Review : SHADOWS FALL – “Retribution”

Shadows Fall - Retribution
released September 22, 2009 on Everblack Industries/Ferret Music

This is gonna feel good. After countless times resurrecting this classic line from Metallica’s Some Kind Of Monster with my good friend/co-worker/brother-in-metal, who has recently moved across the country, I finally get to appropriately apply it in an album review:  “It sounds fucking stock!”.

No matter how tight the guitar work, regardless of Brian Fair’s amplified aggression, despite of–and perhaps due in part to–their massive fan base, their flaccid ferocity is barely jerked to a partial on their sixth release. It’s better than their major label debut two years back, and with their subsequent departure, we now find them on their own imprint.

I tell ya, this band could be so much more without the cliché-ridden lyrics, which robs songs from their potential impact. Hell, keep the autotuned vocals if you must! Just get an outside writer or something. Play it safe on your personal label debut, sure sure, but that level of freedom had better yield something adventurous in the future.

I dunno, if you’re hanging out at the mall and beating up the AFI femmes cuz of unchecked aggression towards yr girlfriend who dumped you a week before prom, this could be your soundtrack.

1 is an intro. 4 is a Bob Marley cover.

FCC: 5, 9
Try 2, 4, 10

01. The Path to Imminent Ruin
02. My Demise
03. Still I Rise
04. War
05. King Of Nothing (feat. Randy Blythe)
06. The Taste Of Fear
07. Embrace Annihilation
08. Picture Perfect
09. A Public Execution
10. Dead And Gone

Rating: