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All That Remains > Overcome > Reviews
All That Remains - Overcome

Overcome by blandness - 30%

Demon Fang, October 22nd, 2020

Overcome is a pretty lame album. Largely bland instrumentation breeding listless compositions lacking in melodicism or anything really worth a damn. Any remaining edges The Fall of Ideals had – which were but a scant few – are rounded to a point where Overcome becomes spherical in its look. Effectively, most every song on here sounds the same. So, if you don’t like what “Before the Damned” and “Two Weeks” are selling, Overcome ends up dead on arrival. Even when given a generous appraisal, all that can be said is that every song on here vies so hard for radio play that you can see it all the way from Pluto without a telescope. Like, it’s not incompetently put together or anything. Phil isn’t putting nearly as much into the screams as he had in the prior two albums, but... at least he’s not just lazily barking into the mic like he had in the debut? The clean vocals aren’t as strong as before, but it at least – yeah, I think you know where this is going.

The main problem with this album is that it always seems like it’s building up to something really good. Like, you’re listening to riffs that just barely pass a quality control test serving as the framework for this rocking kinda metalcore track, you’re constantly expecting somebody to let it rip and yet... nothing. The riffs travel along this semi-serviceable groove. Phil provides the vocals necessary to make a non-instrumental song work, adding to the groove with his own vocal melody. The percussion provides the groove with some kicks to stop it from being a 111% monotonous wall of sound. The chorus morphs the riff either into a higher register or slows it down. The percussion follows this change adequately enough, trying to give this grandiose sound to try and make the chorus pop. It monotonously chugs on through as if it’s trying to blend in with the verse riffs, only showing it’s the chorus by reprisal at certain junctures in the song. It eventually ends, not with a bang or even a whimper. No, it just ends. Another song down. Hope this one ends up on the radio.

Overcome is an album that just happens. Some guitars are played, some harsh screamy vocals and clean vocals are vocalized, some drums give beats to these things, a ripper of a solo is played after the second chorus – like, imagine taking a Racer X song and just taking the life out of everything but Paul Gilbert’s solos. It’s a pretty rough (and generous) approximation of every song on here. In particular is “Chiron” – man, what a frustrating song this is. Given a surface-level appraisal, it sounds like something left on the cutting room floor when putting The Fall of Ideals together. There appears to be a little more oomph. Namely, the riffs having a little more pep to them. But talk about squeezing the life out of a song... just apply some sterile production, round off any sort of edge in the riffs and vocals, and voila! An absolute disappointment within a disappointment of an album that signalled the end of this band being interesting as they continued down a path of background noise full of nothing riffs, nothing grooves and wasted Racer X solos.

The Fall of Ideals: Rejects - 45%

Grumpy Cat, June 3rd, 2018

Do you folks like auto tune? Blatantly obvious auto tune? No? Well, then go ahead and give this album a skip if you haven't heard it already and go put on The Fall of Ideals instead. Overcome is like the mass marketed pop washed version of The Fall of Ideals, which is telling when taking into consideration that The Fall of Ideals was already riding the rails of one metal's most commercial forms.

This may be a bit of a disingenuous description though, because The Fall of Ideals had some fast thrashy riffs, this has slower riffs all the way through and a softer guitar tone to boot. The Fall of Ideals has a couple tracks with scant traces of clean vocals, Overcome has tracks made almost solely of cleans topped with lousy auto tune. Overcome at least retained the double pedal though, if in more limited quantities. The album encapsulates all of the elements of The Fall of Ideals but pop washed, all except the very cornerstone of metalcore music. Where the hell are the breakdowns? They're not there, I can't decide if this is good or bad though, on the upside it'd give these tracks a much needed punch near the ends, on the other hand though, I don't want to hear those dumb clean vocals performed over a breakdown ala third wave metalcore style, because I've already heard Attack! Attack!, Asking Alexandria and the rest of their "scene kid" ilk and it was a traumatizing experience the first time around, and with how pop washed this album is, that's the exact kind of garbage maneuver I'd expect Phil to pull if their were breakdowns here.

