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Shadow > Forever Chaos > Reviews
Shadow - Forever Chaos

There's some pleasant chaos here - 72%

Sean16, April 13th, 2009

Shadow. What a thoughtful, blissful, original band name. Though, let’s admit in the case of this Japanese act it’s pretty well-chosen. Information about these guys is scarce. They’d released their first album in 2001, reaching a limited audience – at least the stuff got some reviews here on metal-archives.com, meaning it isn’t totally unknown – before vanishing back into oblivion. And just when you assumed they’d split up, wait, they come back with another release. With the exact same line-up, by the way.

As it may be assumed in no less than SEVEN years things may have changed a bit; nonetheless, there’s no need to listen to the two Shadow full-length albums for hours and hours to be convinced it’s the same band playing. Not that there’s such a distinctive Shadow style - melodeath, early Dark Tranquillity worship, with an additional touch of the proverbial Japanese craze, and that pretty much sums it up. The self-titled was fast, overall well-done with its agreeable though a bit too immediately ear-friendly riffs, the same goes for Forever Chaos – and just as you thought they couldn’t come with a worse digitalized cover, they’ve done it.

However Shadow seems now to be willing to play the card of heaviness and, while it’s a fully understandable choice, let’s admit this might not be the wisest ever. Melodeath isn’t meant to be all soft and sugary – agreed. But heaviness for the sake of heaviness just looks like a terribly amateur approach, and simply doesn’t fit the style of this band. The vocals sum it all, and I’ll go so far as hailing singer Tokiko Shimamoto as the biggest disappointment here compared to the previous album. Harsh female vocals for sure aren’t glamorous, but kill when used well, and it’s just a pity so few bands are making use of them (metal isn’t about glamour, by the way). The self-titled, in this respect – I might add, in this respect only – was a masterpiece. Now, on the other hand trying to have a chick singing as close to a guy as possible is nonsense, as you’ll most likely end up with what sounds like a belching idiot, and it’s exactly what seems to happen on several tracks here, all the more it doesn’t help to appreciate the whole work when it begins as soon as the first song. Add this to the generic drumming and muddy rhythm guitar and you’ll get an album which at first glance sounds clumsy, sloppy, vulgar – seven years to come back with THAT? Better stay silent.

There is more, fortunately. First this opus is literally saved by an exceptional, inventive lead guitar, which often remains the only redeeming factor of otherwise poor tracks like The Existence of Suffering or The Orators (those verses...c’mon). Then several tracks still have nothing to envy to the best moments of the first album, you know, when subtlety meets insanity. Before True Light, with this pretty weird effect on the chorus, as if the vocalist was singing into a bucket of water, all the more surprising for a band which otherwise doesn’t abuse of effects of any kind (the only track featuring a bit of keyboards is the closing Land of a Dream). Within the Winter Silence, probably the best song here with its welcomed blastbeats which break for a while the monotonous drumming lines. The aforementioned Land of a Dream with its unexpected epic vibe, perhaps only because it’s the only six minutes long track on an otherwise too much calibrated album. And, last but not least, the production isn’t the modernist turd one could expect from half of what is dubbed as melodeath, let alone the horrendous cover which would only reinforce anyone’s suspicion. No synthetic crap, no instrument too loud in the mix, drums sounding like drums let aside their intrinsic mediocrity, and a very clear lead guitar which, again, is the only instrument really worth mentioning, after all that alone isn’t that common.

And again harsh female vocals, when used well, kill.

Highlights: Within the Winter Silence, Land of a Dream

Shadow is back! - 100%

Shiroryuu, November 27th, 2008

So, a few years ago, I bought Shadow's self-titled debut [and only] album at the time. I love metal, and at the same time, I'm also interested in Japan, so naturally, I looked into what kind of metal existed in Japan, and I ran into these guys [and chick], and I was awed by their awesome music. It was definitely able to stand next to the likes of bands like In Flames [old], Arch Enemy and others as legends of melodic death metal, they may have even outperformed a good number of European bands. However, it has been years since they released a single thing other than this album, they didn't seem to have a website, and it was tough to find any information on what was going on with them, so they were definitely missing in action. I was afraid that this band that can potentially be held as one of the greatest melodic death metal bands to have ever existed would just die off as a one-hit wonder with only one album.


However, I come to Japan, and I see this album, Shadow "Forever Chaos". I was amazed to see that they have returned. However, upon getting this album, I had yet another question in my mind, "Can this album possibly be able to hold a torch to their first album?" I mean, ok, that self-titled debut was just plain awesome, and I can understand that it would be hard to top that. So I put this music on, and lo and behold, these guys didn't disappoint. This album is yet another masterpiece of greatness made by this band who hail from Osaka, the home of Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, and the Hanshin Tigers baseball team.


Tokiko still sounds as vicious and brutal as ever, and she proves once again that a female is very much capable of being an awesome vocalist for death metal. The guitars are melodic, and at the same time very harsh and aggressive. Hard for me to pick out a favorite song, but I do enjoy "Within the Winter Silence", "The Orators", and "Land of a Dream". They also did an awesome job at doing a cover of Slayer's "Black Magic". The music is very fast, aggressive, and melodic, all at once. If you like melodic death metal, then I highly recommend this. Shadow is back and they're ready to give you a lecture on what melodic death metal is all about!