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All That Remains - Overcome
| Adequacy |
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Let's face it - as much as I was a fan of this "new wave of American metal" or "metal-core" when it was first emerging, some of it is losing steam. With Killswitch Engage becoming more commercialized to bands contributing their songs to the soundtracks of popular "horror" movies, I'm starting to get the feeling that this whole trend is going the way of "nu-metal". Not that there aren't any talented bands left in this "metal-core" thing. Take for instance, All That Remains. Fronted by Phil Labonte, formerly of Shadows Fall, the band's rise in popularity was well paced. By the third album, The Fall of Ideals, the members had perfected a formula that would undoubtedly win them tons of fans. It was their most accessible album to date, and it probably still is. Now, they are on the heels of Overcome, a slight step away from the more commercial sounds of their last record, but a step into the unknown for the rest of their career. The first departure you will probably notice comes through in the production value. This is a raw record compared to The Fall... and they pull no punches in the start of "Before the Damned". It's a little too straight forward in its delivery and the song loses its steam after the first chorus. You really feel yet another growled verse then sung chorus coming on and it's not too exciting. Then, they follow with "Two Weeks" which begins like your typical melodic All That Remains song. What proceeds takes you off guard though: instead of growling, you hear Labonte actually singing throughout the whole song. Sure, you hear growling in the background, but it's a refresher to have Labonte's powerful voice take front and center. Their are hooks all over this song and they are somewhat prog influenced - yet another interesting addition to the formula....full text |
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| Sputnikmusic |
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I guess I missed the memo, because I was pretty late on the The Fall of Ideals bandwagon. And I was never fully on it anyways; if anything, it was like I ran for the bus, realized it was the wrong one and got off. Shitty analogies aside, I liked The Fall of Ideals, but unlike a lot of folk I never really fell in love with it. Yes, it was occasionally great, but it was never consistently good. Even while the album was defined by its rollercoaster highs and lows, there was something there. Overcome has the opposite problem. It's nearly consistently good but never really great. The first thing I noticed on Overcome was the vocals. Phil Labonte still has solid control over his harsh vocals but they now more often than not come with a hint of exhaustion and wear to them. He sounds tired and his harsh vocals seem tattered as a result. This makes for an awkward contrast concerning his moderately improved clean singing. With Jason Suecof handling production duties this time around (instead of Adam D.), the clean vocals sound far less processed and computerized, but they're still fairly glossy. They're also still subpar, but the point is the contrast between tattered screams and boyish cleans is, like I said, awkward. Of course to go through this member by member would make the review read as over-comfortably as the album plays, so it is far easier to simply point out Overcome's overwhelming adequacy. If The Fall of Ideals was a slalom, Overcome is cross-country; sure, there are heavier tracks (Before the Damned, Relinquish) and softer ones (A Song for the Hopeless, Believe in Nothing) but they're all par for the course. Even when the quality between tracks falters, it never feels like a major drop-off. I could say "Chiron" is an obvious highlight but then in passing, I'd mention the absolutely terrible "Believe in Nothing". Of course the blame can't be placed entirely on All That Remains for "Believe in Nothing"; a cover of a Nevermore track, the song is a hypothetical "what if" pairing of Good Charlotte, Alice and Chains and the Backstreet Boys, only with a fittingly Nevermore-esque self-indulgent, hair-blowing-by-a-fan guitar solo and a thick layer of fuchsia coloured provolone. I guess that makes it rotten....full text |
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