In conjunction with the album’s 20th anniversary, M-Theory Audio has announced the first-ever domestic vinyl release of “Of One Blood”, the breakthrough album from Grammy-nominated New Wave Of American Heavy Metal pioneers SHADOWS FALL. This new blood-red pressing — to be released on Black Friday 2020 (November 27; exclusive to indie stores via RSD) — also marks the first-ever vinyl release of the remixed and remastered version of the album by Chris “Zeuss” Harris (ROB ZOMBIE, HATEBREED, SUICIDE SILENCE) and Grammy Award-winning engineer Alan Douches (HIGH ON FIRE, MOTÖRHEAD, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER). In addition, a newly-designed gatefold insert includes rare pictures and new liner notes by vocalist Brian Fair.
Praised by Metal Hammer for “mixing metalcore sensibilities with classic metal motifs,” SHADOWS FALL was founded 25 years ago by guitarists Jon Donais (currently the lead guitarist of thrash legends ANTHRAX) and Matt Bachand (now a member of ACT OF DEFIANCE). Soon after the group released their debut album — which featured ALL THAT REMAINS vocalist Phil Labonte — in 1997, Fair was recruited to be the group’s new frontman. After a year’s worth of live shows together, the band entered Massachusetts’s Planet Z Studios with Zeuss to record what would become a seminal album in the burgeoning New Wave Of American Heavy Metal movement.
Influenced in equal parts by classic Bay Area thrash, Scandinavian melodic death and New England hardcore, “Of One Blood” ushered in a new era for metal that emphasized heaviness, hooks and taut musicianship. AllMusic.com applauded the record for its “unique blend of thrash backbone, progressive metal precision and classic metal influences.” To support the album, the group toured extensively alongside the likes of HATEBREED, IN FLAMES, CONVERGE, LAMB OF GOD and UNEARTH, in addition to sharing festival stages with PANTERA and SLAYER.
“Of One Blood” set the stage for the band to achieve additional success on their subsequent release, 2002’s “The Art of Balance”, which saw the group join Ozzy Osbourne‘s Ozzfest tour en route to selling more than 250,000 copies. From there, the band cracked the Billboard Top 20 with 2004’s “The War Within” — which sold more than 400,000 copies and earned the band its first Grammy nomination — before signing with Atlantic Records for the release of 2007’s “Threads Of Life”, which saw the band receive a second Grammy nomination. Two more acclaimed albums followed before Donais was invited to join ANTHRAX in 2013, a move which would eventually cause SHADOWS FALL to go on indefinite hiatus.
In August 2015, SHADOWS FALL played a few reunion shows on the U.S. East Coast, one year after completing what was being billed at the time as the band’s “final” European tour.
SHADOWS FALL released a statement in August 2014 in which the bandmembers explained that financial difficulties made it virtually impossible for the group to continue as a full-time concern.
SHADOWS FALL‘s latest album, “Fire From The Sky”, released in May 2012 via Razor & Tie. The CD sold around 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 38 on The Billboard 200 chart.
