ALL THAT REMAINS – The Fall Of Ideals

Whenever you think you’ve got it all figured out, don’t be fooled –- that is just a delusion: Everybody dwells in the well-established prejudice that Metalcore and the NWOAHM is about to die and record companies are just trying to make a final buck by musically looting the corpse of the original idea. But, didn’t Unearth release an album this year that was so strong that you could almost forgive the phalanx of sound-alikes? And now, All That Remains hits you right in the same spot!

Of course, they still stand true to their style, and Metalcore remains Metalcore, so you can expect the same heavy riffing and aggressive shouting the genre requires, which is supported by the fact that they toured with Shadows Fall, Lamb of God, and Slipknot. Generally, the sound is close to other well-known bands of said style like Killswitch Engage, Unearth, Shadows Fall, and also the Swedish Melodic Death Metal way of combining Melody and Heavyness. That does not come as a surprise, since Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage excellently produced The Fall Of Ideals, and they had Peter Wichers, formerly of Soilwork, as engineer. Also, singer Phil Labonte was formerly a member of Shadows Fall.

Metalcore began to decline when bands repeated the same song over and over and did not notice that the artistic universe they were stuck in became smaller and smaller every time someone released another album. There is only so many albums one wants that exhibit raw brutality. In the end, a certain helping of melody is necessary for longtime success, and that is where All That Remains show their competitors how it is done. Although, of course, the elements combined here are also far from being new, they blend it almost to perfection. Just listen to the incredible chorus of the opening track “This Calling,” or the following “Not Alone,” “We Stand” or “Whispers (I Hear Your).” Melodically, all of them would do very well on Soilwork’s Stabbing The Drama. But, they add great guitar leads to it, which are remotely Iron Maiden or Judas Priest like, and before the recipe becomes too boring, they surprise you with blast beats and Death growls in “The Weak Willed,” as well as acoustic parts, and also in “Six.”

Together with the brilliant guitar work (“The Air That I Breathe,” “Six”), and the introduction of traditional sounding guitar solos and the relative shortness of the songs, which all end before they can become boring, The Fall Of Ideals is a very entertaining album… that is, if you like that type of energetic shouting and shredding guitar, which has been famous for a while. Although, of course, in the second half of the album the songs become a bit predictable, but there may be hope for the genre yet as it seems the bands do not think they have to compete to see who is the most brutal anymore, but can concentrate on writing good songs. From the starting scream to the last fading guitar sound, this is almost 40 minutes of surprisingly good steel, which may broaden their fan base considerably. They deserve it.