Review of All That Remains - Behind Silence And Solitude

Originally a side project of Philip Labonte's when he was a member of Shadows Fall, All That Remains portray a strong resemblance to his former band throughout this entire disc. Although this band doesn't come across anywhere near as inspiring as Shadows Fall, there are several moments on this disc that flourish with promise. The title track opens up this 8 song ride through the East Coast metal-core scene and is actually one of the better tracks on the album. With the exception of the title track, From These Wounds and Clarity, most of the tracks on this disc are a mediocre attempt at blending the melodic Euro influenced side of metal with the recent all out ballsy hardcore sound of the East Coast. I've never been too much of a hardcore fan; I've always thought that REAL metal actually showed a higher level of talent. I mean come on, how hard is it to play a beat where all you're doing is alternating between one kick hit and one snare hit (slowly) while tapping the ride or the hat? It doesn't really matter what the guitar is doing, and in the end they call that groove. Well, Pantera wore that sound out by the time Far Beyond Driven came out and that's why they rarely used it after that. It's gonna take a lot more than that for me to break out the metal grimace. Anyway, before I get too sidetracked here, a couple of strongpoints this album has to offer are the lead playing and the rhythms underneath those leads. The underlying rhythms are catchy and the leads are better than average. By no means are either mind blowing, but together they produce pleasurable moments. A couple of lowpoints on this album are the production, which just seems a bit muddy with the guitars lacking punch and the other thing would be the vocals which just seem too one-dimensional. To the untrained ear all the deathish/hardcore vocals sound the same and those morons consider it all nonsense. But to those of us who have earned our master's degree in the art of listening to metal, we know what is what and who is who and what something should or shouldn't sound like. Unlike the previously mentioned Shadows Fall who blend about 3 different death sounds with a couple different variations of clean singing, Labonte pretty much deathifies the listener with the same sounding style throughout and never tries to change the overall sound from line to line. No offense Philip, but unfortunately you'll always be compared to your former band, and with the way they seem to be possibly escaping from the realms of the underground, the comparisons may become even more frequent. In the end this album isn't all that bad, and it's a great start at what could possibly (key word) be a promising career for these guys. If they can take the criticism they receive from this album and use it to their advantage, they should be able to make a few adjustments and their next album should be an improvement. Unfortunately I'll probably be too busy listening to the new Shadows Fall record to even come across it.

Release Details

All That Remains

Behind Silence And Solitude

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