Shadowdances

The roots of Shadowdances reach the year 1991. Previously known as Conscious Rot, the band was quite known worldwide in the underground streams - mostly for their MC album "The Soil", which featured extreme, technical, yet melodic and original death metal, and was released by Spanish Fight Zone Prod. in 1994. In autumn of 1995 a change of band's name and style turned it all into a whole new dimension. The music has gotten darker, more emotional and became as personal as never before. And that's when Shadowdances was actually born. The first Shadowdances album "Burning Swodahs" was released in 1996 by Spanish Abstract Emotions Rec. as a mini CD, which later was re-released by Lithuanian Dangus Productions. Re-released version featured two extra tracks, and, according to Dangus Productions, became Lithuania's 1 selling metal product in 1997. In 2001 the band recorded their second album called "The River of Lost". It took a hell lot of time in the studio, comparing to what's been done in Lithuanian underground before, to record this material. After four long months of entering the studio 2-3 times a week, in May the record was finally mixed and mastered. 14 songs were recorded and only 10 of them made into the final CD, out through Dangus Productions in 2003. After a number of larger or smaller gigs, in February of 2003 the band played at the legendary Lithuanian metal fest „Death Comes…10", supporting Portugal's dark rockers Moonspell. The band was awarded as the best Lithuanian Rock/Metal band of 2003 at the annual Lithuanian Alternative Music Awards. In 2004 Shadowdances offered their fans a seven-part 26 min. long composition "The Beauty and The Beast". The piece was composed around 1995-1996, recorded in 2001, during "The River of Lost" album studio session, and was mixed at home afterwards. Band leader Juodas wanted to record this composition to pay respect to one of his biggest his past creative influence Type O Negative - the band that impelled him to start writing slower and darker music and to transform Conscious Rot into Shadowdances. "The Beauty and The Beast" is available from the band by request. In May of 2005 the band played at a very warm and welcoming first Latvian metal open air "Metal Show" in Blome (www.metalshow.lv). In December of 2005 Shadowdances played at one of the biggest Baltic States fests "Green Christmas" (Rakvere, Estonia - www.greenchristmas.ee), alongside Die Krupps (Ger) and their long-time heroes Anathema (UK). It was a tremendous experience! Then, in July of 2006 one more big Estonian fest followed – an open air "Hard Rock Laager", together with Tiamat (Swe), Satyricon (Nor), Pedigree (Est), Horricane (Est), Manatark (Est) and lots of others. In August of 2006 Shadowdances gave their first and only acoustic performance at Moulin Rouge Club in Vilnius, Lithuania, completely re-making some of their songs from "The River of Lost", playing some tracks from the forthcoming album, a few songs which are yet to be recorded for future albums, as well as some cover versions. This acoustic performance was recorded and in September of 2007 has turned into a limited edition double album called "Shadowdances - Acoustic Live at Moulin Rouge Vilnius". The newest band's album is due to be released by the end of 2008 and is called "Misery Loves My Company". It took almost 2 years to record and another 2 years to mix and master it. Mixing and mastering was done by Juodas using computer software only. Songs on the new album are quite different in style from those on band's earlier releases. Although Shadowdances music is usually labeled as atmospheric metal, in fact the band doesn't like labels, and the band's goal is to always be true to their own feelings and inspirations, not to get stuck in clichés and not to limit themselves with any particular genre. The artwork of the new album was created by an exclusively talented and well known digital artist Natalie Shau (www.myspace.com/natalieshau). All Shadowdances albums are available from the band and some of them from distributors Dangus Productions, Ledo Takas Records and Prior Records. The new album will shortly be available from the band, from the above mentioned distros and in selected stores across Lithuania. For your convenience, we will be updating all the buying options in our blog at www.myspace.com/shadowdances.