''The Shadow Side'' is the debut solo album by

Black Veil Brides Black Veil Brides is an American rock band based in Hollywood, California. The group formed in 2006 in Cincinnati, Ohio and is currently composed of lead vocalist Andy Biersack, rhythm guitarist and violinist Jinxx, lead guitarist Jake Pitts, ...

frontman Andy Black. It was released on May 6, 2016, on

Lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

and

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

. The album was produced by

John Feldmann John Feldmann (born June 29, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He serves as the lead singer/guitarist of the band Goldfinger. Early life Feldmann grew up in Saratoga, California. He started writing song ...

and marked a departure of Black's

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

musical style as the frontman of

in exchange for more pop influences. It features guest performances from

Quinn Allman Quinn Allman (born January 18, 1982) is an American musician and producer, best known as the founding member, guitarist and backing vocalist in the rock band the Used. Biography Allman grew up in Springville, Utah, and later moved to Pleasan ...

, Rian Dawson,

Ashton Irwin Ashton Fletcher Irwin (born 7 July 1994) is an Australian musician, best known as the drummer of the pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer. Since 2014, 5 Seconds of Summer have sold more than 10 million albums, sold over 2 million concert tickets ...

Juliet Simms Juliet Nicole Simms (born February 26, 1986), also known as Lilith Czar, is an American musician, songwriter, and entrepreneur. She established a fan base as the front woman of the band Automatic Loveletter. In 2007 - in the band's earliest ye ...

, Matt Skiba, and

Gerard Gerard is a masculine forename of Proto-Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constituents put together. In this ca ...

and

Mikey Way Michael James Way (born September 10, 1980) is an American musician and actor. He is best known as the bassist of the rock band My Chemical Romance. He is also the multi-instrumentalist and backing vocalist of rock duo Electric Century. Mikey c ...

Background and production

frontman

Andy Biersack Andrew Dennis Biersack (born December 26, 1990), formerly known as Andy Six, is an American singer. He is the founder and lead vocalist of the rock band Black Veil Brides and is its only remaining original member. In 2014, he started a solo mu ...

debuted his solo pseudonym project under the name Andy Black with the song "They Don't Need to Understand" releasing in May 2014. Black began to record the album in August 2015 alongside producer

. Throughout the recording process, Black often teased the upcoming album on social media with images of Black alongside well known rock musicians including

Patrick Stump Patrick Martin Stumph (born April 27, 1984), known professionally as Patrick Vaughn Stump, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Fall Out Boy, originally from Wilmette, I ...

and

Gerard Way Gerard Arthur Way (born April 9, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and comic book writer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and co-founder of the rock band My Chemical Romance. He released his debut solo album, ''Hesitant Alien'', i ...

. In an interview with ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...

'', Black commented on the musical style of the album. While Black was recording the album, he also intended to record the next Black Veil Brides album, later resulting in writing about 45 songs for the solo project.

Reception

''The Shadow Side'' has received highly favorable reviews from music critics. It holds an average score of 83/100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "universal acclaim". ''

Rock Sound ''Rock Sound'' is a British magazine that covers rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, while also giving coverage to better-known acts. It generally focuses on pop punk, post-hardcore, metalcore, punk, e ...

'' described the album as being "full of bombastic

alt-pop Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

". ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...

'' writer Ryan Downey commented that Black "chases his dark muse against a cinematic backdrop of impressive pop 'n' roll on ''The Shadow Side''", also writing that Black sounded "confidently in charge" despite the large number of collaborations with known rock artists on the album. At the 2017 Alternative Press Music Awards, ''The Shadow Side'' was nominated for "Album of the Year", and lead single " We Don't Have to Dance" was awarded "Song of the Year".

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from album booklet notes Musicians * Andy Black – primary artist *

– backing vocals; keyboards (tracks 1–3, 10 and 11); guitar (tracks 1 and 2) *Zakk Cervini – guitar; keyboards (tracks 1–3, 5–8 and 10–13); bass guitar (tracks 1–4, 9 and 12) *Matt Pauling – guitar; keyboards (tracks 1, 3, 5–8 and 10–13); bass guitar (tracks 1, 7 and 13) *

Peter "JR" Wasilewski Less Than Jake is an American ska punk band from Gainesville, Florida, formed in 1992. The band consists of Chris DeMakes (guitars, vocals), Roger Lima (bass, vocals), Matt Yonker (drums), Buddy Schaub (trombone), and Peter "JR" Wasilewski (saxop ...

– horn (tracks 1 and 13) *

Simon Wilcox Simon Wilcox is a Canadian songwriter based in Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the ...

– backing vocals (track 1) *

– backing vocals (tracks 1, 3, 8 and 13) *

– drums (tracks 1–4, 6 and 12) *

Ricky Reed Eric Burton Frederic (born July 23, 1982), known professionally as Ricky Reed, is an American artist, music producer, singer, songwriter, and founder of Nice Life Recording Company. From 2005 to 2014, Reed was also known as Wallpaper. Early w ...

– guitar, programming, synthesizer (track 2) *

– bass guitar (tracks 2 and 11) *

– guitar (tracks 2, 3 and 12); keyboards (track 12) * Matt Skiba – guest vocals (track 4) * Rian Dawson – drums (tracks 7–9 and 13) *

Dean Butterworth Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

– drums (track 11) *

– backing vocals (track 11) Production *John Feldmann – production, additional mixing *Ricky Reed – production (track 2) *Zakk Cervini – mixing, engineering *Matt Pauling – engineering *

Manny Marroquin Manny Marroquin (born September 21, 1971) is an American mixing engineer.Daley, Dan (May 2005).Manny Marroquin. ''Sound on Sound''. Retrieved February 10, 2007 He has received ten Grammy awards for his professional audio work. Life and career M ...

– mixing (track 2) *Ethan Shumaker – engineering (track 2) *A&R – Ryan Silva

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shadow Side, The 2016 debut albums Andy Biersack albums Lava Records albums Republic Records albums Albums produced by John Feldmann