Shadows Fall have completed their eighth studio album, guitarist Jon Donais has confirmed — the Springfield, Massachusetts band’s first full-length since 2012’s Fire From The Sky. Producer Zeuss (Rob Zombie, Hatebreed) handled the record, which will be released through MNRK Heavy.
Donais told Mike Zara on 96.7 KCAL-FM’s “Wired In The Empire” that the album is done, but they’ve just gotta go through everything and figure out the right times before releasing it. The record is tentatively due in 2027. Donais has said he wrote the material by deliberately only listening to the thrash and ’90s death metal that made him want to start the band as a teenager.
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On Monday’s Metal Breakdown Daily, Scott Penfold gets into the Shadows Fall comeback — why an album that’s finished still isn’t coming out for another year, the writing trick Jon Donais used to find the band’s original sound again, and whether fifteen years away can ever really be made up. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and take the show with you.
Fourteen years. And they’re not done waiting yet.
Jon Donais has confirmed that Shadows Fall’s eighth album — their first since 2012’s Fire From The Sky, and the record fans have been circling since the band came back in December 2021 — is finished. Tracked, mixed, in the can.
The catch: it’s tentatively pencilled in for 2027.
Donais put it plainly on Mike Zara’s KCAL-FM show. The album’s done. What’s left is going through everything, figuring out the right timing, and working around people’s schedules.
That last part is doing an enormous amount of work, and we’ll come back to it.
How Donais Actually Wrote It
Here’s the detail that makes this interesting rather than just another “album is finished” story.
Donais said that when he was writing, he made a conscious decision to only let himself be influenced by the bands he was listening to when he started Shadows Fall. So he went back to thrash. He went back to ’90s death metal. He was trying to get back inside the head of a 17-year-old kid in Springfield, Massachusetts, asking himself why he wanted to start this band in the first place.
And he described going back to those records with what he called new ears — hearing them again after what felt like a million years and being genuinely knocked out by how good they still were. That, by his account, is where the excitement came from.
That’s a smart move, and it’s the opposite of what most reunion records do. The usual failure mode is a veteran band trying to sound current, chasing whatever’s happening in the genre now, and ending up sounding like nobody in particular. Donais went the other way. He went back to source.
Brian Fair described something similar when the band first started jamming again — that Donais was sitting on a vault of riffs, and that the nervous question in the room was whether it would still sound like Shadows Fall. The answer came back fast. It did.
We covered Fair’s own account of those sessions and the MNRK signing back in April 2025, where he talked about keeping things stripped down with Zeuss and bringing a bit of thrash energy and a more live feel to the recordings. Everything Donais is saying now lines up with that.
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Why It’s Still A Year Away
This is the part nobody’s explaining, so let’s explain it.
“People’s schedules” sounds like a throwaway line. It isn’t. Look at what these five guys are actually doing:
Jon Donais has been a full-time member of Anthrax since 2013, when he replaced Rob Caggiano. Anthrax are in the middle of their own album cycle — we covered their first record in a decade earlier this year. A Big Four adjacent band with a new album is not a part-time commitment.
Jason Bittner spent 2017 to 2024 drumming for Overkill, left in August 2024, and now plays in the supergroup Category 7.
Matt Bachand has Act Of Defiance, and played guitar in Living Wreckage with Donais through the hiatus — a band that’s still active and released new music this year.
Brian Fair has kept Overcast and Downpour going, and turns up in Living Wreckage territory too.
Five guys. Five other bands. That’s not a lack of commitment to Shadows Fall — it’s what happens when a band takes eleven years off and everybody builds a life in the meantime. It’s also exactly why Fair has said the reunion works: no agenda, no pressure, no machine.
The trade-off is that you can’t just drop a finished record whenever you like. You need a release window where the guitar player isn’t on a bus in Europe with Anthrax.
Where They’ve Been Since Coming Back
Quick catch-up for anyone who lost the thread.
Shadows Fall announced their hiatus in August 2014 and played farewell dates into the summer of 2015. They reunited in December 2021 for their first show in six years, in Massachusetts, with no promise of new music attached.
Then it started coming anyway. “In The Grey” landed in December 2024 — their first new song in twelve years. “Souls Devoured” followed in May 2025. They signed to MNRK Heavy. They played a run of dates with Killswitch Engage, hit festivals, and supported Lamb Of God in their hometown.
That Springfield show in July 2025 came with a genuinely great footnote: Mayor Domenic J. Sarno declared July 18 “Shadows Fall Day” and handed the band an official proclamation. A year later they came back to Springfield’s MGM Aria Ballroom on the same date for a 30th anniversary hometown show with Unearth and Within The Ruins — the only show they booked all year.
Thirty years. Two Grammy nominations, for “What Drives The Weak” and “Redemption.” One of the defining bands of the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal alongside Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Unearth and Lamb Of God.
The Take
An album being finished a year before release is frustrating, but it beats the alternative — and metal fans have been burned enough times by comeback records announced before a note was written.
This one exists. It’s done. Zeuss produced it, the classic lineup played it, and the guy who wrote it spent the whole process trying to remember what it felt like to be seventeen and obsessed with thrash.
Fifteen years between albums is a long time. But Shadows Fall never really got a proper goodbye — the hiatus was a slow fade, not a statement. Getting a real record out of them, on their own terms, with no label breathing down their necks, is worth waiting a bit longer for.
TL;DR
- Status: Shadows Fall’s eighth studio album is finished, per Jon Donais
- Release: tentatively 2027 — no firm date, still working out timing and schedules
- Last album: Fire From The Sky (2012), making this their first in roughly 15 years
- Producer: Zeuss (Chris Harris) — Rob Zombie, Hatebreed
- Label: MNRK Heavy
- Songs out already: “In The Grey” (December 2024) and “Souls Devoured” (May 2025)
- The writing approach: Donais only let himself listen to the thrash and ’90s death metal he loved at 17, trying to recapture why he started the band
- Lineup: Brian Fair (vocals), Jon Donais (lead guitar), Matt Bachand (guitar), Paul Romanko (bass), Jason Bittner (drums)
- Why the delay: every member has other active commitments — Donais is in Anthrax, Bittner is in Category 7, Bachand has Act Of Defiance and Living Wreckage
- Milestone: 2026 marks 30 years since the band formed in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1996
FAQ
Is the new Shadows Fall album finished?
Yes. Guitarist Jon Donais confirmed the record is complete and that what remains is sorting out timing and everyone’s schedules before release.
When is the new Shadows Fall album coming out?
No firm date has been set. It’s tentatively pencilled in for 2027.
How long has it been since Shadows Fall released an album?
Their last full-length was Fire From The Sky in 2012. If the new record lands in 2027, that’s a 15-year gap.
Who produced the new Shadows Fall album?
Zeuss, real name Chris Harris, whose credits include Rob Zombie and Hatebreed. He’s a longtime collaborator of the band.
What does the new Shadows Fall material sound like?
Donais wrote it by deliberately only listening to the thrash and ’90s death metal that inspired him to start the band as a teenager. Brian Fair has described the sessions with Zeuss as stripped down, with more thrash energy and a more live feel.
Who is in Shadows Fall now?
The classic lineup: Brian Fair on vocals, Jon Donais on lead guitar, Matt Bachand on guitar, Paul Romanko on bass and Jason Bittner on drums.
Fifteen years between albums, and the wait isn’t quite over — but this one actually exists, and it was written by a guy trying to remember what it felt like to be seventeen. Are you still holding out for this record? Let us know in the comments.
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