Metalcore favourites Shadows Fall have released their first new music in 12 years.
The twice-Grammy-nominated New Englanders, on hiatus from 2012 to 2021, are back with their blazing new single In The Grey. Chris “Zeuss” Harris (Hatebreed, Rob Zombie) produced, and the band suggest there’s more music to come. Listen to the track below.
Vocalist Brian Fair comments: “We are incredibly excited to share our first new music in over a decade with our single In The Grey and are proud to announce our partnership with [record label] MNRK Music Group.
“In The Grey is a full-throttle thrasher that contains all of the elements that are the bedrock of the Shadows Fall sound,” he adds, “but also adds new elements and approaches that developed in the recent past while we all explored other musical avenues.”
He also says the song deals with the topic of depression. “Lyrically, I was trying to put into words and describe the physical manifestation of the weight and crushing power that can come with depression, that feeling that the weight of gravity is crashing down on you or being trapped in the dark waters of our own mind, trying to rise to the surface and take a breath.”
Fair goes on to imply there are more songs to come, saying, “When Shadows Fall first got back in the practice space to prepare for our reunion shows [in 2021], we did not know if it would lead to new music, but the excitement of jamming together and all of the riffs that Jon [Donais, guitars] had floating around in his head led us in the direction almost immediately.
“The idea began flowing, the energy started building and new songs began taking form out of the chaos.”
Shadows Fall formed in Boston in 1996 and became cornerstones of the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal alongside such contemporaries as Killswitch Engage and Lamb Of God. Their songs What Drives The Weak (2006) and Redemption (2008) were shortlisted for the Grammy Award For Best Metal Performance but each fell short of picking up the prize.
Fair explained why the band temporarily split in a 2022 interview with Metal Hammer. “We had been touring for 17 years,” he said. “I’d had my first kid; Paul [Romanko, bass] had a kid. I remember watching my daughter crawl on an app – I was in Bulgaria. It was just time to come home, then Jon got the offer to join Anthrax.”
He then explained why the band returned to the live stage nine years later. “What got us back together is that we never stopped enjoying shows. We just needed time away to appreciate what we’d created.”
Shadows Fall will play at the Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts, on December 21, hosting a stacked 20th-anniversary celebration for their album The War Within. Unearth (performing The Oncoming Storm), E-Town Concrete, Jasta, Within The Ruins and Brick By Brick will support.
