642. Shadows Fall / Fire From the Sky. 2012. 1.5/5

Given that my only other experience with Shadows Fall is their 2002 release The War Within, which tickled my fancy enough at the time, I came into this with an open mind, but hope in my heart. I had initially walked into The War Within by mistake, and had found it to be a better than average release at a time when I had been looking for new material. Despite that, I had never gotten around to listening to anything since then before now.
I laughed when I read a fellow “Rate Your Music” user ask the question “Wait… is this Metallica?”, because on the opening two songs, there are a number of things that are reminiscent of the latter days of the veteran metal giants. To an extent it is uncanny, but there is no surprise that bands out there are using some of their influences in their own music.

At this point, though, I am able to say that this album is, rather harshly, a failure. I'm not sure I am able to pin point exactly where and how this fails to find the mark. The vocals just don't seem to bring across any sense of intensity or emotion. Fast drums and heavy guitar riffs mean nothing if they aren't arranged into exacting tones. Does this band, and this album, want to be thrash or metalcore or turn towards a mainstream metal sound? It seems a little confusing here as to their intent. More than anything else, despite their interesting arrangement of their heavier riffs, they combine it with their clear, song-halting explorations at awkward moments.
Given the length of time since my last visitation with the band, perhaps I was expecting too much. What I received instead was something of a disappointment. It starts off okay with "The Unknown", "Divide and Conquer" and "Weight of the World", which are reasonable songs if a little off-putting. The afore-mentioned similarities to Metallica are only enhanced by the missing power element in the songs. What follows unfortunately does not dismiss these feelings of abandonment, with a couple of critical elements missing from this entire recording.

Not having had an intimate relationship with the band's material in the past I am probably not qualified to give an absolute trashing of their latest release. Suffice to say that the result will stop me from actively pursuing any of their other material for the time being, because if it is all similar to this I feel I would be wasting my time.