The fact is though, with the exception of the radio single Six, no one was listening to All That Remains prior work to sing along with a badly auto tuned singer with a mediocre vocal range. Hell, the band put out two straight albums where singing along in any capacity would have been quite a feat prior to this. People were listening to All That Remains because it was hard hitting melodic death metal band with just enough hardcore influence to transition almost seemlessly into a hard hitting melodic metalcore band over the course of three albums.

Now, to be fair, I used to be a fan of this album, the melodic edges on the guitar are quite nice, but its a bit absurd to hear songs that were clearly intended to be hard hitters like say Two Weeks, or really any of these songs and then be greeted with overly long melodic leads as the intro for basically every single track followed by the world's worst Adam Levine impersonation on the chorus and a squeaky clean production job with sterile guitar tones to boot.

Degradation? More melodic. - 79%

plebman, September 16th, 2011

As metalcore albums over the past decade have gone this is possibly one of the better releases, with a moderate range of different songs, from the 100% chart oriented two weeks through to the more mellow believe in nothing; this album doesn't leave anyone uncatered to. Beyond potentially fans of their first 2 releases. this darkened heart and behind silence and solitude, on a whole this album is a nice combination of melodic riffs and perfect vocals through out - the lyrics on the other hand were a bit weak but that can be forgiven as vocal style and guitar work is THAT much better than some of their other releases.

This album puts them are the forefront of the metalcore scene, with other bands such as Bullet for my Valentine and Killswitch, to name but a few. They seem to have taken the best of both, combined them with an awesome vocalist, to produce a phenomenal end product that wouldn't shame the best of the metal scene. As All that Remains go, this is perhaps that slight bit worse than their third release, The Fall of Ideals, but trumps their first 2 albums.

This album pretty much fulfills any expectations anyone may have of a metalcore release, pretty simple solos with softer vocals around the choruses, making them softer than any other form of Metal, the only issue with this' that they seem to have lapsed on the content of the album, making this release forever a shadow of Fall of Ideals, and forever compared to it.

The best tracks to this album are by far Two Weeks and Chiron, Two Weeks being the clearest attempt at the mainstream they've had in recent years, catchy vocals with a chuggy guitar through out, being the break from the rest of the album in terms of being a weaker song - But the better for it. Cleaner vocals and a better song structure through out. Chiron on the other hand was typical of the rest of the album, but being the best among them, this in mind, it was the typical song about drivel that Phil sang pretty well which made this song the best from the rest.

A big disappointment and a step down in quality - 80%

Metalwontdie, July 14th, 2009

On All That Remains most recent release they take a turn for the worst. Overcome is much more commercialized than on any previous album that All That Remains has released. Gone is practically all the melo-death influences in comes a much more average commercial sounding melodic metalcore sound. The technical edge of All That Remains last release The Fall of Ideals has also been dropped.

Most of the song tempos on Overcome are mid-tempo metalcore leads and riffs except on the more fast paced numbers like Two Weeks the album highlight. The choruses are a big step down in terms of performance and melodic melodies. The guitar work is much more riff based this time around which is unfortunate, since All That Remains is much better at crafting strong leads with alternating riffs instead of more riff based songs. Breakdowns are more prevalent than on any other previous release as well and are used to no effect.

The bands performance is much weaker than on The Fall of Ideals especially Philip Labonte’s vocal performance. Philip’s vocals are more metalcore based this time around and even have a ruff sound to them unfortunately his choruses aren’t nearly as strong and he seems to be having difficulty singing on some songs. Jason Costa is the newest member here and acquits himself well on the drums unfortunately his drumming isn’t as top notch as Mike Bartlett. Both Oliver Herbert and Mike Martin have less solid performances but are still the highlight of Overcome. Jeanne Sagan bass work is inaudible like on previous efforts nothing else to tell about the bass.

