Review Summary: While an improvement over their preceding failure, All That Remains fall short of a true return to form with this passable but awkward release.
A melodic metalcore act hailing from Springfield, Massachusetts, All That Remains releases For We Are Many as the follow-up to their awkward, unfocused mess, Overcome. Many fans, myself included, hope for a return to the form displayed on their excellent 2006 release, The Fall of Ideals. Their answer to these hopes begins with Now Let Them Tremble, a short intro, leading into the title track. With distorted, aggressive guitars setting a positive tone, Phil begins with a powerful shout and one of my fears is immediately alleviated. Phil’s performance on their previous record was… strange. He sounded ragged and tired and his lower range screams suffered greatly (see Relinquished). On the title track, he sounds fresh and confident as he cries “Defy!” over Mike’s and Oli’s energetic riffs. The band is in synch and firing on all cylinders like they never managed to be on Overcome. Jason is solid, though not amazing, a constant throughout the album. Unfortunately, the title track gives way to The Last Time.
The guitars are much cleaner and the whole approach seems more melodic. Phil arrives, singing cleanly, “Now close this chapter move on/ just one last time and I'm gone/ Keep telling myself that it's under control/ and that's a lie I damn well know,” and I’m concerned. The track never displays any of the ‘brutality’ and, perhaps not coincidentally, any of the energy of the previous one. Phil’s lyrics are prophetic, describing perfectly the band‘s uncertainty regarding its metalcore roots and new hard rock direction. While they find some success in fusing the two styles (see the solid Won’t Go Quietly), the combination also produces several very awkward moments, such as the random, uninspired breakdown that follows the last melodic, radio-friendly chorus of Some of the People, All of the Time or the equally random talk box guitar solo (seriously) at the end of the previously mentioned Won’t Go Quietly.
Another issue which is apparent from the beginning of The Last Time, seeming to leap out and smack me in the face as the chorus comes through, is Phil’s cleans. This time around,…they’re really pretty bad. While neither his whiny, core typical delivery on The Fall of Ideals nor his overproduced effort on Overcome were amazing, it got the job done. This straining rasp is unpleasant and only made worse by awful production. Autotune and over-dubbing are commonplace in music, but on this album done with so little subtlety and tact as to be distracting. At times it sounds as if a second Phil has entered the studio to (attempt to) harmonize with the struggling front man.
So, awkwardly executed genre fusion and Phil's inconsistency plagues an otherwise solid first half, and my hope for something special has all but faded. Shockingly, I receive another slap in the face. Dead Wrong opens with heavy, distorted guitar and a great deal more energy than anything proceeding it. Phil cries out, “Here we go!” and the album finally takes off. Pulling out his high-pitched and dearly missed shriek, Phil, along with the rest of the band, seems so much more interested and engaged throughout this song. The track decelerates into a sludgy, bluesy riff with a well placed chorus featuring Phil’s best clean performance on the album. As the song fades out, I feel sure that the band has recovered some of their magic, just as Phil shouts with the most conviction he’s mustered in four goddamn years, “You’re still dead wrong!” Prophetic.
Now we come to For We Are Many’s biggest problem: its atrocious ending. The final four tracks are an incredible disappointment. Faithless follows up Dead Wrong with boring verses, lifeless guitar playing and the most cringe-worthy chorus yet, to be surpassed only by the following track, Hold On, which is in turn surpassed by the closer, The Waiting One. While Phil has never been a master lyricist, his tirades about integrity and defying injustice, occasionally broken up by tales of a woman who hurt him, are enjoyable and at times relatable. However, Hold On is his laziest, most pathetic effort to date with Faithless providing stiff competition. The Waiting One opens with some clean acoustic strumming and finds Phil crooning softly through the first verse. Sadly, the most genuine-sounding cleans on the album give way to the blandest power chords Oli and Mike had in them as the second Phil returns for one final, painfully mediocre chorus. Fading away with some more mockingly pleasant acoustic guitar, For We Are Many is over. The album started well before struggling with an identity crisis for several songs and suddenly producing a track strong enough to sit comfortably amongst the best in the band’s catalogue. It ended with a band playing on autopilot, having completely lost interest in the project. An okay listen, considerably improved if stopped after Dead Wrong, this isn’t worth the average music listener’s time. It is better than Overcome, though….
Phil Labonte - Vocals
Mike Martin - Rhythm Guitar
Oli Herbert - Lead Guitar
Jeanne Sagan - Bass Guitar
Jason Costa - Drums
