On the heels of the sold-out 20th anniversary blood red reissue of SHADOWS FALL‘s “Of One Blood” for Record Store Day’s Black Friday last fall, M-Theory Audio is proud to announce a new vinyl edition of the breakthrough album by the Grammy-nominated New Wave of American Heavy Metal pioneers. This new yellow/black vinyl pressing of the album – which features the 10 tracks that were originally remixed and remastered by Zeuss (Rob Zombie, Hatebreed, Suicide Silence) and Grammy-award winning engineer Alan Douches (High on Fire, Motorhead, The Black Dahlia Murder) in 2008 – will be released on July 16, and is available for pre-order now at smarturl.com/ofoneblood.
SHADOWS FALL was founded 25 years ago by guitarists Jon Donais (currently the lead guitarist of thrash legends Anthrax) and Matt Bachand (now a member of Act of Defiance). Soon after the group released their debut album – which featured All That Remains vocalist Phil Labonte – in 1997, Brian Fair was recruited to be the group’s new front man. After a year’s worth of live shows together, the band entered Massachusetts’ Planet Z Studios with producer Zeuss to record what would become a seminal album in the burgeoning New Wave of American Heavy Metal movement.
Influenced in equal parts by classic Bay Area thrash, Scandinavian melodic death and New England hardcore, “Of One Blood” ushered in a new era for metal that emphasized heaviness, hooks and taut musicianship. AllMusic.com applauded the record for its “unique blend of thrash backbone, progressive metal precision and classic metal influences.” That time period also saw the group tour extensively alongside the likes of Hatebreed, In Flames, Converge, Lamb of God and Unearth, as well as share festival stages with Pantera and Slayer; and the band even caught the attention of MTV.
The April 2000 release of “Of One Blood” set the stage for the band to achieve additional mainstream metal success on their subsequent album, 2002’s “The Art of Balance,” which saw the group join Ozzy Osbourne’s Ozzfest tour en route to selling more than 250,000 copies. From there, the band cracked the Billboard Top 20 with 2004’s “The War Within” – which sold more than 400,000 copies and earned the band its first Grammy nomination – before signing with Atlantic Records for the release of 2007’s “Threads of Life,” which saw the band receive a second Grammy nomination. Two more acclaimed albums followed before Donais was invited to join Anthrax in 2013, a move which would eventually cause SHADOWS FALL to go on indefinite hiatus.
Only time will tell whether a reunion is in the cards, but for now, celebrate the turn-of-the-millennium heavy metal scene with the modern reissue of “Of One Blood”!