Like on The Fall of Ideals the songs and album length need to be lengthened for greater effect. The lyrics are even cheesier than usual re treading on points made on countless other metalcore releases. A cover of Nevermore’s Believe in Nothing ends the album with nothing special just a solid song. Finally solos are less present and aren’t nearly as well crafted or entertaining.

Overall Overcome is a solid release but a fore warning to an even more commercialized future ahead. Hopefully All That Remains will not continue on the path laid down on Overcome in the future but instead improve upon the excellence of The Fall of Ideals. Best songs are Before the Damned, Two Weeks, Chiron, and Overcome. I recommend this album to any fan of metalcore but not the more melo-death metal fans of All That Remains earlier releases.

-5 points overall weaker band performances
-5 points album length and song lengths are to short
-5 points a much more commercialized approach
-5 points technicality gone and weaker solos

Whore To The Mainstream - 30%

Murderer666, March 18th, 2009

I read All That Remains was releasing a new album. So it came out and I got it, went home played it in my radio. The first track "Before The Damned" played and it sounded good until the vocals came on. It didn't sound like Labonte at all. His hardcore rasps and death growls were no were to be found on this song or the entire disc, but instead they sounded modified by production equipment and his clean singing sounded way more commercialized then the last disc. I thought with the lack of intensity, though catchy "The Fall of Ideals", it would have signaled to them to step up their game. They chose to ignore the underground metal appeal, but instead they chose to chase the money and get more mainstream appeal.

Musically there is good and bad things, mostly bad. First off the vocals, as I mentioned before, they don't sound like they did on other releases, the screaming sounds strained and programmed by equipment, unlike the past releases. The drums have no variation except for keeping the rhythm and the bass is still inaudible just like in, "The Fall Of Ideals". Songs like "Do Not Obey" and the Nevermore cover of "Believe In Nothing" fail greatly in holding your attention. "Two Weeks" and "Forever In Your Hands" are the biggest mainstream offenders here, even though "Forever In Your Hands" has a sweet solo near the end.

Now for the good things, not many but they are crucial points in keeping my and your attention. Guitar solos and riffs show that the members have improved, the solos show technicality in them if these were not included in the mix I would have scored it way lower. "Before The Damned a great opener to the disk, opening with crazy drums and a some what technical guitar riff, midway “A Song For The Hopeless is unique opening with acoustic guitar, a mini solo and clean singing, then it smacks you with aggressive bass kick and screaming. Also still showing promise of All That Remains signature sound are the back to back tracks "Relinquish" maintaining a heavier sound, sick solos and void of clean vocals. Then "Overcome" keeping a catchy but heavy and technical.

In conclusion this album is only for collectors and mainstream metalcore fans (ex. Bullet For My Valentine, Killswitch Engage, and Atreyu. Hopefully the next ATR album will be back to normal and this was just a joke.

One more disappointment... - 28%

Asamaniac, November 17th, 2008

Even though I am one of the most dedicated enemies of the Metalcore movement, this is one of the very few bands that make me bang my head or sing along the lyrics of some song (usually of a nice melodic catchy chorus). The fact is, that Metalcore managed to prove that I am 100% right for one more time, since even ALL THAT REMAINS disappointed me releasing their worst album ever and showing that in this kind of music, after the success comes the downfall.

After releasing their previous successful album "The Fall Of Ideals" (2006, Prosthetic), ALL THAT REMAINS managed to become known and get their lazy asses out on the street for some serious live appearances. The album’s hit "This Calling" - which I personally adore - was even a part of many compilations and movie soundtracks. Two years later, the band returns with a brand new album, "Overcome", which doesn’t overcome the success of their previous album by no means.

