Shadows Fall - Threads of Life (2007)^{Release ID: 5393}

Shadows Fall had really brought themselves to fame with the thrash metalcore sound of their previous two albums, The Art of Balance and The War Within. But for this album, Threads of Life, the band decided to make their sound more thrashy while still keeping some metalcore. That's what Trivium kind of did with their third album The Crusade. So yeah, this is Shadows Fall's Crusade!

This release basically has a little more thrash than every bit of metalcore. The aggression overshadows the lightness. Some of the more thrashy parts include great riffs, blazing solos, pounding drums, and aggressive vocals. The headbanging riffs are faster and heavier than metalcore, although the song still have metalcore parts.

"Redemption" is a nice way to start the album with decent riffs. Songs "Burning the Lives" and "Storm Winds" are fine but don't exactly stand out with enough excitement. "Failure of the Devout" has a nice thrashy riff. That song, along with "Venomous", both have memorable and awesome solos that I love to hear and any guitarist can play.

"Another Hero Lost" is a good way to break up the intensity of the album. A hard rock ballad single with good lyrics, great vocals, and a crushing solo, it was written in memory of Brain Fair's late cousin, a soldier in Iraq. "Final Call" is a typical metalcore song with the type of intro, vocals, and breakdowns usually found in metalcore. I like this song and metalcore in general, but it doesn't fit well with this thrash album. Now about "Dread Uprising", have you heard its solo?!? Listen to it, it's so melodically brutal!!

"The Great Collapse" is a short classical-sounding interlude with a nice atmosphere. "Just Another Nightmare" has some bass that is sometimes heard, sometimes lost. "Forevermore" has an acoustic interlude as awesome as the rest of the song right before ending the album with one more chorus and riff-powered outro.

Overall, despite the sound being more thrashy than metalcore, this album is still worth it and further proves Shadows Fall's dominance in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. They still manage to keep metalcore drilling into listeners' ears deeper than the earth's core. Even with that album's thrashy sound, luckily it seems like Shadows Fall would eventually be going in a better direction with their next release Retribution loading up some faster heavier thrash-metalcore than before. See ya in the next review....

Favorites: "Redemption", "Failure of the Devout", "Venomous", "Another Hero Lost", "Dread Uprising", "Forevermore"