All Else Failed

All Else Failed is the musical equivalent of all that stains the heart - despair, failure, rage. No hope of redemption, All Else Failed is damnation and the unflinching realisation that all is ruined, just beyond salvation, and in turn hating and lashing out because of it. Excellently produced by the Dillinger Escape Plan's Ben Weinman, gaining both depth and edge, All Else Failed's musical misanthropy and misery is powerful emotional turmoil in its own right, combined with the buffeting musical complexity and extremity contained within Archetype, and it's hazardous. Reminiscent of the Dillinger Escape Plan's disjointed abuse (minus the jazz, but saving the tempo shifts), Burn It Down's ability to establish atmosphere while dropping brutality, coupled with post-hardcore riffs/vocal shifts and fleeting emotional dynamics augmented by clean singing and foreboding passages. Littered with all-out abusive technical metallic/hardcore battering, "The Hutton Play," "Choker," "A Long Drive," All Else Failed reaches their greatest levels of despair, if not hostility, when they grow moodier and let the emotional distress coalesce into contempt, rendering tracks such as "Route 1" and "In Time" wrenching in their emotive contamination. Also, Archetype's sporadic yet effective use of piano, samples and sonic experimentation adds another layer, serving to mitigate the musical malice, anguish and venting prevalent on Archetype. All Else Failed have created a powerful album; bear witness to the purity of abuse and absolution through suffering.