All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals
From the opening seconds of the double bass backed scream of "This Calling" you can tell this is a different All That Remains. There's no doubt they've decided to take a more aggressive musical direction than their two previous efforts, streamlining the sound with less solos, less acoustic/instrumental sections and less off kilter rhythms. Pushing this style change further is the generally faster song tempo, occasional use of blast beats and less groove based breakdowns, a direction they briefly hinted at with the closing track on "This Darkened Heart".
But while the music is going in one direction the vocals seem to have missed the boat given the all too frequent clean portions. Maybe some people can reconcile tough as nails metalcore and clean vocals in the same breath but it just confuses my one track mind. Beyond the growing use of clean vocals, lead singer Phil Labonte is tackling some new turf on this disc. His core style is a low end guttural shout that any metalcore fan will be familiar but he's accented it with a scathing high end rasp he started using a bit on the last record that somewhat reminds me of a male version of the new Arch Enemy singer. He excels at these two pitches, equally menacing with either and uses them to add a nice bit of variety to the songs.
As mentioned before, one area he chose to expand considerably is the clean vocals. Regrettably they are wide spread from start to finish, gracing almost every song. They're not too cheesy in the NWOBHM operatic sense but it's enough to make me cringe a bit. I'd much rather have him stick to his usual approach than try to give the songs more overt melody than necessary. Still, he's pretty good at this style as well. Really the only time he doesn't succeed is on "The Weak Willed". Here he experiments with some grind/burp and black metal vocals that, despite some blast beats and a generally caustic bent to the song and lyrics, come across as more showing off than fitting the actual mood of the song. I guess that minor excess can be forgiven if the guitarists are allowed to indulge in so many solos.
Speaking of solos, there's still more than a few tasty power/traditional metal style solos but they're not the centerpiece of the sound like their last record. I usually dislike all out solo wankery but for some reason it really works in this band and I actually find myself missing it. Maybe they were trying to move away from their more Arch Enemy like tendencies but I think that's something that made them stand out in the crowded metalcore field. Most of those bands are content with straight Maiden pilfering so anything that sounds different is a welcome change so it's a little disheartening to see it play a relatively minor role here.
I usually enjoy when a band toughens up their sound and it's hard to argue with the noticeably harder edge to these songs but the lack of overall groove and diminished lead guitars makes it hard to say this is a step up from past work. Of course this is extremely well played and well produced metalcore from a technical standpoint. It easily competes with the upper crust of the genre but, with their previously more unique elements reined in, "The Fall Of Ideals" sounds suspiciously similar to them as well. I don't want to throw the word sell out, especially because they've taken the music in an arguably more caustic direction and this could have been a totally organic development, but it seems like this record will definitely please the Ozzfest crowd while leaving some long time fans (if 2002 counts as long!) feeling a little left out.
But while the music is going in one direction the vocals seem to have missed the boat given the all too frequent clean portions. Maybe some people can reconcile tough as nails metalcore and clean vocals in the same breath but it just confuses my one track mind. Beyond the growing use of clean vocals, lead singer Phil Labonte is tackling some new turf on this disc. His core style is a low end guttural shout that any metalcore fan will be familiar but he's accented it with a scathing high end rasp he started using a bit on the last record that somewhat reminds me of a male version of the new Arch Enemy singer. He excels at these two pitches, equally menacing with either and uses them to add a nice bit of variety to the songs.
As mentioned before, one area he chose to expand considerably is the clean vocals. Regrettably they are wide spread from start to finish, gracing almost every song. They're not too cheesy in the NWOBHM operatic sense but it's enough to make me cringe a bit. I'd much rather have him stick to his usual approach than try to give the songs more overt melody than necessary. Still, he's pretty good at this style as well. Really the only time he doesn't succeed is on "The Weak Willed". Here he experiments with some grind/burp and black metal vocals that, despite some blast beats and a generally caustic bent to the song and lyrics, come across as more showing off than fitting the actual mood of the song. I guess that minor excess can be forgiven if the guitarists are allowed to indulge in so many solos.
Speaking of solos, there's still more than a few tasty power/traditional metal style solos but they're not the centerpiece of the sound like their last record. I usually dislike all out solo wankery but for some reason it really works in this band and I actually find myself missing it. Maybe they were trying to move away from their more Arch Enemy like tendencies but I think that's something that made them stand out in the crowded metalcore field. Most of those bands are content with straight Maiden pilfering so anything that sounds different is a welcome change so it's a little disheartening to see it play a relatively minor role here.
I usually enjoy when a band toughens up their sound and it's hard to argue with the noticeably harder edge to these songs but the lack of overall groove and diminished lead guitars makes it hard to say this is a step up from past work. Of course this is extremely well played and well produced metalcore from a technical standpoint. It easily competes with the upper crust of the genre but, with their previously more unique elements reined in, "The Fall Of Ideals" sounds suspiciously similar to them as well. I don't want to throw the word sell out, especially because they've taken the music in an arguably more caustic direction and this could have been a totally organic development, but it seems like this record will definitely please the Ozzfest crowd while leaving some long time fans (if 2002 counts as long!) feeling a little left out.
