All That Remains : …For We are Many

Just when you thought you’d heard all the happily generic, paint-by-numbers metalcore in existence, along come All That Remains. They’ve bought the metalcore formula instruction book, read it over and over, and are now milking it for all it’s worth.

Which isn’t actually such a bad thing, if the band in question can write memorable tunes, but that’s a massive ‘if’ in the case of All That Remains. Their tunes are strangely pedestrian for a genre that prides itself on being cutting-edge, and, really, that’s being kind. Someone more cruel might call them ‘boring’. But there’s a serious ‘sameness’ to All That Remains’ tunes that could have you nodding off by track four or five were you not a fan. There’s a distinct lack of imagination and creativity in the arrangements and, most disappointingly, even in the musicianship. It’s difficult, even after multiple listens, to single out one single track that stands out as being something significant or special; the entire album plays out as one undistinguishable, beige whole.

One song can, in fact, be given special mention; the final track and acoustic ballad The Waiting One, yet it’s memorable for all the wrong reasons. Possibly one of the more vacuous and pointless (for this band, whose strengths obviously lie in being aggressive and loud) attempt at a power ballad, it screams out as simple an attempt to give the album a semblance of dynamics and variation. While being quite awful.

Just as McDonalds are to world cuisine, just as soccer is to world sport, so are All That Remains to the world’s heavy music. Very popular, and yet strangely empty and unsatisfying. If you’re into this style of music, why not buy some melodic Aussie metal? You’d at least be supporting this under-supported scene of ours, and your ears will thank you.