In the past decade one of the most popular subgenres of Heavy Metal music to appear is Metalcore. There are dozens upon dozens of bands that follow the same basic pattern of mixing classic Heavy Metal with Death Metal, but there are few that are more well-known than All That Remains. The band has just released their seventh studio album “The Order of Things” and unfortunately, it is quite disappointing.
Back in the early 2000s All That Remains were one of the most influential Metalcore bands on the market, and in those days their music was quite good. However, over their past couple albums they have lost many of the elements that made their music so interesting, with “The Order of Things” being a principle offender. The vocals are now overly auto-tuned, and singer Phil Labonte just sounds bored. The guitar is very cookie-cutter, with a couple exceptions, and the drumming in the album is centered almost entirely around pounding double-bass segments, which is incredibly overdone in Heavy Metal music.
There are a couple songs that break out of the album’s pattern of uninspired song-writing. Both “Bite My Tongue” and “Tru-Kvlt-Metal” show momentary musical inspiration, inspiration that is noticeably lacking from the rest of the album.
“Bite My Tongue” has some entertaining guitar riffing and some pounding drumming that make it an actual entertaining listen. Labonte’s vocals are more natural in this song than any other song on the album. When his voice is not incredibly auto-tuned it is quite pleasant. There is also a brief guitar interlude in “Bite My Tongue” that interrupts the pounding heavy metal with some pleasant acoustic guitar. This interlude is quite refreshing amongst all of the derivative metal that permeates the entire album.
“Tru-Kvlt-Metal” is the heaviest song on the album, and contains some of Labonte’s best screams. He displays some semblance of variety in his screaming style in this song, showing that he can do high shrieks as well as low growls. The theme of the song is also slightly entertaining, as the lyrics are about how it is impossible to say that there is only one good genre of Heavy Metal, as some fans of the genre are apt to do.
“The Order of Things” is a mediocre album at best, showing that All That Remains has lost the inspiration and musical originality that made their first couple albums both influential and entertaining. What is left is a compilation of boring vocals, derivative guitar playing, and bland drumming. All in all, I would give the album a 2 out of 5.
