In the shadow lands
MANILA, Philippines - It was a case of musical mayhem as a band from Springfield, Massachusetts performed at the Music Museum in the Greenhills Shopping Complex. Composed of Brian Fair, Jonathan Donais, Matt Bachand, Paul Romanko and Jason Bittner, the two-time Grammy nominee for Best Metal Performance Shadows Fall left everyone rocked, rolled and torn asunder. Well, in a manner of speaking.
The band awed Filipino fans with its relentless musical brutality and rawness. The crescendo of thrashing fits resulted from the rapid-fire double-pedal attacks, solid vocals, as well as scalding guitar and bass riffs.
The guys from Shadows Fall (SF) opened their set with heavy guitars heralding King of Nothing and War from their latest album “Retribution” (Everblack Industries Records). It was simply electrifying.
Lead singer Brian Fair’s raw growls were sometimes tempered with clean vocals and complemented by insane banging of his long unfurled dreadlocks — reminiscent of Medusa’s locks and eyes seething with fury posing to strike down anyone, anytime.
The guitar virtuosity of Jon Donais meanwhile inarguably places SF at the top of the metal-core genre with dizzying arpeggios and ultra-fast lines. The tight sound of Matt, Paul and Jason drives the final nail into the group’s intense coffin-like sound. The show culminated with another fan favorite track, What Drives the Weak, which left viewers mesmerized and longing for more.
Before the gig, I was able to interview the band in the dressing room (special thanks to Vernon Go, Joey Dizon and Jason Caballa) with trusty Lawrence “Pangk” Reyes as my lensman.
Brian Fair candidly answered my questions, reiterating how important the Filipino fans are for SF. This is the band’s third time to perform in Manila; in fact, the guys from SF even chose the Manila concert footage for their upcoming live DVD.
Fair said, “We had such a great time in that show; the footage looks so amazing with the huge production. (Pulp publisher) Vernon pulled out all the stops with explosions, fire and everything. It just looks so ‘killer,’ and we had such a good time. We are one of the first metal bands to come here in a long time, so it just kind of made sense to give back to the fans here, as well as to show the rest of the world how awesome the shows here are. So it worked out perfectly.”
I asked Brian about their future musical path and the latest album, “Retribution.”
s more aggressive than the last record but I think it really more than covered everything that we have done. We’ve been a band for over 15 years now and we’ve brought our influences from so many different styles and I think this record is a real reflection of all of that. We really pushed each kind of style — like the fast stuff, the slow stuff, the melodic and acoustic, all of ’em as far as it can go… including everything.”
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The Shadows Fall concert at the Music Museum was presented by Pulp and Tanduay Rhum, and co-sponsored by Pony and No Fear, with the Philippine STAR, NU 107, RJ 105.9 UR, and the Marriot Hotel Manila, the official residence of Shadows Fall. The Shadows Fall Madness in Manila: Live in the Philippines 2009 DVD is available in all Astrovision Stores and Odyssey for only P550. Grab a copy now!
