#brian fair

Brian Fair 30/05/1975

Shadows Fall didn’t so much disband as deflate as their commercial prospects dimmed, and as Matt Bachand, Jonathan Donais and especially Jason Bittner kept busy with other projects Brian Fair was the odd man out.  So it was nice to hear his roaring on Downpour’s “Without the Fear” even if this was clearly a weekend warrior gig with some old Massachusetts metalcore pals.  There was definitely more than a little Shadows Fall here, and not just because Fair’s vocals were so distinct: the riffing and leadfooted percussion recalled Of One Blood, which also made sense since Derek Kerswill briefly drummed for the Shads.  The track was a bit of a throwback, and its pleasures were minor, but Fair’s presence was always welcome on the scene even if “Without the Fear” felt a little too inside his comfort zone.

2000's metal head hair was wild

Musically, “Carpal Tunnel” was of a piece with both The War Within and the Fallout from the War adjunct compilation from whence it came.  Lyrically, because the song was written and recorded in 2006, it bemoaned internet commenters (this was shortly before trolling was fully recognized as a thing- those damn kids and their computers).  Despite the dated and surprisingly hacky words (Brian Fair was so much more thoughtful barely one album earlier), the tune found Shadows Fall in their prime sweet spot, with Zeuss’ maturing production capturing the band at their most locked-in.  Jason Bittner maintained his semi-progressive flair while thundering forward, while Matthew Bachand and Jonathan “Jonny Rock and Roll” Donais were a formidable and surprisingly underrated guitar tag team.  And despite the clunkiness of his lyrics, Fair’s roar was still potent and personable; “Carpal Tunnel” worked as a fun headbanger and didn’t cause any immediate cause for concern about Shadows Fall’s long-term prospects.  As it turned out, this would be the group’s last stand as a leader in the New Wave of U.S. Heavy Metal movement, which soon coalesced around Killswitch Engage and Lamb of God and more or less left everyone else- including Shadows Fall, unfortunately- behind.

“Act of Contrition” bridged the metalcore aggression of The Art of Balance with the more refined writing and approach shown throughout the rest of The War Within: the song was cut from the same cloth as the former’s “Idle Hands” and “The Idiot Box”, but also reflected Shadows Fall’s growth as well as Zeuss’ increased production acumen.  It wasn’t really any different from what came before: Brian Fair roared esoteric lyrics over the crunch of Matt Bachand’s and Jonathan Donais’ riffing, while Jason Bittner drummed like a metalcore Neil Peart.  But “Act of Contrition” was more elegantly structured and didn’t have the haphazard feel that occasionally made The Art of Balance and Of One Blood feel a bit amateurish.  As a result, this showed what Shadows Fall was like at their most focused, and demonstrated why The War Within was ultimately their definitive statement.

Where did it all go wrong for Shadows Fall?  While Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage continued to build momentum and became major international acts, the Shads just fell by the wayside, and while one could point to the commercial underperformance of Threads of Life, which was undoubtedly exacerbated by it being released on a major label, the record was really not that bad (it was certainly eons better than Killswitch’s second self-titled record).  If anything, it seemed like their consistency ultimately worked against them- none of their records were bad at all, but there also weren’t many signs of evolution or growth as time went on.  Maybe that was why Fire from the Sky, good as it was, felt a bit indistinguishable from the rest of the catalogue, and why even though “Lost Within” was energetic, well-written and performed with conviction, it didn’t feel like an essential statement.  It wasn’t that Shadows Fall were rote, because this was still as strong as anything else out there, but we had heard this from them before.  Again, this was a great band that deserved better, and “Lost Within” was a very good track on a very good record.  Maybe the Shads just ran out of things to say.

Shadows Fall never recovered from Threads of Life’s commercial underperformance.  The band graduated from Century Media to Atlantic in hopes of expanding their audience and ascending to the upper tier of metal acts, and to that end, the album was meticulously produced by Nick Raskulinecz and given to songs that were clear in their construction (the staggeringly cheap album art was another matter- none of their indie records looked so bushleague).  As a result, “Final Call” sounded focused, purposeful and direct with Matt Bachand’s clean backing vocals mixed higher than before to accentuate the accessibility of the material.  And the song felt natural to Shadows Fall, sounding like a logical continuation of The War Within.  But something was missing, namely the hunger and inspiration that made the Shads among the most likable of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal groups during the early 2000s.  Many blamed Raskulinecz, but his recording (with longtime collaborator Zeuss on hand for mixing) was exactly what it needed to be; the problem was with the writing, which began to feel a bit rote. And ultimately, this was what doomed Threads of Life: the sense that Shadows Fall didn’t really have much room to grow.  Still, “Final Call” was a worthy track with strong riffing and soloing from Jonathan Donais, passionate vocals from Brian Fair, and a customarily masterful percussive performance by Jason Bittner.  If only the guys were capable of a little more.

The War Within wasn’t a great leap forward along the lines of The Art of Balance, but it ultimately presented Shadows Fall at their most actualized.  The band’s fourth record refined the band’s sound and furthered the compositional and performance advances delivered on its predecessor, and was a culmination of sorts (alongside Killswitch Engage’s The End of Heartache and Lamb of God’s Ashes of the Wake) for the New Wave of US Heavy Metal movement.  And although Shadows Fall recorded better songs both before and after, “Eternity is Within” was arguably a truer distillation of the group’s approach and overall ethos.  There were the metalcore touchstones in Matt Bachand and Jonathan Donais’ riffing as well as in Brian Fair’s roar, the melodic vocals in the chorus, and Fair’s esoteric and vaguely Rastafarian lyrics- in other words, everything Shadows Fall was known for.  The song wasn’t as immediate as “The Power of I and I” or “Thoughts without Words”, but it was suitably heavy and dynamic, and Jason Bittner’s drumming was unique among fellow NWOAHM acts for fusing Dave Lombardo with Neil Peart.  Shadows Fall didn’t have the emotional heft of Killswitch Engage, nor the technicality and sheer aggression of Lamb of God, but they had a bit of everything, and their melding of all of those qualities made them one of the leading lights of metal for a time.