After the pure magic and fire of the "Into the Nightmare" precursor demo tape, we're thrilled to bring you its full-scale successor and evolution: the unrivaled debut album by Chilean heavy metal cult Shadows, scheduled for worldwide release on LP, CD, MC and digital formats on May 19 2023. Packing in 30 minutes of legendary songwriting and visionary revivalism "Out for Blood" take us back to a time, somewhere in the early 80's, when acts like Mercyful Fate, Satan, Death SS, Judas Priest, and Alice Cooper were laying the unforgettable foundations of what would soon become a generational, industry-changing phenomenon: the defining of heavy metal as we know it.
The masterful work has been anticipated by iconic underground metal blog LAST RITES, who in premiering the new opening track “Nightstalker” have remarked how “the greatest strength of the song–and this is the case with most of the record–is in its catchiness. Littered with hooks, Out For Blood truly captures the magic of the era it is striving for by unabashedly writing songs fit for 80’s hard rock radio play that still capture a spark in those with a curiosity for the forbidden and macabre.“ - You can check out the track and feature HERE.
A raging and undying fire of searing leads, thundering drums, spooky operatic vocals, ripping guitars, unforgettable hooks and outrageous transgression. With no hesitation or limits to its deathless imagination, Shadows has conceived a classic metal crucible of unparalleled wizardry and dominance, using familiar concepts borrowed from dark b-movies, old comic strips, occultism and esotericism to take the listener down a dark, left-hand path of cinematic storytelling, thrilling fantasy, dark impulses and transgressive paranoia. The ten tracks of "Out for Blood" display a breadth of tricks and expertise rarely seen at such an accomplished level in contemporary NWOTHM and classic metal acts, and this should come as no surprise knowing that Shadows mastermind and main songwriter John Shades (a pseudonym of Cristian Silva of Apostasy fame), has been shaping the pillars of true and untamed underground South American heavy metal for at least three decades. Using a mist of dark, keyboard-laden atmospheres, vorticose melodies and a dominating, dual attack of criss-crossing, blazing razor-sharp solos, Shades and his co-conspirators have unfolded a half-hour of absolute, boundless imagination, covering almost fifty years of heavy metal evolution and transformation, and delving deep into the primordial fabric of the genre's most defining traits, those of technical extremism, frantic intensity, and adrenaline-pumping darkness. A full-frontal assault on the senses where the limitless imagination of epic storytelling and of rare musicianship have converged in creating the ultimate homage, heirloom and celebration to the undying, sacred and eternal flame of heavy metal.
Chilean epic occult heavy metal enigma Shadows arose in 2021 around the flourishing heavy metal scene of Santiago, a place where by tradition heavy metal and dark occult crafts have always found fertile ground. Shadows emerged as the brainchild of local veteran and multiinstrumentalist Cristian Silva, the leader and founding member of legendary Chilean trash/speed metal cult Apostasy, a band he’s lead uninterruptedly through various decades, lineups and hiatuses since at least 1988, confirming his status of veteran and legend of his scene. Like for every true metalhead, thrash is however far from being Silva’s only love, far from. After reuniting Apostasy around 2018 and getting that project back off the ground, Silva eventually realized that his long running and decades old undying passion for earlier proto-heavy metal from the 70’s (Scoprions, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper) and the more occult and esoteric variants which arose shortly thereafter in the early 80’s (Mercyful Fate and King Diamond, Satan, Death SS, etc.) also needed an outlet, which he decided to materialize via a dedicated and separate new project. This lead him to create Shadows as a new solo outlet rounded out by various studio collaborators, also choosing the pseudonym John Shades to differentiate it from his tenure in Apostasy. The project materialized in 2021 with the self titled three-track demo, self-released digitally on the band’s Bandcamp as “My Shadow Will Rise” and later released physically as a limited edition cassette tape on Silva’s own label Cabalist records as “Into the Nightmare” as its new title, the demo’s final name. Because of Sentient Ruin’s and Apostasy pre-existing collaboration on the “Death Return” LP, Silva and the label also struck up a collaboration to release the “Into the Nightmare” demo tape in the Northern Hemisphere as well, and the release materliazed shortly afterward with brand new artwork and enhanced liner notes in early 2020.