1) Before the Damned 
2) Two Weeks 
3) Undone 
4) Forever in your Hands 
5) Chiron 
6) Days without 
7) A Song for the Hopeless 
8) Do not Obey 
9) Relinquish 
10) Overcome 
11) Believe in Nothing (Nevermore cover)

Philip Labonte – Vocals 
Mike Martin – Guitar 
Oli Herbert – Guitar 
Jeanne Sagan – Bass 
Jason Costa – Drums (ex-Diecast) 

ALL THAT REMAINS: "Overcome"   all that remains      

Recorded at Audio Hammer Studios, Sanford, Florida 

Producer Jason Suecof 

for promo thanks to:    distributed in Switzerland by   

review  by dalia "gryphon_spirit" di giacomo ___          

The copying and/or reproduction for any purpose whatsoever of the content of the present review, in whole or in part,  is strictly forbidden without giving credits.

Overwhelm and vanquish.

"Overcome" (All That Remains ' fourth studio album) is a mighty expression and surely one of the best recent releases around. Although the masterpiece "This Darkened Heart "  is still not surpassed (at least in my opinion), "Overcome" is even better than the previous (enough commercial) "The Falls of Ideals" ( do you remember This Calling, lead song for the horror movie Saw III? ). However All that Remains don't lose their melodic touch, or their rocking patterns or their acoustic moments, on the contrary Overcome too is rich of attractive hooks and memorable involving sequences, only everything is much stronger, with dominant death/hardcore behaviour: in many tracks the downpour of blastbeats and the forceful rhythmic walls overwhelm and vanquish. The awesome variety and richness of the guitar techniques is completed by dynamic agreeable solos, acoustic designs and some dual riffs, as usual for this band. Another feature and characteristic of All That Remains (and of this genre too in general) is the importance given to the breakdowns, thing that, all in all, is very electrifying in the whole cd.

The minus point are the too weak and cheesy clear vocals, but fortunately the growls and shouts are brilliant and affix once again the vocal signature of All That Remains. Often the hooks are not predictable, and the musical construction is very polymorph, passing from one or two instruments to a choral soundscape, sometimes this changes flow one 
another exploiting a certain anguishing atmosphere like the menace of an imminent tempest. Drums seems to me always flawless and The American hardcore attitude is well adjusted to the European taste, the target could be very wide : from fans of Melodic Death, to those of As I Lay Dying in particular, and of Killswitch Engage, Diecast, 
Shadows Fall, even Chimaira and maybe of Lamb Of God too. 

It would be too easy to say that the song Two Weeks is the best of the album, but i think it's not, because in "Overcome" there are even greater tracks. Two Weeks is an attractive (and catchy) song on the wake of This Calling and Six, actually powerful but  with no aggressiveness in the clean vocals. The rest (with the exception of Days without and of the cover Believe in nothing) is formidable, so, practically, the whole cd is an excellent product, although it seems to me that the production has underlined a bit too much the instruments. 

What makes this album "big", vocals included, are the tracks number 3, 4, 5 and 7. In Undone, Forever in your Hands and Chiron we can find all the above mentioned great features as well as tons of refreshing energy. The track 7 A Song for the Hopeless is a formidable relentless mix of rocking melody that infuses the pitiless visceral anger. Pity that  in the song Days without the flat tasteless refrain spoils the whole track. After the pressing induction of Do Not Obey, the bulldozing majestic Relinquish reminds a bit of Kataklysm . The title track Overcome is another example of melodically and death metal- perfused hardcore, with pleasant refrain and implacable frame in which, besides the lead guitar, the bass sonorities surface as protagonist. Although the general mood of Believe in Nothing  fits the rock-side of All that Remains, this final song and cover doesn't add anything to the album, on the contrary, inspite of the good technique and sorrowful mood apart, this track becomes even boring. It is almost the same with such covers...(do we need them?)

Fortunately, nothing to object to the opener Before the Damned that lets immediately perceive that there is no joking with these All That Remains. 

Rating: 9/10 

dalia di giacomo         10.10.2008

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