The good news is that the jump to a major label has done nothing to dull the ferocity of Shadows Fall, the premier band of the new wave of American heavy metal. The even better news is that Threads of Life, the band’s fifth album and Atlantic Records debut, is nearly as good as their landmark 2002 effort The Art of Balance, and a worthy companion to recent breakthroughs from peers Trivium and Killswitch Engage.
Just because Shadows Fall is still as intense as ever doesn’t mean Threads lacks variety or nuance, though, as is easily heard in the contrast between the lightning-fast old-school thrash of “Failure of the Devout” and the expansive, even sometimes pretty power ballad “Another Hero Lost,” both of which fit perfectly within the band’s established sound while expanding it at the same time.
The rest of the songs include anthem-worthy tunes like “Venomous” and “Final Call” that blow any of our current arena rock right out of the water. There isn’t quite the shock of the new that accompanied the early salvos from Shadows and their ilk—combining hardcore, death metal, thrash and old-fashioned power metal—but what’s replaced it is something better: The unmistakable sense that this bold, exciting music has the sustainability to be the true future of heavy metal.