POOR PAUL ROMANKO

“Somebody get me a goddman second band!!!”

Paul Romanko is now the only member of Shadows Fall who doesn’t have a side project — or, if he does, he hasn’t gone public with it yet. What’s that about? I’m sure he has no recollection of this whatsoever, but back in my lowly fanboy days, before I was a super-cool blahger d00d, I had beers with Romanko, and he was a totally cool guy! And he had no B.O. problems that I noticed. So how come no one wants to play with him? Let him in the sandbox, damn it!

While you ponder that completely meaningless question (I mean for all I know the dude is just enjoying his time off and has no desire to be in a second band), feel free to head over to Noisecreep and check out the song “Shades of Grey,” the new song from Dead of Night — a.k.a. the side project of Shads’ guitarists Matt Bachand and Jon Donais (ex-Unearth skinsman Derek Kerswill plays drums, making this somewhat of a NWOAHM supergroup).

So. We’ve yet to hear any material from Death Ray Vision, the project featuring Brian Fair, but we’re assuming it’s going to sound an awful lot like Overcast; and, of course, Jason Bittner’s Burning Human is basically old school DM. It may not surprise anyone to learn that Dead of Night sounds a lot like Shadows Fall, because not only does it have two members of that band, but it has the two members who have been responsible for SF’s most famous riffs. I guess the difference, besides the absence of the other 3/5ths of the band, is that Dead of Night seems to be embracing Bachand and Donais’ cock-rockier side, although, let’s be real, anyone who has heard Threads of Life and didn’t know that these dudes were Skid Row fans is either a dummy or has never heard Skid Row.

Listen to “Shades of Grey” here. Still no idea when/if this band is releasing an album.

-AR