All That Remains - The Fall of Ideals
Prosthetic Records
Metalcore
11 songs (38:59)
Release year: 2006
All That Remains, Prosthetic Records
Reviewed by Elias
Archive review

Ah, metalcore, most fickle of subgenres. Listening to metalcore is like your girlfriend being on her period- irritating, repetitive, and overbearing, but every once in a while the hormones work just the right way to have her horny as hell and looking for a vicious, naturally lubricated blood-fuck. The Fall of Ideals is one such blood-fuck. In the midst of a stream of notorious tedium, soul-crushing by-the-book songwriting, and post-Pantera faux tough-guy attitudes, metalcore will sometimes get the formula just right, and bring us something that understands how to make the genre good. Everything metalcore gets a bad rap for – cheesy clean choruses/screamed verses, breakdowns as the main climax, Iron Maiden inspired guitar harmonies, and the obligatory quasi-emo power ballad to add oestrogen-endowed listeners to their fanbase – All That Remains somehow manage to execute in just the right quantities so as to stay in balance- neither too cheesy, too aggressive, or too pussy. No matter what your previous opinions about metalcore may have been, discard them when listening to this album.

“This Calling” starts the album off with a punch in the face, with vocalist Philip Labonte’s screams coming in over the furious double bass like a war cry over a hail of bullets, before seamlessly moving into a powerful and emotional chorus melody. The man has a very strong voice, with aggressive growls and screams and a clear, soaring clean alto. The song lets us know what to expect for the rest of the album, from fast double-bass shit to chugga-chugga riffing interspersed to clean melodic choruses to dual-guitar harmony interludes to breakdowns to short, fun melodic solos. This formula, albeit slightly repetitive and just a tad boring upon repeated listens, works quite well the first few times around, and keeps the album interesting enough to merit a purchase, which is a rare compliment in today’s era of downloading. “Not Alone”, for example, the next song in the album, features the exact same elements as “This Calling”, but because of the strength of the melody and the arrangements of said elements manages to have its own identity while still keeping the listener in the atmosphere set up by the opener. The opening harmony riff I find particularly cool.

The same occurs with “It Dwells On Me”. Next, “We Stand” is slightly more breakdown-oriented with a tad of melodeath influences, sounding like something In Flames could have quite easily produced in their current state. “Whispers (I Hear You)” is the aforementioned obligatory ballad-like tune, yet instead of catering shamelessly to rubber-knife wielding 14-year-olds with too much mascara, it manages to be a very enjoyable ditty. The songs are also short enough to let the album flow without weighing on the listener with overdrawn self-indulgence, an affliction commonly found among most metalcore bands in my experience. The longest song is 4.06, and the length limits help it greatly. After “Whispers (I Hear You)” comes ”Six”, the highlight of the album for me and the embodiment of all of its best qualities. It was the first song I heard off of this, the song that made me want to buy the album, and is still the song I listen to most. The only problem is that after the awesomeness of “Six” the album starts to trail away a bit. I can’t remember the choruses to the last three songs, or how they start. After the first few listens I lost interest in listening beyond “Six”- however, other readers may probably fare better given my incredibly low attention span when it comes to music. However, everything up until “Six” is simply metalcore at its finest, and you should damn well buy it. Ironically enough, the next band in my itunes after All That Remains are the All-American Rejects, due to alphabetical conspiracy, and for some reason it transitions quite well.

Killing Songs :
Six, This Calling, Not Alone, Whispers (I Hear You)
Elias quoted 89 / 100
Other albums by All That Remains that we have reviewed:
All That Remains - Overcome reviewed by Jerrol and quoted 47 / 100
3 readers voted
Average:
 77
Your quote was: 45.
Change your vote

There are 48 replies to this review. Last one on Sat Sep 04, 2010 12:43 pm
View and Post comments