There's so much hyperbole in music writing that it's hard to know when critics are really onto something and when all the hype is just that. But it isn't hyperbole or empty posturing to say that Shadows Fall is the best heavy metal band in America. The Boston-based quintet is set to release its fourth disc, The War Within, on September 21, the follow-up to 2002's The Art of Balance, which became the first CD to sell more than 100,000 copies for independent heavy metal label Century Media.
With their combination of newer influences like hard-core and death metal, plus roots in thrash and traditional heavy metal, Shadows Fall is at the forefront of what is being called the new wave of American heavy metal. Like the new wave of British heavy metal in the early '80s which brought bands like Diamond Head and Sweet Savage to American soil—and was a major influence on Metallica and Slayer, among others—the movement represents a synthesis of various heavy music genres and a conscious rejection of the trends in mainstream hard rock.
"We definitely have had a successful couple years, especially for a band of our style," says singer Brian Fair, and he's being modest. As so-called nu-metal, the genre of Korn, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, dies a slow death, Fair's band is spearheading heavy music's next big thing. Last summer, Shadows Fall played OzzFest; this year they're headlining a tour sponsored by Strhess Clothing. In an MTV You Hear it First news segment shortly before the release of The Art of Balance, the band members talked about their day jobs in malls and food service; these days, music is both day and night job. "But that definitely doesn't mean we're paid," Fair laughs. "We just tour too much; we couldn't take any more time off, so we got the ax."
While fellow heavy hitters Lamb of God and Avenged Sevenfold have recently signed with major labels, Fair and his cohorts aren't yet tempted enough by the prospect of getting paid to make their own jump. "We wouldn't be opposed to signing with a major, but right now we have such a great thing going on, if they can't actually step it up and take it to another level, I don't really see the point," he says. Century Media is, like Shadows Fall, a leader in the new metal movement, with another act, Italy's Lacuna Coil, recently joining Shadows Fall in selling more than 100,000 discs. Fair finds it both exciting and frightening to be considered a leader in his genre. "It puts you in a weird spot sometimes," he says, "because we were used to flying under the radar, and now there's pressure for this new record to do as well, and there's people who are smelling money and trying to get this and that out of it."
For his part, Fair doesn't smell the cash. "I'd rather have a career instead of a hit," he says simply, and he and the rest of the band remain fiercely devoted to the fans they've collected over the last few years. "We model ourselves more after the Iron Maiden or old Metallica way of putting out solid records and just putting on great live performances and relying on keeping that fan base, never actually losing kids because you're throwing left turns at them trying to get a little bigger."
Whether slow and steady will win the race remains to be seen, but even if Shadows Fall doesn't end up all over MTV or radio, they'll undoubtedly be an influential force in metal for years to come. "This is not music that's going to appeal to millions and millions of pop radio listeners," Fair admits. And if some opportunists latch onto the band's trendy sound and water it down for mass consumption, they'll already have moved onto the next thing. "We'd like to stay one step ahead of all the people that are ripping off our last record," he says, "so they're always guessing where we're going to go next."