Somber Eyes to the Sky

Artist: Shadows Fall
Label: Lifeless Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD

UPC: 747728859229
EAN: 0747728859229
ASIN: B00004THIO

Release Date: 2000-05-16

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Listmania:

Melodic metalcore & hardcore (updated)
Great solos you may have missed
Underrated/overlooked metalcore
Other melodic thrash
The first ever "metalcore" bands (no order)
Not metalcore, just good metal!
Best thrashcore/modern thrash you can get
Other underrated thrash bands/albums
Was that a blast beat (part one)?!
It could have been great...

Tracks:

Revel in My Loss
Pure
Lead Me Home
To Ashes
Nurture
Fleshold
Eternal
Suffer the Season
Somber Angel
Lifeless

Similar Items:

Of One Blood
The Art of Balance
Behind Silence and Solitude
Fallout from the War
War Within

Customer Reviews:

The first Shadows Fall.... Way better!.......2006-10-11

This was a shot in the dark for me. I was looking for some fast, new, death metal to cure my teen angst and musical need, and I listened to a sample of one of the tracks. I heard fast guitar and double bass and that was it for me (I didn't care about singers back then) I got it right away. I thought it was good, a poor recording job and really weird vocals. Then after a few weeks I got more metal and hardcore from my friends (you know, the kind with singing you can't understand and hella fast riffs? ah, the best) and I started to like that stuff more. I listened to the CD again and I was entertained for months! And I still am now that I'm experianced in metalcore and "screamo."

There are killer guitar riffs from the great Matt Bachand and Jonathan Donais duo, heavy bass that sounds so cool (you can actually hear it in this metal band!) and awesome drums that blend with the other instruments. The vocalist (I hear he's in All That Remains now) is 10 times better than that Brian Fair in the other Shadows Fall albums. This guy sounds like an effing monster! His screams and growls are straight from the gut and amplified in the throat, almost gargley, I have no idea how to describe it, just awesome and like no other singer you'll find.

All the songs are great. There's only 10 of them but the pack a punch. Revel in My Loss sounds like Unholy Confessions by Avenged Sevenfold but pure metal. Pure is a nice, pleasant song even while the singer and guitar players are screaming in your ears. Lead Me Home is a beautiful acoustic instrumental that took me forever to give it a chance. Fleshold has a melodic singing intro and chorus then just bursts into a thrashing opening riff and awesome main riff. Eternal is great... Same with Suffer the Season. Somber Angel has an accoustic intro then starts with an extremely fast guitar thrashing... It's just a dark, heavy song. Then Lifeless is the perfect finale with the singers roaring and even some singing.

Sorry about how long this took, hope it helped, just check out this CD! Also good bands: Ruins of Eden(only on Myspace), This Side of the Nightmare (Myspace too), Behemoth, American Head Charge, All Shall Perish, Walls of Jericho, Slipknot, Lamb of God, As I Lay Dying, Mudvayne, and Avenged Sevenfold. My myspace is (myspace address)/Jam_lee.

Shadow's Fall : "Somber Eyes To The Sky".......2006-07-23

This is Shadow's Fall debut release, and it's not very good. You'll probably listen to this once or twice, but for long term listening, you're much better off going with "The Art Of Balance". Don't waste your money on this...

Thrash, Melody, and Music.......2006-06-05

Often, listeners of music make the mistake of purchasing only that platinum album with that one hit single. They follow a trend without identifying the musicians as artists with a past. Somber Eyes to the Sky, recorded by Shadows Fall in 2000, is a primary example of a musical masterpiece that did not receive recognition until after the band became mainstream. The album offers melody coupled with perfectly violent thrash.
Somber Eyes to the Sky as recorded by the original band, Shadows Fall, diverges from the group's current musical style. However, the work still offers the listener an idea of the onslaught of thrash metal the group will later produce. A more recent album by Shadows Fall, The Art of Balance portrays the same energy and musical capabilities as Somber, but is not as unrefined in the recording methods, the vocals, or the music itself. While the The Art of Balance exhibits musical control, Somber captures the raw side of Shadows Fall. Still, the group produces brilliant melodies that are calming and refined. For instance, Lead Me Home gives a depiction of the band's ability to utilize acoustics and harmony. Revel in My Loss, however, comprises of forceful rifts and drums creating metal that is enjoyable.
Because the band traded vocalist Philip Labonte for Brian Fair, there is a transition in the musical style and the lyrics.
I was fortunate to witness this band at Ozzfest and admired their energetic stage presence and music. Although this band is often classified as metal, the music is not merely metal. It is melodic, inspiring, and fun. Some of their works may be likened to Pantera or early Metallica.

Great music overpowers terrible production.......2006-05-29

No matter how big they are now, every band has (or has had) to start somewhere. This Massachusetts quintet known as Shadows Fall formed around 1995, and debuted in `97. Their first album, "Somber Eyes To The Sky," was not the band's breakthrough. But hey, they can't all be overnight sensations. Only through insistent touring and constant hard work did Shadows Fall become the band they are now (which is one of the biggest forces to be reckoned with in modern metal).

"Somber Eyes To The Sky" has absolutely wretched production. That's no figure of speech, either; this album sounds BAD! Obviously some songs are worse than others, but, overall, this has to be the cheapest, muddiest, and all around worst sounding C.D.'s I've ever heard. But, on the plus side, this disc's "recorded in a basement" sound gives it an extra rough and raw vibe.

But, with that out of the way, there is also plenty here to love. Guitarists Jonathan Donais and Matt Bachand were great instrumentalists even if they were only 19 or 20 years old at the time of this recording. They unleash catchy, sledgehammer riffs (see "Fleshold"), bullying leads (as exemplified by the super heavy and blistering seventh track, "Eternal"), and occasionally a solo ("Nurture" has two wild ones) or acoustic guitar will sprout up ("Lead Me Home" is a very pretty, twinkling acoustic interlude). Phillip Labonte, who was the vocalist at the time (he would leave the band to start a different group, called All That Remains), is also quite a talented fellow. He doesn't have nearly the same range as (current vocalist) Brian Fair, but he is very effective at low, death metal bellows and high pitched screams.

"Revel In My Loss" has to be the album's best track. It's bolstered by smoking riffs, a heavy, propulsive, dual guitar lead, and quick, pounding drums. Track two offsets a chugging rhythm with a beeping bass line, and "To Ashes" features another forceful guitar attack, but also some acoustic breakdowns and clean singing. Lastly, "Somber Angel" begins with an acoustic intro before catapulting into a scorching guitar onslaught, and the song is capped off by a fairly long, winding, and technical solo.

It may not be their best work, but these songs were precursors of the brilliance that was to come on future Shadows Fall releases. Thus, "Somber Eyes To The Sky" is an essential purchase for all fans of the band and metalcore/thrash metal.

really well rounded.......2005-11-17

Gotta love that opening .. Revel in MY LOOSSSSS!!! Killer melody to boot. The next song pure kicks in with Black/Gothenburg style, and has an amazing array of riffs and melodies. Lead me Home is a really well done acoustic (one of Shadows Fall's main strengths is their utilization of acoustics). The songs are a combination of thrash, Swedish melodic metal, even Carcass-type grind. The acoustic parts to 'to ashes' are pretty amazing, really melancholic and fit the lyrics perfectly. It's also nice to hear some well-done clean vocals, and the death vocals are pretty menacing and effective at times. This is an amazingly well rounded album, and probably their best. The Art of Balance is more 'standard' and generic than this...this is more progressive and experimental, the ideas were just 'brimming' when this came out. The band was on what I think a creative peak here. You will not be dissapointed if you like good metal.

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