All That Remains –The Order Of Things

All That Remains have been maturing well since they formed in 1998, hitting position 13 in the billboard charts with their last album ‘A War You Cannot Win’. The Order Of Things is their seventh release due out on 24 February 2015 and is produced by ‘Josh Wilbur’ (Lamb of God/Gojira/Hatebreed).

Well, we certainly have it all here; bulging bass strings, female vocals, cracked vocals, nimble drum work, tardy drum work, brisk guitars, placid guitars, harmonic vocals, screaming, intensity, emotion and all being catchy at the same time.

‘This Probably Won’t End Well’ kick starts the amphorous mix with a calm emotion and melodic vocals, leading in to the heavier track ‘No Knock’ which constructs deep angry vocals and very catchy fret work aimed at the heavier fans of ATR; which ends abruptly and is far too short in my opinion.

‘Divide’ takes a walk down the path of meaningful and euphonious lyrics continuing with heavy riffs and a sing along style of catchy verses and chorus, which is pretty much the continued theme for most of the album until the track ‘For You’ which brings a little old school rock to the picnic table.

‘Victory Lap’ plods along the same path, but hits us back with an interlude of gruff vocals and resulting air guitar workmanship generating a well needed energetic vibe; sticking like mud on a welly for tracks ‘Pernicious’, ‘Bite My Tongue’, ‘Fiat Empire’, and ‘Tru-Kvlt-Metal’.

For me, the last track ‘Criticism and Self Realization’ brings the entire album together in one gigantic full swoop, an ideal track if you have never listened to All That Remains before or you just want to know what this album is all about, without having to listen to the album its entirety.

Summing up; even though All That Remains have bought us the amphorous mix of metal here, the tracks just do not stand out enough to warrant a complexity of diversity badge. No doubt I will sing along to tracks bought to us over the radio air waves but I won’t be plugging in my CD player to listen to the entire album over and over again. That being said, ‘Criticism and Self Realization’ will have a nice home for the ‘hit the random’ button days on my MP3 player.

All That Remains are:

Phil Labonte (vocals)
Oli Herbert (guitar)
Mike Martin (guitar)
Jeanne Segan (bass)
Jason Costa (drums)

The Album:

1. This Probably Won’t End Well
2. No Knock
3. Divide
4. The Greatest Generation
5. For You
6. A Reason For Me To Fight
7. Victory Lap
8. Pernicious
9. Bite My Tongue
10. Fiat Empire
11. Tru-Kvlt-Metal
12. Criticism and Self Realization

Websites:

www.allthatremainsonline.com
www.facebook.com/allthatremains
www.youtube.com/user/allthatremainsmusic