SHADOWS FALL - At War With Core! Page 4
by Martin Popoff

So you kind of shared the $75,000 worth of pain with the label, as it were?

"Pretty much, pretty much. And it's other things you give up too. You give up living a normal life. You're rolling around in a bus 24 hours a day. Thankfully, now we're in a bus, and not still cramped up in the van anymore. But it's like, you don't eat right, you don't sleep right. Hopefully you try to take care of yourself the best you can, but you're away from your friends, your family and your home and whatnot, and it's a sacrifice. But it's better than waking up and punching the clock."

In closing, I asked Jason to articulate the reason Shadows Fall seem to be regularly cited as leaders within the scene. "That we don't give a f**k," he says bluntly. "Seriously, we really don't care where we fall as far categories go. We just go out there, we do what we do, and that's it. We go out there and we play metal. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. If you want to call us metalcore fine; call us hardcore band, fine. Call us a thrash band, whatever. The point is, we're going to go out there, you know, two guitars wailing away, my double bass, just a crazy stage show. We're not shoe-gazer metal, those bands that just stand there and stare at the floor and don't move around. We're not a death metal band. I think the best way to put it is we give a bit of the retro aspect to the dudes that are older, and like the old bands like Slayer or Testament, yet I think we still have enough freshness and newness in us that gets the kids."