OUR FELLOW NEW YORKERS: COME TO A SPECIAL LISTENING PARTY FOR SHADOWS FALL’S RETRIBUTION TOMORROW NIGHT!

Tomorrow night there will be a special listening party for Shadows Fall’s new album, Retribution, at Arrow Bar here in Manhattan. Arrow Bar is a cool place – they have heavy metal happy hour every Friday night (where you can often find either Vince or myself and other members of the NYC metal literati drinking until we find one another attractive), and was the spot of last year’s Second Annual MetalSucks/Metal Injection holiday fiesta. Plus, y’know, you’ll get to hear the new Shadows Fall album!

Unfortunately, Vince will be in Philly and I’ll be tending to some personal bidness, so there won’t be any representatives of the MetalSucks family on hand. But we have heard Retribution and can readily endorse it as another killer blast of metal from our favorite Massholes. My short review would be that band found a happy balance between the heavy heavy shit of yore (The Art of Balance, etc.) and the arena rock material that found its way onto Threads of Life: “My Demise” has one of the best guitar solos of the year and “War” will surely make you want to kill small animals, but “Picture Perfect” is one of the best Def Leppard songs that Def Leppard never wrote. This album has it all.

Be there or be square. I’m very sad I can’t go.

If you can’t make it either, don’t fret: Retribution comes out this Tuesday, September 15 on Everblack Industries/Ferret.

-AR