SHADOWS PAST — Perfect Chapter (review)

SHADOWS PAST — Perfect Chapter album cover Album · 2013 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Kev Rowland
Shadows Past was formed in 2005 by singer Ola Halén and guitarist Jonatan Berg when they discovered that they had similar tastes in music. Over the years various members came and went, including drummer Johnny Sandin (Seventh Wonder) and bassist Niklas ”Nille” Sandin, (now in Katatonia). Multi-instrumentalist Staffan Lindroth joined the band on keyboards, and brought in his drummer Olle on drums and the current line-up came together when Jonatan asked his drummer Patrik to join on bass, making this a fairly unusual situation with two pairs of brother in the same band. In 2009 the guys rehearsed so that pre-production and recordings for the debut album could begin in 2010. But the process of finishing the album was delayed by the decision to scrap some of the studio recordings for technical reasons, but in late 2011 everything was finally recorded and the task to mix, master and set the sound of the debut was passed on to Erik Mårtensson (Eclipse, W.E.T., Seventh Wonder etc.) and during the spring of 2012 the album was finalized. It was later that year that Christian Liljegren heard the album and decided to add Shadows Past to the growing number of bands on the Doolittle label.

So, it has taken quite a time to get to this point but it is definitely worth the wait as there are many different things going on as they bring together Stratovarius with Helloween and add some additional elements that at times are very progressive, and at others are quite dark and threatening. This is melodic power metal with plenty of riffs and passion which gets better the louder it is played. It crunches when it needs to, and Ola has a great voice while Staffan is a real find as he underpins everything that the band is doing, with wonderful fills and nuances as well as taking lead when required or sometimes just providing a solid grounding for Jonatan so that he can go off and provide another solo.

There is some great power metal coming out of Sweden at present, and this is yet another fine example of the genre. They can blast with the best of then, as well as providing loads of melody and stacks of hooks. It definitely fits in that genre but with nods in other directions which makes it of interest to a wide range of metalheads. Worth investigating
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed