...for We Are Many

Commercial success on Razor & Tie has been a double-edged sword (razor?) for All That Remains, who have seen increasing sales over the last three albums, but with the price of a restrained attack. Fellow Massachusetts metalcore magnate Adam Dutkiewicz produces albums like this in his sleep, and those familiar with the back catalogue of ATR, Killswitch Engage, and Shadows Fall, etc. will find little new on For We Are Many.

Need I say anything about the pointless intro/lead-in? Ah, too late. The only reason it’s split from the title track is for easy playing. But it is some of the heaviest music the band has written in recent years, with “Some of the People, All of the Time” the strongest competitor as it includes deep death grunts out of the slow-churning chug toward the end.

But man, those (numerically) odd tracks just kill me with their poppy, repetitive, clichéd choruses, such as on “The Last Time” or “Won’t Go Quietly”. The real one who won’t go quietly is lead guitarist Oli Herbert, who thankfully takes over in the middle of that track for a decent solo, but the concluding Frampton-esque wah-wah outro felt totally out of place.

He shines better, as does the band on the whole, during “Aggressive Opposition”. On principle, I can appreciate their positive battle cries, but the lyrics lack defining character. When focusing on the sound of the vocals alone, they benefit from layering, but sound as if they are multi-tracking Phil Labonte. Underutilized band members like bassist Jeanne Sagan could be worked in more effectively rather than increasing reliance on studio effects.

They mostly lose me after the pointed accusations of “Dead Wrong”, although “Keepers of Fellow Man” has the strongest potential, even through a wordy refrain (much better than what they attempted on “Two Weeks” from Overcome). If you are down with this style of music, it ought to satisfy, but recently signed label mates like Norma Jean have made bold artistic leaps while staying true to their roots and never at the expense of memorability. All That Remains continue to bait their hooks with familiar morsels of metallic goodness, but after awhile we fishies hunger for something different.

~MetalMattLongo
MindOverMetal.org

The release of All That Remains' 2008's album, Overcome, was a disappointment to me. From Behind Silence and Solitude to This Darkened Heart to The Fall of Ideals, the band moved from a predominantly melodeath sound into metalcore, with increasing use of clean singing. Still, despite that progression, I was still a big fan of The Fall of Ideals. On the other hand, Overcome crossed the line.

The aggressive instrumental backdrop was still there, and Phil Labonte still made use of growly howls and piercing shrieks, but the overall tone of the album was more radio-friendly than the band's preceding releases, and the single "Two Weeks" seemed overtly calculated to achieve crossover success. With nothing but clean singing in that song, it actually broke into stratospheric territory on the mainstream rock charts and helped land Overcome at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 list with sales ultimately topping 240,000 copies. Given my tastes, however, the band's trajectory was headed in the wrong direction.

When For We Are Many was announced, I wondered whether the strong taste of success would lead the band further along its progression toward the forbidden lands of hard rock, or whether instead we would we see a course change.

At a high level, For We Are Many contains most of the same ingredients used in the making of Overcome -- the alternation between harsh vocals in the verses and clean singing in the chorus, tightly integrated and hard-hitting rhythms as executed by drummer Jason Costa and bassist Jeanne Sagan, and attention-grabbing guitar leads and solos by Oli Hebert and Mike Martin. And in the main, the songs are still defined by catchy melodies and infectious hooks. But are there any "twists and turns", as Phil Labonte promised in an interview? Has there been a departure from what we thought was a too-formulaic approach to the song-writing on Overcome? Is there more in store for masochistic metalheads like me who enjoy being mercilessly punished by our music?

The answer to all these questions is yes. With the exception of the closing track, a mid-paced ballad called "The Waiting One", which features acoustic guitars at the open and close, the songs are uniformly fast, with jolting rhythms and rapid-fire riffs, and in many identifiable ways,For We Are Many has spun the aggression dial up a pleasing number of notches.

The brief opening track "Now Let Them Tremble" foreshadows the changes to come, with bursts of sawing guitar and martial hammering followed by a throat-rending Labonte howl. The title track that follows includes Gothenburg-style chords and deep gutturals in the vocalization. "Some of the People, All of the Time" is marked by staccato rhythms and pulsating riffs, a screaming guitar solo (one of many on the album), plus a big breakdown that includes more of those abyssal gutturals.

The backward turns on the album reach their crescendo on "Dead Wrong", a song that honestly can be labeled death metal: It's fast and pummeling, with tremolo-picked sawing in the guitar leads, deep, resonant bass riffs that rattle the ribcage, and death-metal growls that sound positively evil. It's downtuned, dissonant, and quite pleasing to our pointy ears. Yes, even on this song there's some clean singing, but it's a raspy, bluesy style that fits nicely with all the howling and growling.

There's plenty of thundering drumwork and merciless pounding on the toms in songs like "Hold On", which generally features a heavy-as-shit bottom end to accompany the catchiness of the melody. And oh yes, Oli Hebert still delivers the goods: You'll get your shred prescription amply filled on this album, with particular stand-outs in "Some of the People", "From the Outside", and "Faithless".

Happily, nothing on the album is like Overcome's "Two Weeks". Every song on For We Are Many includes growls and howls, and nothing seems so overtly designed to infiltrate the ranks of active-rock radio. On the other hand, the album still includes offerings of metalcore-standard with high-pitched Labonte crooning that will appeal to Overcome lovers. "From the Outside" and "Keepers of Fellow Man", in particular, sound like metalcore songs from 4 or 5 years ago. Of course, for me, they're the least interesting offerings on the album.

I mentioned the closing track, "The Waiting One". It represents a marked change of pace, with acoustic guitars, generally subdued clean vocals in Labonte's middle range, and quiet interludes. Yet even "The Waiting One" builds in intensity, and it seems destined to become a sing-along magnet when performed live.

In a nutshell: Fans of Overcome will still find much to like among the 12 tracks on For We Are Many, but for those of us who've been pining for All That Remains to turn up the brutality dial, the new album delivers a satisfyingly amped-up dose of aggression, too. It's a blend of metalcore and melodeath that continues to display All That Remains' trademark brand of catchy melodies while inflicting plenty of hammer-blows to the head.