Casting New Shadows

The Autumn Offering has been around for roughly a decade, yet emerges as a whole new band on new album Fear Will Cast No Shadow. After signing to Victory Records in 2005, the band now has a new line up where no original members remain. This has yielded a drastically different sound. Earlier albums like 2004’s Revelations of the Unsung cast them as an angry hardcore band. Now, they are a mildly perturbed metal-core band. But will this new style earn them new fans or just alienate the old ones?Overall, the band is still as fast-paced as it was before. However, they now sport slightly more intricate guitar riffs and bigger, more memorable choruses. Matt McChesney sounds similar to original vocalist Dennis Miller when he growls on songs like “The Castaway.” Elsewhere, songs like “Silence and Goodbye” demonstrate cleaner, more commercial vocals which are new for the band. The best songs on the album effectively combine the band’s old and new sounds. This occurs on “All that Falls Around Us” and “A Great Distance.” The verses growl heavily while the choruses are clean and catchy.

The Autumn Offering have not completely lost the edge that earned them their spot on Victory, but they have definitely taken it in a new direction. This new sound isn’t terrible on Fear Will Cast No Shadow, but it might take some time for their fans to adjust to it.