''Somber Eyes to the Sky'' is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band

Shadows Fall Shadows Fall is an American metalcore band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1996. Although Shadows Fall has experienced several line-up changes, for most of its recording career, Shadows Fall has been composed of Jon Donais (lead guitar, b ...

, released in 1997 on

Matt Bachand Matt Bachand (born April 29, 1977) is an American guitarist. He has strong death metal and thrash metal influences. He is rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist for the heavy metal band Shadows Fall, and the bassist for Act of Defiance. He is k ...

's own label Lifeless Records in the United States, while the European release was handled by Genet Records."Interview with Matt Bachand"
. Jen's Metal Page. Retrieved June 20, 2007. This was the band's last release and only studio album with lead singer

Philip Labonte Philip Steven Labonte (born April 15, 1975) is an American singer from Massachusetts, best known as the lead singer of the metalcore band All That Remains. He is the former lead vocalist for Shadows Fall, was the touring vocalist for Killswitc ...

, who helped form All That Remains the following year.

Background

Most of the album's songs had previously appeared on demo albums released by the band. The songs "Lifeless", "Suffer the Season" and "Fleshold" originally appeared on the band's demo, ''Mourning a Dead World'', released in 1996. The songs "Eternal" and "Somber Angel" were originally recorded and released on a demo EP in 1997. "To Ashes" originally appeared on the

7" EP An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

of the same name, which was also released in 1997; the EP also contained a re-recording of "Fleshold".

Audio mastering Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via met ...

was done at Monkeyhouse Studios in

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571. Northampton is known as an acade ...

Music and lyrics

''Somber Eyes to the Sky'' is different from the usual

metalcore Metalcore (also known as metallic hardcore) is a fusion music genre that combines elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. As with other styles blending metal and hardcore, such as crust punk and grindcore, metalcore is noted for its use of ...

sound of the band's subsequent albums, featuring a

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

sound with elements of standard

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

Phil Labonte Philip Steven Labonte (born April 15, 1975) is an American singer from Massachusetts, best known as the lead singer of the metalcore band All That Remains. He is the former lead vocalist for Shadows Fall, was the touring vocalist for Killswit ...

's vocals are generally

death growl A death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other extreme subgenres of heavy metal music. Death growl vocals are sometimes criticized for their ...

vocals that resemble

Glen Benton Glen Benton (born June 18, 1967) is an American death metal musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist and bassist for the death metal band Deicide and was also a part of the band Vital Remains, where he has performed in recording sessions ...

of death metal band

Deicide Deicide is the killing (or the killer) of a god. The concept may be used for any act of killing a god, including a life-death-rebirth deity who is killed and then resurrected. Etymology The term deicide was coined in the 17th century from m ...

. Melodic guitar riffs and occasional dissonant riffs are featured throughout the album. The lyrics are dreary, with themes like despair, depression, suicide, isolation and loneliness being featured throughout the album.

Background, recording and release

In 1996, Shadows Fall recorded a demo called ''Mourning a Dead World'', printing 200 copies. Guitarist Matt Bachand said the demo "was really intended just for us to work on things". People bought the demo and Shadows Fall began to have concerts. Bachand formed Lifeless Records to produce ''Somber Eyes to the Sky'' and both self-financed and self-promoted it. Genet Records of Belgium created a repress of the album, and ''Somber Eyes to the Sky'' sold 15,000 copies worldwide, including a few thousand in Europe. ''Somber Eyes to the Sky'' was recorded in Zing Recording Studios in

Westfield, Massachusetts Westfield is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, Hampden County, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, United States. Westfield was first settled by Europeans in 1660. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield metrop ...

. Released on November 30, 1997, ''Somber Eyes to the Sky'' had success in late 1998 and early 1999 on ''

CMJ New Music Report CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

'' Loud Rock airplay chart, reaching the top ten and remaining on the chart for several weeks.

Touring and promotion

Shadows Fall toured in 1998 and opened for Six Feet Under,

Overcast Overcast or overcast weather, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization, is the meteorological condition of clouds obscuring at least 95% of the sky. However, the total cloud cover must not be entirely due to obscuring phenomena near t ...

and

Shai Hulud Shai Hulud is an American metalcore band formed in Pompano Beach, Florida, in 1995, and later based in Poughkeepsie, New York. The band is named after the giant sandworms in Frank Herbert's novel ''Dune''. The two mainstay members of Shai Hul ...

. Other shows the band had included the Cleveland "World Series of Metal" event, Milwaukee Metalfest, and one show on the Van Warped package tour. In the fall of 1998, Phil Labonte left Shadows Fall and was replaced by Brain Fair. In a later interview in 2007, Labonte explained why he left Shadows Fall: Fair replaced Labonte after Fair's previous band Overcast disbanded. Shadows Fall then performed again at the Milwaukee Metalfest and the New Jersey March Metal Meltdown. This caught the attention of

Century Media Records Century Media Records is a heavy metal record label with offices in the United States, Germany and London. In August 2015, Century Media was acquired by Sony Music for US$17 million. Background Century Media was founded by Robert Kampf and Oli ...

, and the record label signed Shadows Fall in late 1999. A headline show earned Shadows Fall the top billing for the New England "Metal & Hardcore" festival in 2000.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the album's liner notes.

Shadows Fall

*Shadows Fall –

audio mixing Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aesthetic, ...

, &

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

;

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, a ...

** Jon Donais –

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

; co-lyrics (6), & (8) **

–

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

, clean vocals ** Paul Romanko – bass ** David Germain –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Additional credits

Additional musicians

* Carrie Beth Nickerson –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

* Jim Fogarty – additional sounds

Artwork

*Scott Lee – band

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

* Tobias Dutkiewicz –

artwork A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

Additional mixing

Adam Dutkiewicz Adam Jonathan Dutkiewicz (born April 4, 1977) is an American musician, recording engineer, songwriter, and music producer, best known as the lead guitarist and backup vocalist from Massachusetts metalcore bands Killswitch Engage, Aftershock, and ...

*Jim Fogarty

Additional lyricist

*Damien McPherson – (6), (8), & (10)

Citations

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Shadows Fall albums 1997 debut albums Albums produced by Adam Dutkiewicz