We know the story. We have the classic AT THE GATES/IN FLAMES rip offs, the screaming vocals that are interrupted only in the chorus by some clean melodic ones and the melodic guitars with the pseudo technical breaks. This is definitely the worst moment of creativity for this band. We are talking about the worst song structures and the worst riffing ever written by ALL THAT REMAINS. Let me add the shitty lyrics that almost touch the emo fields (I really can’t stand Labonte’s whining) and the meaningless cover of NEVERMORE’s amazing song "Believe In Nothing". I have listened to this cover many times just to understand why they chose this track, but I still haven’t managed to find any specific meaning behind this move. The only thing I found was a shitty cover.

I am completely disappointed by ALL THAT REMAINS and I just hope they return to their good old self quickly. Let’s just hope that this was just a small wrong step.

Originally written for Metal-Temple.Com
Yiannis D.

A lesson in exponential decay - 13%

BastardHead, September 28th, 2008

I've mentioned in the past that I find All That Remains to be one of the very few metalcore bands that are worth one's time. Well, I have been proven wrong once again, as 2008's Overcome ranks as not only by far the band's absolute nadir, but also one of the worst albums of the year. All That Remains has never been the peak of creativity or musicianship, but they've always been able to craft catchy or memorable tunes at the very least, and yet here I can't remember a single fucking song. I have complained about the previous album, The Fall of Ideals, being formulaic, generic, mediocre, and nigh indistinguishable between tracks, and I genuinely feel that the band could be an incredible melodic metalcore band (wow, that tag makes me cringe just by reading it, but I feel they could've pulled it off) if they would let the riffs evolve, loosen up the structure of the songs a bit, and allow the guitarists let it all hang out and shred to their hearts' content. It seems like the band actually heard my thoughts and considered answering my prayers, but instead they decided to bound and gag them, beat them with frozen trout, and then incinerate them. I'll never understand their steadfast stubbornness on the subject of change. They refuse to progress, they refuse to evolve, and each album just gets more and more formulaic and restrained.

The vocals on Overcome are the exact same as the last three albums, metalcore screams for the verses, clean for the choruses, and the obligatory overdub on the final chorus. The riffs are the exact same interchange of fast chugging chords and melodic death metal At the Gates/In Flames rips that we've been hearing for well over a decade now. I'm being 100% honest when I say that pretty much any song can be randomly picked out and it would define the words "generic" and "mediocre". Absolutely nothing has changed since the last album, except everything seems toned down and held back. The harsh screams are lackluster and uninspired while the clean vocals are whiny and lack conviction. This is All That Remains by numbers as performed by 15 year olds. At this point in the review, I would usually reach back to a song and give a concrete example as to why I make the claims that I do, but I seriously can't decide which song to use as an example. They are all boring, all formulaic, and all weak. Somewhere down the line, this band lost their balls. I firmly believe that there is a very thin line between an abundance of balls and a lack of brains. The more I listen to this album (and the entire back catalog), the more I realize that they were actually uncomfortably nut deficient from the start, thus making them brainless and babydicked. What's worse is that this is the point in their career where it becomes the elephant in the room. This is where I finally realized that the band has tucked in their collective scrotes (or stitched up their vag; can't forget about the bassist!) and completely submitted to the pressure of the mainstream. Wussified metalcore is what sells, not balls out thrashing metalcore. The masses want brutal breakdowns! The kids want anthems about heartbreak! The wallets of the youth do not open for innovative or intense, they open for the masquerade. A good friend of mine recently described Whitechapel as "the heaviest band in existence", and that is what the people honestly believe. The mainstream metal has two camps in where the money is/was made in recent years, and that is the overtly crushing and retardedly downtuned buffoonery of deathcore and the metal-lite and whiny metalcore. The latter ship has honestly seemed to set sail in recent years, but All That Remains never got the memo. I understand what I'm implying, but believe me when I say that this movement they seem to be trying to ride on was a commercial style ala the hair bands of the day. How mainstream has brutal death metal ever been in America? How's about European speed metal? How long have these styles been around? How long have they persevered? You see what I'm getting at? Digression aside, I'm sure y'all can see what I'm saying. Overcome is a safe release in a commercial genre, no matter how withering the scene may be.

