From Cullman, Alabama, we have the band SHALLOW SIDE created around 2010 from what I could gather on the net. They are releasing their third full album called Reflections and it seems to be one of the offsprings of bands like LINKING PARK and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE. Heavy riffs and softer melodic vocals. We start with “The Worst Kind” and all the elements are there. Good production, intricate heavy riffs and a nice vocal melody. However, it did not impress as a first song of an album to my ears. The next “Filters” is a better tune and it has a nice video on the tubes. This song is very well structured and the performance is impeccable. It has a great heavier mid section that shows they are not afraid of raising the bar sometimes. They try to give each song a different approach as much as possible despite using the formula of soft melodies and arrangements that are suddenly cut by the epic chorus with all the heavy guitars like in “The Fall”.

SHALLOW SIDE has a solid singer in Eric Boatright. With a good range, he can be very melodic, and ruff when required. The album is also filled with nice backing vocals as you can hear in the goods "Your The Reason" and  “Nothing Left”. Other than being well seasoned musicians, they are good composers as well and the songs are filled with nice vocal lines and memorable choruses. These guys know what they are doing and this formula did wonders to the greats of the genre. Just listen to "Anti Light" and a band you know will come to your mind. One thing that bothers me in this kind of metal genre is that we have always good guitar players like Codey Red (like the Mountain Dew?) in this album, but no piercing guitar solos. In my opinion, the guitar solo is a mandatory thing for heavy music and it bothers me not to have it in good tracks like “Over” and “Something To Believe In”. But this is just me. We reach “Every River” and it is another heavy/romantic tune, but this one has cheesier lyrics. We get close to the end with “No One Wins” that for me gets the best of the album title so far. Good melody lines and riffage. Good bass player Sam Bower does not compromise but does not shine in the mix as well. The other issue with this kind of metal is that despite the musical part being good, no instruments shine away from the riff. No interesting bass lines away from the guitars and no guitar solos. In my opinion this removes the ideas that each musician could add to the song.

Nevertheless, I have to also give props to the good drummer Heath Fields that commands the drumming arts with property. We end our journey with the album title “Resurrection” , which is another good tune. Cool thumping drums, acoustic guitars, cool melody, good backing vocals. This is the type of album that every song can be a working song in the commercial aspect. All tunes will have enough ruffness to attract the boys and softness for the girls. No more - I do not like that band! from your girlfriend. Good work but it could be better with some more personality added to the overall arrangements.