''The Shadow Side'' is the debut solo album by

Black Veil Brides Black Veil Brides is an American rock band based in Hollywood, California. The group formed in 2006 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is currently composed of lead vocalist Andy Biersack, multi instrumentalist Jinxx, lead guitarist Jake Pitts, dru ...

frontman Andy Black. It was released on May 6, 2016, on

Lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a Natural satellite, moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a Fissure vent, fractu ...

and

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

. The album was produced by John Feldmann and marked a departure of Black's

alternative metal Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music that combines heavy metal with influences from alternative rock and other genres not normally associated with metal. Alternative metal bands are often characterized by ...

musical style as the frontman of

in exchange for more pop influences. It features guest performances from Quinn Allman, Rian Dawson,

Ashton Irwin Ashton Fletcher Irwin (born 7 July 1994) is an Australian musician, best known as the drummer of the pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer. Since 2014, 5 Seconds of Summer have sold more than 10 million albums, sold over 2 million concert tickets ...

Juliet Simms Juliet Nicole Simms (born February 26, 1986), also known as Lilith Czar, is an American singer and songwriter. She established a fan base as the front woman of the band Automatic Loveletter. In 2007 – in the band's earliest years – she bec ...

, Matt Skiba, and

Gerard Gerard is a masculine forename of Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other Germanic name, early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful ...

and Mikey Way.

Background and production

frontman Andy Biersack debuted his solo pseudonym project under the name Andy Black with the song "They Don't Need to Understand" releasing in May 2014. Black began to record the album in August 2015 alongside producer John Feldmann. Throughout the recording process, Black often teased the upcoming album on social media with images of Black alongside well known rock musicians including

Patrick Stump Patrick Martin Stumph (born April 27, 1984), known professionally as Patrick Vaughn Stump, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Rock music, rock band Fall Out Boy ...

and

Gerard Way Gerard Arthur Way (born April 9, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and comic book writer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and co-founder of the Rock music, rock band My Chemical Romance. He released his debut solo album, ''Hesitan ...

. In an interview with ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

'', Black commented on the musical style of the album. While Black was recording the album, he also intended to record the next Black Veil Brides album, later resulting in writing about 45 songs for the solo project.

Reception

''The Shadow Side'' has received highly favorable reviews from music critics. It holds an average score of 83/100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, indicating "universal acclaim". ''

Rock Sound ''Rock Sound'' is a British magazine that covers rock music. The magazine aims at being more " underground" and less commercial, while also giving coverage to better-known acts. It generally focuses on pop punk, post-hardcore, metalcore, punk, ...

'' described the album as being "full of bombastic alt-pop". ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political r ...

'' writer Ryan Downey commented that Black "chases his dark muse against a cinematic backdrop of impressive pop 'n' roll on ''The Shadow Side''", also writing that Black sounded "confidently in charge" despite the large number of collaborations with known rock artists on the album. At the 2017 Alternative Press Music Awards, ''The Shadow Side'' was nominated for "Album of the Year", and lead single " We Don't Have to Dance" was awarded "Song of the Year".

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from album booklet notes Musicians * Andy Black – primary artist * John Feldmann – backing vocals; keyboards (tracks 1–3, 10 and 11); guitar (tracks 1 and 2) *Zakk Cervini – guitar; keyboards (tracks 1–3, 5–8 and 10–13); bass guitar (tracks 1–4, 9 and 12) *Matt Pauling – guitar; keyboards (tracks 1, 3, 5–8 and 10–13); bass guitar (tracks 1, 7 and 13) * Peter "JR" Wasilewski – horn (tracks 1 and 13) *

Simon Wilcox Simon Wilcox is a Canadian poet and songwriter, based in Los Angeles, California. Her songs have been recorded and released by Blink 182, Britney Spears, Carly Rae Jepsen, Enrique Iglesias, Miranda Lambert, The Used, Nick Jonas, Camila Cabello, ...

– backing vocals (track 1) *

– backing vocals (tracks 1, 3, 8 and 13) *

– drums (tracks 1–4, 6 and 12) * Ricky Reed – guitar, programming, synthesizer (track 2) * Mikey Way – bass guitar (tracks 2 and 11) * Quinn Allman – guitar (tracks 2, 3 and 12); keyboards (track 12) * Matt Skiba – guest vocals (track 4) * Rian Dawson – drums (tracks 7–9 and 13) * Dean Butterworth – drums (track 11) *

– backing vocals (track 11) Production *John Feldmann – production, additional mixing *Ricky Reed – production (track 2) *Zakk Cervini – mixing, engineering *Matt Pauling – engineering *

Manny Marroquin Manny Marroquin (born September 21, 1971) is a Guatemalan-American record mixing engineer. He has been credited on albums for high-profile pop, R&B, hip hop and rock acts. He has worked with artists including Rihanna, Kanye West, Katy Perry ...

– mixing (track 2) *Ethan Shumaker – engineering (track 2) *A&R – Ryan Silva

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shadow Side, The 2016 debut albums Andy Biersack albums Lava Records albums Republic Records albums Albums produced by John Feldmann