna drop the hammer.’ So it’s been fun, man. I forgot how much of a riff machine Jon was. And he’s just like — ideas are just flying out of him. And also in ANTHRAX, he just gets to solo in the studio. So he’s just, like, ‘Finally I get to write some riffs.’ [Laughs]”
In July 2023, Bittner told the “Nothing Shocking Podcast” about SHADOWS FALL‘s decision to work with Zeuss again: “[Zeuss] did all of our records except for… Well, he had a hand in all of them except for ‘Fire From The Sky’… So he’s always been involved with SHADOWS FALL in some way, shape or form. Once this whole reunion thing kind of morphed from being just a one-show thing, we started talking with him, ’cause he still lives two minutes away from Paul [Romanko, bass]. So, it’s, like, ‘All right. Well, if you guys are getting back together, what’s the next step? Are we making another record?’ We’re, like, ‘Well, we don’t know.’ And he was, like, ‘Whatever we’re doing, let’s get on it.’ So kind of, like, we just sort of figured, ‘We don’t have any money to pay you, because we don’t have any money because we don’t have a record label or anything.’ But he was just, like, ‘Well, let’s just start doing this and let’s do it together.’ So that’s pretty much where we’re at right now. We’re just gonna start recording some material that we have and we’re gonna keep working at that as the year goes on.”
During an appearance on “The Jasta Show” podcast, Fair said that SHADOWS FALL is not currently signed to any record label. “We’re free and clear,” he explained. “We were luckily free and clear for a while, so even our last couple of records were done kind of on our own terms.”
Fair and his SHADOWS FALL bandmates have played a few other reunion concerts, including at Blue Ridge Rock Festival in Alton, Virginia, at the Furnace Fest in Birmingham, Alabama, and at the Milwaukee Metal Fest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Asked by “The Jasta Show” host Jamey Jasta if SHADOWS FALL would be open to going out on a more extensive tour, possibly as the support act for an arena band, Fair said: “We’re not averse to that. It takes a lot of logistics now, with the rest of my guys being in legendary thrash bands, like ANTHRAX and OVERKILL and whatnot. But if we can do it, we would love to. Right now, festivals have been something we can pull off. But I would love to do short tours or even a month-long tour. Or at least some long weekends where we hit each coast or do New England and then Midwest and then a West Coast thing. But we’ll see. We’re not saying ‘no’ to anything. We’re gonna listen. So we’ll see, if things make sense and if we can make it work.”
He added: “I’ve been in dad mode, just working nine to five for a while, so getting back on the pirate ship is pretty enticing at this point.”
SHADOWS FALL released a statement in August 2014 in which the bandmembers explained that financial difficulties made it virtually impossible for the group to continue as a full-time concern.
In August 2015, SHADOWS FALL played a few reunion shows on the U.S. East Coast, one year after completing what was being billed at the time as the band’s “final” European tour.
“Fire From The Sky” was released in May 2012 via Razor & Tie. The CD sold around 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 38 on The Billboard 200 chart.