The Art of Balance by Shadows Fall

The Art of Balance, the third album from Springfield, Massachusetts metal crew Shadows Fall, hit Century Media on September 17, 2002, and it's the record where the band finally stopped reshuffling. Jason Bittner came in full-time on drums that year, alongside singer Brian Fair, guitarists Jonathan Donais and Matt Bachand and bassist Paul Romanko, and that five-piece went on to be the longest-running lineup the band ever had.

You can hear why they stuck. Coming after Of One Blood, this is thrash with a melodic streak: Donais and Bachand trade chugging riffs and twin-guitar harmonies, Bittner pummels, and Fair swings between a throat-shredding bark and a clean, soaring sing. "Thoughts Without Words" is the calling card. It sold more than 4,500 copies in its first week and entered the Top Independent Albums chart at 15, clearing the runway for The War Within.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.