Album Review

All That Remains - A War You Cannot WinAll That Remains – A War You Cannot Win

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

 Band Members

Philip Labonte
Mike Martin
Oli Herbert
Jeanne Sagan
Jason Costa
 Track Listing
1. Down Through The Ages
2. You Cant Fill My Shadow
3. Stand Up
4. A Call To All Non-Believers
5. Asking Too Much
6. Intro
7. Just Moments In Time
8. What If I Was Nothing?
9. Sing For Liberty
10. Not Fading
11. Calculating Loneliness
12. A War You Cannot Win
 Band Related Links
All That Remains Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?