I feel I must make special mention of the cover of Nevermore's most boring and radio friendly song ever written, Believe in Nothing. I believe that there is a right and wrong way to cover a song, depending on whether the song being covered is a metal song or not. Since Believe in Nothing is a questionably metal song by a metal band, it's a little difficult to categorize. This is a straight port, no modifications at all. The drums are the exact same plod as the original, the solo is a note for note transcription with no added flair, and the vocal performance is exactly the same (even the subtle nuances in the background). If anything, it's actually more boring and whiny. I really like Nevermore, but this was easily the worst song anybody could've picked to cover, especially when it's a band as painfully mediocre and afraid of pushing any envelope as All That Remains.

And yet throughout it all, there is one aspect of this album I have yet to criticize, and actually thoroughly enjoy... the solos. Of all my thoughts and hopes that the band brutalized and immolated, they seemed to take a special liking to that one particular one, and decided to spare and harness it. Oli and Mike are undoubtedly in top form here, finally fully utilizing those once latent skills that I always knew they had. There isn't much that one can describe about solos, unless of course they are laughably bad. Although most of this dungpile is indeed indistinguishable, the harmonized solo in the debut single, Chiron, stands as probably the most impressive showcase and one of the only enjoyable moments on the whole album. Sadly, this is essentially the only positive aspect of the entire album.

All That Remains is done, over, kaput. They've been silently building their coffin ever since the beginning, but this blatant show of artistic death was their act of crapping in said coffin and nailing the lid. As much as I wanted to like this album and band, as much as I've tried to look past the mediocrity and embrace the empowering message of the music, I just can't look past it anymore. If you were previously a fan of this band, then this probably won't change your mind, although the overabundance of the clean vocals could scare away those that preferred their metal side. If you hated them beforehand, then this will only reinforce your opinion. And if you were on the fence like me, Overcome will most likely shove you over to the haters' side. I'd say avoid this like the plague.

What the hell happened?! - 45%

CallerOfTheCthulhu, September 20th, 2008

ALL THAT REMAINS - Overcome

All That Remains have definitely come a long way from their first release. With the massive success of the album The Fall Of Ideals sealing the band's fate as a staple melodic death metal act, it was only a due amount of time before the band fell prey to the typical signs of money oriented melodic metal.

Much of the music on Overcome is rather bland. There are moments that will leave you gripping your chair, such as during "Before The Damned", and some songs that are just catchy as hell, like their single "Chiron", as well as the simply amazing "A Song For The Hopeless", which should have been the blueprint for this album, period, instead of tracks like "Forever In Your Hands" (which has a rather emo chorus) and other weak, unmemorable cuts.

The other problem this possesses is that the release falls under a "metal by numbers" train of thought, meaning that it contains screaming verses with singing chorus lines, as well as extremely simplistic chords, and extremely weak singing vocals that simply cannot compare to those found on The Fall Of Ideals.

Essentially, it's the second half of the CD that becomes a saving grace. This houses the aforementioned "A Song For The Hopeless", as well as "Relinquish". Both offer a bit more technicality to them, deviate from the aforementioned mapped out metal pattern or lack a vocal style that may turn a killer track into a whiny emo-sounding track. However, the final track, "Believe In Nothing", happens to be a Nevermore cover. Only difference here is that the Nevermore track definitely packs more passion into it, while the All That Remains version sounds weak and will make you cringe from time to time. The music may be dead on, but as a whole it just lacks the passion found in the original.

So, let's break it down here. A good majority of the album is stereotypical, follows a pattern, and lacks the tenacity of it's predecessors on many different levels with the exceptions of a few songs. "Chiron" for it's catchy melodic aspect, and "A Song For The Hopeless" though "Overcome" for their technicality, as well as how well they are performed. All in all, this album is a rather big let down, and will leave you in fear of how much father they will descend into an unmemorable, unmoving style of music typically created by the prospects of cash.