Ex-Lamb Of God drummer Chris Adler has launched a new band called Shallow Rising. The band features vocalist Alex Villarreal, guitarist Tim Ossenfort, bassist Taylor Brandt, and keyboardist Tim King.
On the formation of Shallow Rising, Adler recently spoke with The Liquid Conversations saying he wanted to do something new. Or in his own words: "It's been an interesting process to not only remove myself from those bands that I felt were amazing and I loved everything about doing them, but it was, in the end, pretty unhealthy." Adler doesn't specify which bands he's talking about, but he's really only been in three for the past decade or so – Lamb Of God, Nitro from 2016 to 2018, and Firstborne.
"Well, it's been an interesting process to not only remove myself from those bands that I felt were amazing and I loved everything about doing them, but it was, in the end, pretty unhealthy," said Adler as transcribed by Blabbermouth. "So getting myself out of that, and I had this really strange random opportunity to do a project in Nashville, just like as a session player.
"And so I go there, as most guys do as session players, you just show up and do what you're supposed to do. And I met Tim Ossenfort, and he and I just got along, like, we just vibed correct. There was something about the wavelengths of friendship that made sense, and we've kept in touch since. He reached out to me and said, 'Hey, I got this thing going on with a bunch of dudes, and I'd love to have you involved. Let's go to L.A. and record some drums.'
"So I go to L.A., and in my mind, it's like, 'Well, clearly they want death metal drums. I guess that's what I'm supposed to be doing.' So I go there and he's playing me the tracks and I go in and record 'em, and then we get to, like, song three, and I'm, like, 'This is not really death metal. This is like — I don't want to call it 'friendly,' but it's a different animal than what I thought I was hired to do.
"So we kind of changed, or at least in my mind, changed the perspective and just talked about it for a good while and kind of made it into something that I think is wildly different than what I've ever done and really special. It is something that has a lot of heart… It has all the elements of all that we love about metal, but it also really carries like a positive message and a lot of love, which is something clearly I've been missing for a long time.
"So it's been a real pleasure to not only find the friendship with Tim, but to do something a little bit outside of what is expected."
