Drummer Jason Bittner Says Shadows Fall “Wore out Our Welcome”

January 10th, 2019 at 10:16am
Axl Rosenberg

So Metal Insider recently ran a little mini-retrospective of notable metal albums turning ten in 2019, and included in said retrospective was Shadows Fall’s Retribution. The author of the piece, Joe Koza, made reference therein to Shadows Fall’s “unfortunate hiatus,” prompting drummer Jason Bittner (who has since joined Overkill) to tell his social media followers, in no uncertain terms, why the band is not currently active:

“Unfortunate Hiatus” for @shadowsfallband because people stopped coming to see us……that’s the reality- we wore out our welcome it seems – sometimes you need to take a rest https://t.co/fYTp3vpixg
— Jason Bittner (@jbittnerdrums) January 9, 2019

Well, that’s a level of brutal honesty you don’t usually see in this business.

Shadows Fall’s “problems,” for lack of a better term, really began with the release of 2007’s Threads of Life, their sole release for a major label (specifically, Atlantic). The band was one of a precious few of their peers to get called up to the majors — alongside acts like Lamb of God, Mastodon, and Avenged Sevenfold — and at the time, they seemed poised to be huge. But I think most fans agree that Threads, though not a bad album, smoothed Shadows Fall’s edges just a little too much. And even though the band’s subsequent albums course-corrected, a chunk of the fanbase just never really came back.

Which is a real bummer, ’cause they were always a good band. But hey at least we still have Atreyu, right? [sobs into coffee]