Shadows Fall - One Blood

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Free Music Notes for One Blood

Free Music Review: THE Shadows Fall album to get!
Hit: 5 Stars

We have the longtime duo of Matthew Bachand and Jonathan Donais on guitars...I swear, these guys have such a fierce yet harmonious chemistry reminiscent of Iron Maiden and Megadeth. Bachand is a monster of a rhythm player, with a wrist that simply SLASHES at his strings with uncanny speed. Donais is one of my favorite new guitarists. Just as good a rhythm guitarist as Bachand, he can do the whole score of leads and hooks throughout each song, and unreal speed and virtuosity in his solos. What guitarists!

Paul Romanko is a fair bassist; he doesn't do anything that makes him particularly stand out, but he keeps up with Bachand and Donais' speeds and constant time changes with ease. All in all, a talented bassist.

David Germain is a very good drummer. Extremely fast, with plenty of snare and double-kick pedaling throughout each song. This would be his second (and last) album with the band, before he was replaced by equally talented Jason Bittner.

I normally try to avoid picking favorite songs, but these three simply stand out like none of the others. Don't get me wrong, this is one of those albums I can sit down and listen to in its entirety, but it's not like Soilwork's NATURAL BORN CHAOS, where every song is a favorite. However, there are several songs which stand out head and shoulders above the rest, and I shall discuss them next.

"Crushing Belial" is a hefty slab of heavy metal. It's fairly straightforward thrash with the semi-death-metal vocals, but then there's the bridge, where all the heavy sound suddenly vanishes, and we have an acoustic guitar being slowly fingerpicked before icy keyboards seep in, and a chilling electric lead spills onto it. The heaviness returns but in the same pace, and then the song picks up speed again.

"Fleshold" has such an infectious riff in the verses, and even without a guitar solo in the bridge, it rocks. I'm especially fond of the drum- and guitar-pre-verses. One of the best thrashcore songs I've ever heard.

As well, "Root Bound Apollo" is quite unique. Starting off with a fairly straightforward metal sound, it soon gets sweeping keyboards adding to the melody...and then acoustic and clean-electric guitars fill in the remainder before the metal resurfaces. Hell, the whole song is blended with moments of melody and tranquility, very reminiscent of Opeth and Dark Tranquillity. A superb song.

"To Ashes" also features an acoustic guitar interlude, with clean vocals and slower pacing...simply splendid.

And then there's "Montauk" - possibly my favorite song on the whole album. It medium-paced at first, then the guitars are harmonized for an atmospheric intro to the otherwise fast and thrashy, worthy of much headbanging, but then the bridge comes...there's a brief bass lead, then the guitars make a duel reminiscent of a snake rearing its head for a strike...and WOOSH! The solo kicks in, lasting a beautiful 40 seconds...but damned if it doesn't seem longer. Oh my GOD! It simply sizzles and sears. The scale that builds up in the second half of the solo renders the listener helpless...WE'RE NOT WORTHY! This is the ultimate shredder song on the album...just because of that damn solo.

On a separate note, I saw the band perform at Ozzfest '03, along with fellow Massachusetts (yay!) thrashcore band Killswitch Engage, and let me tell you they ROCKED. They also filmed a video to one of their songs there, to appear on MTV at some point (but I'm not sure which song, offhand). Finally, I got to meet them after the show was over. They are a bunch of really nice guys that are very pleased to be getting their much-deserved attention and hype.

So here it is: Shadows Fall, at their very prime on the album that found them reaching perfection. Enjoy it and worship them!

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