Shadows Fall War Within CD

This breakthrough band from last year's Ozzfest release their fourth album, produced and mixed by Zeuss, mastered by Alan Douches, and including a DVD with 2 bootleg live videos, guitar lesson from each guitarist, drum lesson, and lots more, plus Enhanced CD including IM buddy icons, screensavers, and wallpaper for your computer.

Initial pressings included bonus DVD.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Shadows Fall: Matthew Bachand, Jonathan Donais (vocals, guitar); Brian Fair (vocals); Paul Romanko (bass guitar); Jason Bittner (drums).
When The Art of Balance arrived in 2002, Shadows Fall weren't much more than a blip on the metalcore radar, but a well-received spot on the Ozzfest tour, and the fact that the album lived up to what live audiences saw made them one of the rising stars of metal, period, with no need for the "-core" tag at all. They've grown beyond the confines of the metal-loving hardcore crowd anyway, with more in common now with the classic thrash of Metallica than the metal-tinged hardcore of Coalesce. With The War Within, Shadows Fall make their first bid at creating a great metal record and come close to the mark too, even if their effort to meet expectations is ultimately over-reaching. As much as the songs recall classic metal like Iron Maiden (the twin guitars of "Act of Contrition") and the aforementioned Metallica (perhaps a little too much on "Inspiration on Demand"), their desire to cram as much as possible into each one ultimately leaves them weaker creations. These are tracks that almost work, and for some, the emo choruses will be enough to carry them through the death metal riffs, and for others, the speeding thrash tempos will sit just fine next to Pantera-patented breakdowns, but pulling back for a full view reveals these impressive parts are attached to awkward children. The funny thing is, it isn't that different from The Art of Balance, but rather than tighten up the death/thrash/hardcore (Lego-core?) fusion that defined that album, they've let the parts run amok. There are exceptions, though, like "The Light That Binds," which starts the album, and "The Power of I and I," both of which prove that Shadows Fall do have a great metal record in them. It just hasn't gotten out yet. ~ Wade Kergan
Like the heavy-rock giant Metallica, Shadows Fall climbed the ladder of success by proving its mettle in a live setting, out-performing and out-selling all comers on the second stage at the 2003 Ozzfest. The two groups share sonic similarities as well, and fans of pre-Bob Rock-era Metallica albums RIDE THE LIGHTNING and MASTER OF PUPPETS, in particular, will find a lot to like here.
Shadows Fall plays fairly straight-ahead old-school thrash, with a nod to the death-metal-influenced hybrid popularized by Pantera. The guitars and drums are huge, clean, and inhumanly tight, and low-ender Paul Romanko has a good handle on the Cliff Burton style of cutting delicate, melodic interludes with crushing bass riffs (particularly on "What Drives the Weak"). The production on both the electric/screaming sections and the acoustic/crooning passages is crisp and warm, emphasizing the band's enviable chops. Unlike many metal singers, vocalist Brian Fair is equally adept at throat-shredding and melodic singing, which affords the group a winningly dynamic palette.

Rolling Stone (No. 967, p.84) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[T]his dense labyrinth of fleet-fingered guitar solos and punishing double-bass drum slavos will appeal to metalheads who are already predisposed to [the band's] Eighties grind..."
CMJ (p.22) - "The album blooms with galloping solos, ripping guitar leads and Brian Fair's dual-pronged vocal attack..."