All That Remains

Continuing their slow climb towards the upper echelon of the new wave of American metal, All That Remains have achieved what they’ve been working for with The Fall of Ideals. It’s embarrassing that the record label ruins the cover art by putting a big sticker with the Ozzfest logo on it, but I guess that’s the price we pay. The tunes are nothing if not completely predictable, but done to perfection. With excellent razor-sharp guitar work, the duel riffs of Mike Martin and Oli Herbert are honestly as good as some of the great metal guitar tag-teams of years past. And as always, this is one band that even has guitar solos that are worth checking out, a rare concept in metal. And while Phil Labonte is an excellent vocalist, delivering guttural growls, powerful screaming and great clean vocals with ease, the problem of this disc lies in the fact that this style of music has become completely over-done. The band may say this album sounds different, but more or less it’s what you’d expect, although the occasional blast beats are a nice surprise and the mellow build-up in "Six” is neat in a Frehley’s Comet kind of way (seriously). All That Remains are a great band, and they don’t deserve to have the violent verses/clean chorus formula taken away from them, but due to that sound being run into the ground, it might be in this band’s best interest to take their considerable talent into new realms.