Review Summary: Spoiler alert: it didn't end well.
Secretly, All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte must be a psychic, because it appears that he's gifted with the ability to predict the future.
The Order of Things, his band's seventh album, contains a lead single entitled “This Probably Won’t End Well”. Opening the record with its watered down instrumentation, lazily written hook and generic sound, its title manages to forecast anything and everything about the other eleven songs. Although, to be fair, this outcome isn’t exactly that big of a surprise. 2012’s
A War You Cannot Win allowed All That Remains to become the first metalcore band to score a #1 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts (with a song that actually lacked most traits of metalcore) while also giving them the opportunity to mess around with pop ballads and stale harsh vocals.
The Order of Things picks up right where
A War You Cannot Win left off, and it should easily be established by now that the chances of All That Remains making another album like
The Fall of Ideals is less than one percent. However, they don’t need to make another album just like
The Fall of Ideals as much as they need to channel the energy and spirit that they had on “This Calling” or “Six”, back when it seemed like the band was at least having some sort of fun while making music. There’s simply no life left, and it’s not the decreased amount of harsh vocals that are to blame, because All That Remains have written good songs solely with cleans. It’s the complete lack of emotion, or anything resembling some sort of enjoyment that leads to this album’s downfall.
Lyrics like "Remember what made us great" and “What’s it like to gradually fade out?” from mid-tempo lullaby "The Greatest Generation" become ironically laughable after discovering the absolute lack of quality on this album. Acoustic ballad “For You” is as potent as the fine stylings of Theory of a Deadman, while the last few songs feature influence from deathcore, perhaps an attempt to reference their glory days without any of the actual glory. Other flaws include the irritating overuse of AutoTune on Lambonte’s voice, the Five Finger Death Punch-esque watered down instrumentation and the cheesy, unneeded female backing vocals. There's even a track titled, and I kid you not, "Tru-Kvlt-Metal" (Side note: also, I’m pretty sure the intro to “Victory Lap” was taken straight from Coheed and Cambria’s “The Suffering). The only redeemable aspects of this album come in the form of the seven-minute closer “Criticism and Self-Realization”, featuring the closest thing to atmosphere you’ll get on here. The harsh vocals don’t feel forced, the piano section is pretty, and although it borders on boring territory at times, it easily takes the title of best song on the album.
I'm not clamoring for All That Remains to make a direct sequel to
The Fall of Ideals. It would help, however, if the end result was more inspired than the bland and insipid garbage that makes up most of
The Order of Things. Undoubtedly, their recent success on the charts has played a role in the dumbing down of their sound, but it’s yet another step in the wrong direction. There are ways to remain (get it?) radio-friendly while still being musically interesting, although Phil must have not gotten the memo. How much longer can they continue down this road before finally caving into the pressure and returning to their metalcore roots? Then again, it’s not guaranteed that retracing their steps would do them any good either.
The Order of Things is the sound of musical stagnation and apathy. The saddest part? It’s still not as bad as
A War You Cannot Win.
