Kingcrimsonprog
Fear Will Drag You Down is a compilation album by the Massachusetts based metalcore band Shadows Fall which collects together their ten track Of One Blood album and Deadworld EP, which featured two studio tracks and three live tracks recorded in America in 2000.
The material was remixed and tidied up by famed metal/hardcore producer Chris “Zeuss” Harris, who has worked with the band before, as well as other acts like Hatebreed, Chimaira, Throwdown, All That Remains etc.
Of One Blood was the band’s second full-length studio album and found the band in a transitional period, as it was both the first album to feature iconic singer Brain Fair on vocals and the last album to feature David Germain on the drums.
Additionally, the sound is slightly different to the releases which would follow, using less melody and commercial radio choruses, and using elements of melodeath/Gothenburg sound in with their 1980s thrash influenced, guitar solo filled brand of metalcore. Furthermore, vocally the album is a lot harsher and heavier than their later work, and concentrated more on death growls and hardcore shouts than on clean melodic singing.
The versions of “Fleshold,” “Revel In My Loss” and “To Ashes” found on Of One Blood are updated versions of tracks found on their debut album, reportedly still featuring some of the original vocals from Phil Labonte.
Although the album is certainly better produced than their muddy sounding debut, the production on the album is still perhaps a little too flat and songs don’t feel as three dimensional as you can tell they ought to be, but other elements such as the lyrics and guitar solos are up to a high standard by this stage in the band’s career and overall this is still a worthwhile album to check out if you enjoy the band.
Album highlights include the surprisingly catchy ‘First Noble Truth,’ as well as the aforementioned ‘Fleshold’ and the six and a half minute long ‘Root Bound Appolo.’
The two additional studio tracks ‘Deadworld,’ and an early version of ‘Stepping Outside The Circle,’ are very good and the live material is an enjoyable if not deal-breaking extra.
In summary; If you like Shadows Fall and haven’t yet gotten their early material then this is a worthy purchase, although I wouldn’t recommend that you pick it up if you haven’t heard some of the band’s more famous albums first.