Fresh off the live performance debut of Category 7, before he plays with Shadows Fall July 18th, I got to chat with Jason Bittner of Shadows Fall about what the future holds for all of his projects he’s involved in. The Schenectady native talks about what he has been doing recently, who is on his “bucket list” to work with, and sheds a little insight to the Extreme Music Awards 2026. Be sure to check out the Category 7 album, and if you’re free Friday July 18th get out to Springfield Massachusetts and see Jason and Shadows Fall play with Lamb of God and Hatebreed.
WABY: Who is the best band or artist you have seen live?
JB: Rush
WABY: You must be the busiest man in heavy metal. Since 2020, you’ve been a Twitch streamer, drummer for Overkill, participated in the Neil Peart “Bubba Bash”, rekindled the burning embers that Shadows Fall left behind, brought a HUGE spotlight to the local music scene alongside the Extreme Music Awards and the Jason Bittner All-Star Jam, started a killer new band in Category 7, and STILL have been seen at Empire Live watching shows for Living Wreckage and Kakos. What else have you been doing and what did I miss?
JB: Ha, a lot I guess, I toured with SF in May with Killswitch Engage and that was great since SF hadn’t been on a proper “tour” in over 13 years, we just wish it had been another 10 shows!! Then I immediately came home, had a week off, threw my back out, somewhat healed, and then went off to do drum tracks for the new Heathen album in Massachusetts, came home, repeated back going out again…….can you tell I was pushing too many things into a small space?? Finished said record then came home to prep for LA Category 7 rehearsals and first show.
WABY: One of my favorite things about you, is that when your name is brought up, the passion for your work with Stigmata matchesyour work with Shadows Fall and Category 7. Your work with the Extreme Music Awards has been incredible and shines a light celebrating the awesome local scene we have here. How much fun do you have doing the All Star Jam? Do you have any secrets for the 2026 version?
JB: I’ll be very honest – the EMA’s are a LOT of work for me and I do it for free basically, there’s no payment at the end of the night for me – just the artists who I have come in for the event – so basically, it’s me giving back to our local scene as much as I possibly can. Plus, I get to run the show, pick the songs, hire the players, make the set – like I said it’s a lot of work and it’s sandwiched between Bubba Bash and NAMM in Anaheim in January so that adds to the stress level. I’llgive you a hint for 2026 – you WILL ALL STAY TIL THE END OF THE NIGHT OR we will keep all of the awards! It does get frustrating when locals who don’t win an award, leave and show NO support really IMO for the “scene” by leaving we’re putting on a show here and half the room leaves before we take the stage so this year we are going to trim the fat, and do some songs first, then some awards, then some songs, etc.
WABY: You’ve got a super charged sonic assault in Category 7, fresh off playing the Whisky a Go Go in LA. How was that?
JB: It was a lot of work for us to rehearse the band for one show (since our South American tour got cancelled), but we HAD to finally play live and show people we ARE a band and not a “project”. But it went great – watch it on youtube!!
WABY: assume you have played alongside these guys forever, how did it come about to form the band?
JB: It’s been documented multiple times but here is the quick – Mike, Phil and I got out one night, have a few drinks and say “let’s do a band”, 4 months later we had Jack and John, and an album written.
WABY: Are there plans for a tour?
JB: Well, you all know by now there has been TWO planned and canned tours, the US one due to scheduling and we had to pull out, which looks terrible to start. This SA run was totally due to the promoters not paying the deposits they were supposed to provide before we left for the tour – NO ONE goes to South America without getting paid first. Right now, we have a show in October in Florida before the Headbangers Boat with Lamb of God, then we may do some shows after the boat, and some plans for December too, GOD willing.
WABY: July 18th Shadows Fall is playing with Lamb of God and Hatebreed at the MassMutual center. The return of Shadows Fall has been electric to see as a fan. The two songs you’ve released (In the Grey and Souls Devoured) are so vicious and heavy. The two shows at the Palladium that I got to catch were nothing short of breath taking. The winds have been swirling about a new record; At the same time, everyone seems to have their own projects going on. How far are we from the new Shadows Fall album?
JB: We’re getting there – Brian does some more vocals this week after the LOG show on the first 5 songs and then I go in to record drums for the last 5 sometime within the next 6 weeks – it will not make it out this year like we hoped, a little to do with Matt B now playing in Hatebreed too, so again another scheduling hurdle to cross – but it will definitely be out in 2026, and I can’t wait!
WABY: My best friend, Ian McDuffie, was a drummer and he was a HUGE fan of yours. He would frequently get obsessed trying to figure out certain parts of songs. One in particular is your fill in “The Power of I and I”. This meant listening to THAT PART OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Do you have a favorite piece of your catalog that you are proudest of so far? Also, do you have a song where the drums hit just right and you know “That is IT!”?
JB: I have a few of those for sure, Light That Blinds, Power, War, Fire From the Sky are some of my all-time Shad faveswith our new song Souls Devoured being one of those now as well. Nothing But Enemies – Stigmata one of my all-timefaves, the Burning Human album I basically played everything possible LOL, and to be honest – I’m really excited about this Heathen album I just did, cause there’s some killer stuff on there too! And I also do think we captured some “lighting in a bottle” with Category 7.
WABY:What did you think of the “Back to the Beginning” show, and are you a little bit jealous that Jon got to go over there and absolutely kill it as he always does?
JB:Not jealous at all, I was very happy and proud my bandmate was there, there were WAY more artists who didn’t play the show than did……..I thought the show was great and besides I toured with the REAL Black Sabbath for the entire summer of 2005 so I got to see them multiple times, and some of those nights, sitting right next to Bill!
WABY: Is there an artist that is on your bucket list to work with and why?
JB: Well I always used to say “Maiden will never get rid of Nicko”……….and even though HE left on his terms, I can’t say that I wouldn’t have liked a “run on the tubs with the boys”. And Eddie Van Halen…..
