10 years ago, Shadows fall out of Massachusetts released their debut record called Somber Eyes To The Sky on Lifeless Records. With Phil Labonte on vocals Shadows Fall sounded much different than the Shadows Fall of today with Brian Fair. Not taking anything away from Brian, but they lost an extremely talented vocalist in Phil Labonte. However if this didn’t happen, we would not have All That Remains.
Produced by Adam Dutkiewicz, Jim Fogarty and Shadows Fall, Somber Eyes is a really great record. A much younger Phil Labonte sounds quite different from the screams he does today but close to that of Behind Silence And Solitude, ATR’s debut record. Somber Eyes has a lot of the sound that Behind Silence And Solitude has. With some acoustic arrangements that sound amazing, brutal vocals as well as some clean, and ripping solos make Somber Eyes To The Sky a great debut release. Unfortunately, in order to get signed to a major record deal the band was forced to make a vocal change.
Although Somber Eyes To The Sky is out of print you can still find it pretty easily on Amazon.com. If your an All That Remains or Shadows Fall fan I would recommend getting your hands on a copy of this. Also check out Behind The Silence And Solitude on Prosthetic Records.
Great album, first time i listen to it was when The Art Of Balance Came out and I knew that Somber Eyes To the Sky wasn’t Brian fair so thats when i found out Phil’s used to be in Shadows Fall. I’ve seen Shadows Fall once in Wiston-Salem in 2004 and it was one of the best shows i ever been.
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Destroyer Of Senses was the first Shadows Fall song I ever heard and The Art Of balance is by far my favorite album of them. I’ve yet to buy Of One Blood or Fallout. Threads Of Life is ok but not their best.
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I’m not gonna lie, but this is absolutely Shadows Fall’s only Death Metal album ever released. This album sounds like most of the typical American Death Metal bands out there, it’s sounds like a combination of different Death Metal sounding, it’s a mixed between mostly Brutal Death Metal and Old School Death Metal, which makes the sound American influenced and into really brutal and aggressive sound, but there are also some Scandinavian sound of melody and progression. The guitars riffs that Matt and Jon makes sounds similar to the low tuned brutal/aggressive complex palm muting riff patterns and breakdowns of Suffocation, Skinless, Cannibal Corpse, Perpetual Doom, Exhumed (not the Deathgrind but Matt’s old Death Metal band), Dismember, Grave, Entombed and etc. the speeding riffs of Slayer, Obituary, Morbid Angel and etc. and some progressiveness, harmonies, and melody idea of Death, Arghoslent, and etc. Matt Bachand and Phil Labonte’s brutal/aggressive Death Metal growling ranges are from Frank Mullen (Suffocation) and Chris Barnes (Cannibal Corpse, Six Feet Under)’s deep, low, guttural growls to Ross Dolan (Immolation), David Vincent (Morbid Angel), mid range growls. Jon’s vocals are high-pitched screech/shreaks and sometimes Phil does it too, it’s sorta like Peter Tägtgren (Bloodbath, Hypocrisy) and Mikael Stanne (Hammerfall, Dark Tranquility) style, not to mentioned it sometimes sounds like Chuck Schuldiner (Death) style too. This is absolutely my favorite Shadows Fall album of all time.
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I’m not gonna lie, but this is absolutely Shadows Fall’s only Death Metal album ever released. This album sounds like most of the typical American Death Metal bands out there, it’s sounds like a combination of different Death Metal sounding, it’s a mixed between mostly Brutal Death Metal and Old School Death Metal, which makes the sound American influenced and into really brutal and aggressive sound, but there are also some Scandinavian sound of melody and progression. The guitars riffs that Matt and Jon makes sounds similar to the low tuned brutal/aggressive complex palm muting riff patterns and breakdowns of Suffocation, Skinless, Cannibal Corpse, Perpetual Doom, Exhumed (not the Deathgrind but Matt’s old Death Metal band), Dismember, Grave, Entombed and etc. the speeding riffs of Slayer, Obituary, Morbid Angel and etc. and some progressiveness, harmonies, and melody idea of Death, Arghoslent, and etc. Matt Bachand and Phil Labonte’s brutal/aggressive Death Metal growling ranges are from Frank Mullen (Suffocation) and Chris Barnes (Cannibal Corpse, Six Feet Under)’s deep, low, guttural growls to Ross Dolan (Immolation), David Vincent (Morbid Angel), mid range growls. Jon’s vocals are high-pitched screech/shreaks and sometimes Phil does it too, it’s sorta like Peter Tägtgren (Bloodbath, Hypocrisy) and Mikael Stanne (Hammerfall, Dark Tranquility) style, not to mentioned it sometimes sounds like Chuck Schuldiner (Death) style too. This is absolutely my favorite Shadows Fall album of all time.
American Death Metal RULES!!!
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Have you ever heard ATR’s behind silence and Solitude? That’s all guttural vocals. Much different from the last 3 ATR albums. Can’t wait for Suffocation’s new album.
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Shadows Fall’s Somber Eyes to the Sky, Suffocation’s Effigy of the Forgotten, and Skinless’s Progression Towards Evil are my favorite American Death Metal albums. Meh, ATR’s Behind and Solitude is ok, it’s those typical Melodeath type of stuff, but way better than their shitty Metalcore stuff. I can’t wait for the new Suffocation album too.
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