Album a Day: Shadows Fall - Threads of Life

I have to give my older brother Lee all the credit in the world for recognizing how good Shadows Fall was long before I ever did, though it helped that he had the opportunity to be around the then-growing Hardcore and Metal scene in New England. In fact we were right in the thick of it with local metalcore bands like Overcast and Aftershock breaking up and reassembling into bands like Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall, though all of this would be a few years before my time or at least a while before I was a metal fan. Since then these bands have really made the transition as the pioneers of metalcore and have constantly shifted their sound and matured as artists and one of the best examples of that is 2007's Threads of Life. While I don't have a bad thing to say about previous Shadows Fall records I just think Threads of Life is a mature album and shows the bands growing understanding of not only how to put together great individual songs but how to make an album work on a whole. There's a great mix of more traditional metal songs like Dead Uprising, mixed in with cutting edge tracks like the first single released from the album Redemption, and even melodic reflective songs like Another Hero Lost. This fifth album is the band's only release on a major label (the band has since started their own label Everblack Industries) the boys from Western Massachusetts really stepped up their game and all the hard work and dedication shows in a grouping of songs that for the most part all seem really personal and heartfelt. I love that much like the aforementioned Killswitch Engage there are a lot of really positive songs on the album like Redemption (which earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance with no shame losing out to legendary metal-gods Slayer) but still critical with a fantastic song like Failure of The Devout. Lyrically there are a lot of really interesting songs on this album that are really carried by Brian Fair's fantastic vocals. I always appreciate that Brian Fair is a singer and isn't afraid to sing and do a really good job at it, although there is a good balance between his singing and a fair amount of that metal scream as well (though perhaps more subtle than other bands). There's a lot of great guitar breaks in this album both electric and acoustic that adds to moments of breathing room that can often be missing from metal albums (or just a lot of albums in general these days). I also really enjoy the consistency of the album. Every track is really good on its own but there's a cohesion of themes amongst the songs like loyalty, hope and struggle in the face of adversity, the harsh reality of death. I also really like covert art illustrations by Angry Johnny. Overall this is a really solid album and worth not just listening to but really engaging with. Favorite Tracks: Redemption, Failure of The Devout, Venomous, Another Hero Lost, Dead Uprising, and Just Another Nightmare