Heavy Metal Nation is a place for fans of heavy, interesting music to come and read, write, and comment on articles about heavy music. Ahhh... this album has me torn a bit. I do enjoy it and I am glad that they have chosen over their career to not dissapoint fans who are looking for them to deliver a hard pounding metal album every time. I however feel that this album was too contrived, and is chock full of recycled ideas from their past 4 albums.

It is very hard to strike a balance between your signature styles and refreshing new ideas. While I am hearing and enjoying a lot of excellent drumming and prime guitar riffing, there's something lacking in the song writing thats hard to pinpoint. This is the first time they have released an album that doesnt have a single song I can remember clearly after one listen. Maybe it's truely a matter of taste but I think they dropped the ball with this album.

In a way to me it feels like it has been pieced together very much the way Metallica pieced together St. Anger. Also the lyrics to me are terrible. Lots of forced rhyming in place of poetic aptitude. I'm just more inclined to pop in The Art Of Balance or even Threads Of Life than I am to spin Retribution. They are simply better albums with more originality.

I try not to write scathing reviews but I am very dissapointed with this album and I'm going to have to give it a 2/10 for originality and a 6/10 for listenability. Shadows Fall are incredibly talented and I give them a 10/10 for execution.

The entire album could be a lot better and releases from some peers in 2009 outshine it by a long shot. Also Jason Bittner really promoted his performance on this album and I feel he's done a lot better on past albums. Theres no cohesiveness between guitar riffs and drum fills, and the bass is completely useless and drowned out by the thick bottom end of the guitars and low end thumps eminating from the drums.

Speaking of those thumps, his double bass is very muddy sounding and while thats personal opinion I think it sounds like shit hitting the pavement from 100 stories up.

I'm giving this album a 7/10 only because of the superior performances of the musicians individually, as a unit they didnt get it done this time.

Posted 2nd July 2010 by Scorpio
Updated Sunday, 4 July, 2010 1:21 AM