Somber Eyes to the Sky is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Shadows Fall, released in 1997 on Matt Bachand's own label Lifeless Records in the United States, while the European release was handled by Genet Records.

[2] This was the band's last release and only studio album with lead singer Philip Labonte, who helped form All That Remains the following year.

The songs "Lifeless", "Suffer the Season" and "Fleshold" originally appeared on the band's demo, Mourning a Dead World, released in 1996.

The lyrics are dreary, with themes like despair, depression, suicide, isolation and loneliness being featured throughout the album.

In 1996, Shadows Fall recorded a demo called Mourning a Dead World, printing 200 copies.

Bachand formed Lifeless Records to produce Somber Eyes to the Sky and both self-financed and self-promoted it.

Genet Records of Belgium created a repress of the album, and Somber Eyes to the Sky sold 15,000 copies worldwide, including a few thousand in Europe.

[6] In a later interview in 2007, Labonte explained why he left Shadows Fall: What happened was Brian [Fair], who is their current singer, the band that he was in broke up.

There's no hard feelings or anything like that 'cause I knew it was the dude they had in mind in the first place and also I had already started writing stuff for All That Remains.

A headline show earned Shadows Fall the top billing for the New England "Metal & Hardcore" festival in 2000.