All That Remains: Overcome Review
September 11, 2008 by Scott
All That Remains fourth release, Overcome is due out next week, September 16th. After releasing This Darkened Heart in 2004 and The Fall Of Ideals in 2006, a lot of people ask themselves how and could All That Remains top those two records? Could it be done without straying far from the bands signature sound? Could All That Remains evolve to improve and stay true to themselves and their fans? The Answer is yes, yes, and yes!
In the aspect that both The Fall Of Ideals and This Darkened Heart had each their own particular sound, so does Overcome. Phil said that the band is not interested in making the same album three times but still wanted to stay true to the bands sound. So with that let’s get started…
Phil Labonte’s deep screams are horrifyingly brutal and comprehensible at the same time. Phil has come to evolve and develop his voice and singing style. You will see this throughout the entire album. A slight change in the tone of Phil’s voice and there is a lot more clean singing on Overcome than there is in the past albums to exclude Behind Silence and Solitude, which had no clean vocals in it at all. If you go back and listen to the scream vocals in Behind… you will see that it sounds very similar to the way Phil screams on Overcome. It’s as if he’s taken a lesson from each album and applied it to this one. Some fans might not like the presence of as much clean vocal as usual, but it works. God damn it works!
Oli Herbert’s guitar work. What can you really say about Oli’s skill that haven’t already been said. This guy is amazing and every track proves what an outstanding songwriter he is. His solos are an immaculate demonstration if guitar wizardry and the acoustic bits and pieces make you wish he would do a solo Ep or something, so you could hear more of his acoustic work. Backed by Mike Martin’s stellar rhythm work and Jeanne Sagan keeping the bottom end nice and thick (That’s not a comment about Jeanne’s rear either), it all meshes together so flawlessly brutal, yet melodic, with ripping hooks at every turn.
This is the first record with drummer Jason Costa and he isn’t cutting corners anywhere. Using the double kick where it needs it and not too much, the drum mix and arrangements sound very well orchestrated and executed. Costa is a force to be reckoned with behind the set, but if you saw ATR live on tour with Jason, then you already knew that.
Now let’s break a few things down. The catchy-ness of this album is a 9.5 on a scale from 1 to 10. As I said before, there is a lot more clean vocals on this album than any other. Some fans may not appreciate that, while others may appreciate that more. However, Phil does balance it out with the brutal screams and growls. Some may think his clean singing style on Overcome sounds too pop or mainstream but it’s just as metal as any other metal singer that sings with a clean voice. The cover of Nevermore’s Believe In Nothing is a great tribute and shows off the softer side of the band.
So to sum it up I’ll quote myself as saying it’s “Flawlessly Brutal, yet melodic, with ripping hooks at every turn.” A new step for All That Remains. If you want to hear something that sounds like The Fall Of Ideals then go listen to The Fall Of Ideals. If you want to hear a new All That Remains record, with the band pushing their limitations and progressing, then listen to Overcome.
i’ve been listening to this non stop, really good album.
Been waiting for this for sooooo long… I can hardly wait to get my hands on it now from what i’ve read!
Metallica dethroned by All remains??? ROFL
Metallica can only be dethroned by bands like Cannibal Corpse or Dark Tranquillity, bands with real quality. There’s no place for this kind of poser band on the history book of true metal.
OK. Perhaps I should have phrased that statement somewhere else besides this review. In fact I’m going to edit that out. But let’s look at it this way. Oli Herbert is an amazing lead guitar player and Mike Martin plays rhythm pretty well too. Jason Costa is far better than Lars ever was or will be. Perhaps it’s not your style of music, but Cannibal Corpse? Really? Dark Tranquility maybe. But there are far too many other great metal bands that have bumped Metallica from their throne. They may be legendary, but they are no longer Kings. I don;t care how many albums they sell.
Now let’s move to the poser part. What’s “poser” about them? Cause they all don’t have long hair? Cause they fit in the Metalcore category even though Oli hates hardcore and metalcore and hates being thrown in to the metalcore genre. What’s poser about them? You probably know very little about this band but toss them into your “crap band” bag because there are a lot of scene kids that follow them. That’s understandable because I think we all do it. Or maybe you don’t like them because they get tossed into that category of bands that have the heavy/clean vocal alternating. I’m a bit picky about this heavy/clean thing myself because there are far too many bands that do it because it has become trendy. Either way, ATR is a good band with a talented crew. It’s easy to dismiss a band when you really don’t know much but what you’ve heard from others that hate them for little reason. Try listening to Behind Silence And Solitude where there is no clean vocals. You might actually like that.
This album sounds entirely uninspired to me, and every song is just average. Nothing is great about it and everything is just good. I think it sounds too mainstream, the guitars aren’t technical enough, and it sounds like Phil Labonte’s voice is wearing down. I’m sorry but I am shocked you all feel this way about this album. I’m now going to listen to all the old stuff. And Death Magnetic LOL
When I first got this album I was really stoked. I liked it more then than I do now. Maybe because it was some new ATR. I still think it’s good but I don’t listen to it nearly as much as I do the older albums. I’m not going to change my review, but if I were to I would probably tone it down a bit. It’s different but I don’t feel like it’s uninspired and the new songs sound great live as do the older songs.
AS far as death magnetic goes, that album was much better than I thought it was going to be. It was good, not epic as so many people are saying but it has its moments.
fall of ideals is the shit! overcome lacks the punch and the kicks that made the second album so good..i think im gonna trade this cd..oh well
Good album! Can see why people may dislike this new album compared to the olds. Plus i’m sure it’s hard for bands these days as everytime they bring out some new album it immediately gets thrown in the category of mainstream! ATR will always rock!