SHADOWS FALL’S ROAD TO RETRIBUTION

It took them over a decade, but heavy metal heavy hitters Shadows Fall are finally zeroing in on sound they’ve always wanted on their newest album, Retribution.

“We kind of threw everything at the wall,” said lead singer Brian Fair. “As you grow as a band, you just get more and more comfortable with your own sound. We just feel like each record’s been a step closer to that sound we had in mind when we started the band.”

The road that led Shadows Fall from being an up-and-comers from Massachusetts in 1995 to having five records under their belt is the same one that took Fair from being a graduate of Boston University with a degree in Modern Literature and concentration in photojournalism to someone who writes lyrics that are screamed back at him by fans in venues across the globe.

“Basically my degree is just sitting there on the wall as I tour around in a metal band. Back then I was really into print photography and black and white stuff, and since things have gone to a more digital world, I just sort of lost a little bit of interest in it,” he said. “And the other thing with journalism, I was really into writing things like features, but doing the every day deadline stuff was not conducive to my lazy personality. That’s why I switched gear more to literature, ‘cause I could read books at my own pace. Luckily I was able to be in a metal band. It made life easier.”

Fair had been in the metalcore band Overcast with Mike D’Antonio of Killswitch Engage since the two were in high school, playing throughout college until they disbanded in1998 and he joined Shadows Fall.

“It was crazy. We would tour on the weekends and I would work and go to school,” he said. “I don’t know how I balanced it, but when you’re young, I guess you have more energy. I don’t think I could pull it off now.”

After fourteen years, a couple Grammy nominations, and thousands of records sold later, the band is setting out next month on a world tour that won’t see them home until Christmas the following year.

“That’s why I’m trying to soak up all these days at home while I can, ‘cause they’re far and few between from now on,” Fair said. “It’s been kind of nice, but it’s starting to get busy again with the record release coming up and the single going out, so time to get back to work again.”

Not that he’s complaining. Since the release of “King of Nothing” on their MySpace, the anticipation of getting Retribution into people’s hands on Sept. 15 and their bodies into arenas for the successive tour cycle is building up for the band just as much as it is for fans.

“We finished recording the music months ago, so for us now, it’s like you just want to get it out,” he said. “We really just kind of went for it on this album, and I think people can hear that. We weren’t afraid to show any of the influences from the melodic death metal to the area rock to everything.”

What was laid down on Retribution is more aggressive than Threads of Life, Fair said, and was influenced by thrash metal, early death metal and bleeding leads on 5 o’clock news.

“During the last album, we in a more melodic head state, which is great, but on this record, I don’t know if it’s just because the world’s in such chaos and everything you see around you lends to the more aggressive sound and lyrics, or if it’s just where were at,” he said.

Fair himself enjoys discussing politics with fans, band members and other bands alike, one more recent issue being the turmoil in Iran.

“It goes to show you that there’s still so much chaos in the world, but at least it’s a sign that people are uprising to stand up for their rights,” he said. “You almost need martyrs to cause change, and that’s unfortunate because the change should come form just seeing a great idea and seeing a positive outcome and making it happen as opposed to waiting till there’s bloodshed and then reacting. But that just seems like that’s the way the world works; people just wait to react till things have gotten to the point where they can’t ignore it anymore, that’s really unfortunate.”

Whatever his opinions may be, Fair is careful to respect the views of the other members of Shadows Fall before he lets his beliefs shine through in the lyrics.

“If I wanted to get on my leftist political soapbox, I think that world be really in contrast to some of their ideas, so I try to keep the lyrics more of a universal philosophical approach than being very heavy handed politically,” he said. “Like, I’ve been a life-long vegetarian, but I would never push that agenda though our music because the rest of the guys aren’t. But something like ‘War’ is an anti-racism song, and they can all stand behind those ideals and they allow me to express those. The five of us have very different views of the world and on life and, and I would never want to overstep my boundaries of speaking for them if they’re not 100 percent behind the ideas I’m portraying.”

Much like marriage or bread, bands that have been together for long periods of time face the danger of growing stale and moldy with a sound to match. Sometimes rekindling the chemistry for a new record is about taking a step back for a while.

“Once we get off from tour we all just sort of go off on our own ways for a little while before we start writing because, after 10 years, you don’t want to keep rehashing the same stuff,” Fair said. “But also, this is always what we’ve always loved to do, and we’ve all just been playing in metal and hardcore bands for so long that I just think there’s always going to be that drive to progress and push yourself further anyway.”

When it came right down to the songs, the last thing Shadows Fall wanted to do was shove a square peg in a round hole. Fair offered up the contrast between the melodic “Picture Perfect” versus the brutal “War” as an example.

“We wanted each song to really stand on its own, so if that meant keeping the whole song melodic, then that was where it went. If it was about keeping the whole song technical and crazy, then that’s where it went,” he said. “There seems to be such a formula these days. A lot of metal and metalcore bands [write songs] where it’ll be the aggressive verse and then the pretty chorus, and we didn’t want to get stuck in that mode.”

Fair himself ventures outside the realm of metal, listening to underground hip-hop, reggae, and ambient space music.

“You may not hear those specific influences in a part, but I know where they came from,” he said. “If you just focus on, say, the thrash metal influences, you kind of leave yourself without a lot of room to work. And lyrically you can keep saying the same things over and over if you don’t listen outside of your own genre. That goes for all of us really; everyone listens to a wide variety of music. That way you can bring some new ideas and new angles to the metal you’re making. We know we’re a metal band, so we’re always going to sound like a metal band, but you can bring influences into that from everywhere.”

Of the tracks on Retribution, the singer said that “Still I Rise” and “War” are neck and neck for the title of his favorite new Shadows Fall song.

“I look forward to playing [‘Still I Rise’] live. I can tell that’s going to be a great chorus sing-along and it’s got some great riffs to it,” Fair said. “[‘War’], for me, is going to be a headbangfest, and it’s just all fast. That’s one I love to listen to, and I’m psyched to play it live. It’ll be the circle-pit song on the album.”

The bonus tracks that made the cut are Cro-Mags’ “Age of Quarrel,” “Critical Mass” by Nuclear Assault and the Ozzy Osbourne classic “Bark at the Moon.”

“‘Bark at the Moon’ was just tons of fun to do in the studio,” Fair said. “I even got to do my Ozzy laugh and my fake howl and all that.”

Sure economic times are tough and fans might like to get the most bang for their buck, but Shadows Fall wasn’t about to throw the scraps on the table with the main course.

“I hate when bands will just throw some extra filler as their bonus track, and there’s usually a reason it didn’t make the album. Instead of just forcing it in there, we were just like, ‘No, we’ll revisit these at another time,’” he said. “Sometimes it’s not even that they’re not great riffs or great parts. The song just might not have come together right, and you might save some of those ideas for later down the road. We’d rather have quality over quantity.”

The members and the music of Shadows Fall may have changed over the past decade and a half, but the unity that has kept them together that long is still intact.

“If someone isn’t feeling a part of a song or a vibe, then it’s gone because it has to be all for one and one for all,” Fair said. “You can’t have one guy whose not into it because it will be very obvious, especially live because you have to get up there and put your blood, sweat and tears into these songs on stage, and if you’re not feeling it, that’s not good enough. That can slow things down, honestly, or maybe you don’t have as many songs as you’d like, but that’s the case. It’d be much worse having someone just kind of giving a half-assed effort ‘cause they’re not into it. We would rather have to work a little bit harder to make it.”