Shadows Past will release its full lenght debut album entitled Perfect Chapter March 29. on Doolittle Group AB. Melodic metal with great attitude from Sweden. Vocalist Ola Halén former Insania Sweden is fronting this power unit. Stylewise you can compare Shadows Past with Symphony X, Kamelot and Helloween. The music video for Wherever I Go can be seen below.
Shadows Past was formed in 2005 by singer Ola Halén and guitarist Jonatan Berg. It happened that Ola had a Tony MacAlpine tape running in his car when giving Jonatan a ride from the music school where Ola worked and Jonatan studied, and they discovered their similar taste in music. Prior to that, the name Shadows Past had been used by Ola for some of his solo projects on the side of Insania – the band for which he had been the singer and front man since 2002. The band saw various members come and go during the first few years. Among them drummer Johnny Sandin [who eventually had to focus solely on his other band Seventh Wonder] and bass player Niklas ”Nille” Sandin, now in Katatonia.
Several demo recordings were made during these first years, with the first official one being released in 2009, containing the songs Perfect Chapter, Cry No More and Who Am I. By this time multi-instrumentalist Staffan Lindroth had joined the band on keyboards, soon to be joined by his brother Olle Lindroth on drums, who fittingly returned to Sweden from living in Spain when the need for a permanent drummer arose. To further solidify the musical foundation, one more change in line-up was made and Patrik Berg, Jonatan’s brother [and a talented musician] was brought in on bass, thus making it two pairs of brothers in the band.
Shadows Past had continuously been playing live, mostly throughout the Stockholm club scene and continued to do so during 2009 when the band also took part in the pan-European music contest ”Emergenza” which culminated in a final performance at the final show at Debaser Medis in Stockholm. In 2009 new songs were also written and rehearsed and pre-production and recordings for the debut album could begin in 2010. The process of finishing the album was delayed by the decision to scrap some of the studio recordings for technical reasons, but in late 2011 everything was finally on tape [or disk rather] and the task to mix, master and set the sound of the debut could be delegated. For this job Erik Mårtensson [Eclipse, W.E.T., Seventh Wonder etc.] was chosen and during the spring of 2012 the album was finalized.
Later in 2012 Christian Liljegren and Doolittle Group got to hear the album and decided to invite Shadows Past into their roster of bands.
Stylewise, Shadows Past have always had a strong foundation in melodic metal. The emphasis never strays from strong melodies, put in a framework of heavy riffing and musically intriguing details. Comparisons to bands like Helloween, Stratovarius and Symphony X have been made, but there is no denying that Shadows Past have a powerful voice of their own that will carry on to be heard, both on and off the stages of the world.
Tracklist:
1 Wherever I Go [04:20]
2 Perfect Chapter [04:18]
3 Cry No More [05:26]
4 An Old Enemy [04:42]
5 Ladder Of Life [04:34]
6 The Scars Run Deep [04:10
7 Impressed [04:07]
8 Who Am I [05:12]
9 The One [05:51]
10 Believe[ 06:12]
Band members:
Ola Halén – Vocals
Jonatan Berg – Guitar
Patrik Berg – Bass
Staffan Lindroth – Keyboard
Olle Lindroth – Drums
Discography:
Blown Away, demo [2006]
Perfect Chapter, demo [2009]
Perfect Chapter [2013]
Weblinks: Website / Facebook / Twitter
Video below: Wherever I Go