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Shadows Fall are back with Retribution, their 6th studio album. Again produced by Zeus, so nothing to complain soundwise. Let's see what they have to offer this time!
Slowly they kick off with The Path To Imminent Ruin, an intro, then they speed off with My Demise. Shadows Fall offer now less thrash attacks and are more based in modern metal, but you still get heavy riffs, aggressive shouts as well as melodic passages with clean vocals. And especially the clean vocal parts are catchy and hook you up easily. The slow atmospheric part at e.g. My Demise shows that the Massachusetts boys got more mature. They combine heavy, aggressive parts with atmospheric elements. Still I Rise has not just excellent guitar leads, it also offers some varying drum patterns. Somehow you can compare Retribution with The War Within... The elements and the song writing follows the same pattern, but it seems to me that technically they get even better... Especially Shadows Fall guitarists Matt Bachand and Jonathan Donais. Well, drummer Jason Bittner is already a genius on drums. One of the highlights is Picture Perfect which starts slowly in a semi-acoustic way, then the song explodes! Aggressive riffing and shouts follow catchy melodic parts. A sonic roller coaster ride - and a real ear catcher! For A Public Execution they storm off again. This one is a very heavy and aggressive thrasher with deep shouts.
The deluxe edition has 3 bonus tracks - Bark At The Moon (Ozzy Osbourne cover), Age Of Quarrel (Cro-Mags cover) and Critical Mass (Nuclear Assault cover). The bonus DVD offers some live recordings (5 songs), but what makes it even more interesting is that the band added some instructional videos and a drum lesson!
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