The Autumn Offering - Fear Will Cast No Shadow

The Autumn Offering is a five-piece metal band from Florida who have just released their third full length, entitled Fear Will Cast No Shadow. New vocalist on this record is Matt McChesney who recently left Boston's Hell Within.

I'd like to start my review with two quotes from the info that I received with the promo: "New album Fear Will Cast No Shadow continues to carry the flag of classic heavy metal in the vein of early Pantera, Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne into a battle against mainstream trends" and "Fear Will Cast No Shadow does not offer crossover, new fashions or trendy revivals. It is about the celebration of true heavy metal, and having a damn good time doing it". Now this phrase annoys me big time, since this record sounds nothing different from a blend of melodic metalcore (think Killswitch Engage) and the modern metal sound containing elements of thrash (think Trivium) with a vocal range from screaming till clean (backing) vocals. Also, the comparison with Hell Within is inevitable since they used the same throat, and as you can read in my review of Hell Within's latest record, I couldn't conclude any different then it was a catchy album as well.

So unless they're trying to believe that they are not a trendy band, they definitely are, undoubtedly. But that doesn't mean that this is a bad record. It was recorded at the AudioHammer Studios and produced by Jason Suecoff (Chimaira, Trivium) and remarkably enough, some of The Autumn Offering's non melodic and non -core parts do remind me of Chimaira. The production is very well done and Fear Will Cast No Shadow therefore sounds very fat.

What prevents Fear Will Cast No Shadow from being called an absolute highlight in its genre are a few weaker songs, or better put, a few weaker parts in just a few songs. The clean vocals occur too often and make the record more emotional. Also the melodic guitars contribute to this "softer" sound and that is truly a pity, because the record also features a lot of hot elements. For example the effect in 'The Castaway' that sound like you blow up your speakers or the great chorus in 'Crown Yourself King' that combines perfect vocal lines with a frightening metal sound.

So, in conclusion; this full-length is a nice effort that surely will be liked by anyone who's into melodic metalcore, but it'll lack the strength to catch the attention of other metal fans.