  
My first love and longstanding favourite metalcore
heroes All That Remains have had a very interesting
up and down career over the last 14 years; I must
say their career peaked during the release of
their third studio album “The Fall Of Ideals”
with songs like “Six” appearing on
Guitar Hero games and their fan base reaching
its highest count, they played some pretty big
tours and festival slots being quite well respected,
this all started to decline with their 2008 release
“Overcome” which was so far from the
style of the previous that it caused a lot people
to assume the band had sold out and abandoned
them. Since that dreaded decline the band has
tried to salvage and repair the damage with 2010’s
“For We Are Many” which for me not
only recaptured the energy from “The Fall
of Ideals” but completely renovated their
sound pushing it to new depths yet unreached which
explains why I’ve been a bit obsessively
excited about their new albums release “A
War You Cannot Win”.
I tell you what, if this album doesn’t recapture
all the fans they lost and push their career to
new limits they never even dreamt of then something
is seriously wrong with the metal community because
some of this material is utterly spectacular.
“Down Through The Ages” blends that
trademark distorted riffs overlaid with high tempo
clean riffs, Phil Labonte’s growls backed
with extremely fast drum work, then the chorus’s
are extremely heartfelt and melodic the vocals
melt my soul at times even if that is a gay thing
to say I don’t care. “Stand Up”
has got to be my favourite, it does favour the
bands softer side but with a positive feel and
I’m just a whore for that melody, best song
I’ve ever heard Labonte’s clean vocals
on.
So evidentially they stand by their approach of
taking a much more melodic approach after “The
Fall of Ideals” and they are on a mission
to prove it by really pushing themselves, I mean
“What If I Was Nothing” is far from
what is expected of ATR, but don’t be fooled
in believing that doesn’t mean it isn’t
anything short of magnificent, it shows personal
growth of each member as musicians especially
Labonte who puts those clean vocals to perfect
use. “Not Fading” isn’t quite
the same but not only that it’s more chord
based with licks as opposed to a flowing riff
that we’re used to hearing which makes this
one stick out. My analysis is that ATR started
their careers this eerie brutal metalcore act
and over the years have lost that sinister edge
bit by bit and experimented along the way maturing
and developing a more universal sound, in a way
this is a stupid move because the reason they
gained critical acclaim was due to that original
style but in another way it keeps them from getting
stale and boring, proof of that is that I was
a diehard fan in the glory days and even I’m
finding myself loving this new material.
4.5/5
Review by James Webb
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