All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals
I’ll admit it took me a while to warm up to this album. I loved these guys last release “This Darkened Heart” when it was released a couple of years ago and though they weren’t original enough to blow my mind (being pretty straight up killswitch style metalcore with more musical chops) they definitely made an impression. I was pretty excited to see that their new album was being released and I think anticipation was the flaw to my approach. I expected this to be This Darkened Heart 2, which it isn’t. It shows All That Remains at their most melodic and experimental. I don’t mean Radiohead Kid A experimental, just enough of a change in style to make an impact. This is metal. Not classic metal (the route
taken by Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold), more of a Gothenburg melodeath vibe, with Phil Labonte showing off what is a great set of vocal chords for a metal singer. This album is also a fair bit more poppy than “This Darkened Heart” with Phil dialing back the growling for some incredibly catchy melodic lines in songs such as “Not alone” and “This Calling”. It should be explained thjat this album has been criticised for being overly formulaic, ascribing to the method of melodic chorus, growled verse for a great majority of the songs. But, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it I say. Phil Labonte has such a great ear for a catchy and beautiful melodic line, and when coupled with his brilliant screamed vocal, magical songs are created. It’s not going to cause a musical revolution, but “The Fall Of Ideals” is easily the most consistent and well written metalcore album of 2006. If this album doesn’t get them some press than I don’t know what will.
Listen to: 'The Weak Willed' and 'The Air That I Breathe' (left click to download)
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