All That Remains

A War You Cannot Win

Written by: PP on 10/12/2012 16:42:59

Now that their sixth album "A War You Cannot Win" has been released, it has been three albums and six years since the previous All That Remain release that was considered phenomenal. "The Fall of Ideals" was a genre-defining album as much as it was a career-defining one, which displayed a band at their peak executing the metalcore genre to near-perfection. Unfortunately, it's starting to look more and more likely that All That Remains were only ever capable of writing one such album, with everything else in their discography falling far behind that one iconic release.

When you write and release such an important and impactful album at one point during your career, everything else you'll do (or have done) will always be measured up against it. That's why there's no way around that comparison on "A War You Cannot Win", and why, just like "Overcome" and "For We Are Many", it sounds kind of bland and forgettable in comparison. They've stacked a couple of catchy songs on the record - "Down Through The Ages" and "A War You Cannot Win" as the highlights - but they're still executing essentially the same formula from start to finish: tight metalcore riffing meets clean vocal choruses and growled verses for good measure. Fortunately, vocalist Labonte and guitarists Herbert and Martin have always been among the best within metalcore in their respective roles, so even on autopilot All That Remains still manage to sound decent all things considered.

But when you're expecting monumental instead of decent, you're bound to be disappointed. Especially when you get to the filler material on the record that really underlines the word autopilot I used earlier. How many times have we heard the same rhythm progression or tired metalcore riff alone from All That Remains for about a decade now? The consistent lack of innovation or musical evolution suggests that they are still, almost desperately now, trying to re-create the success of "The Fall Of Ideals". As you know from my other reviews, that wouldn't be an issue at all if they were successful, but they are not. "A War You Cannot Win" is a quintessential All That Remains release in terms of sound, but largely without the epic moments that enabled the band to sell 250,000 albums in 2006.

Download: Down Through The Ages, A War You Cannot Win, Asking Too Much
For the fans of: Killswitch Engage, Caliban, As I Lay Dying
Listen: Facebook

Release date 06.11.2012
Prosthetic

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