All That Remains - Victim of the New Disease (2018)Release ID: 5443
Throughout their astonishing 20-year career, All That Remains has slowly changed their metal style. After the melodeath sound of This Darkened Heart, they switched to metalcore in The Fall of Ideals, and after For We Are Many, they started adding more shaky hard rock/heavy metal elements in A War You Can Not Win. Then Madness took down most of the metalcore, bringing on sterile production, electronic enhancements, and even neo-country rock ballads. If you thought All That Remains were planning on going lower than that, well, boy you were wrong!!
Victim of the New Disease is probably the band's best release in a decade, marking almost a complete return to their heavier metalcore era. Most of the content may not be new territory but it has really brought more attention of the modern metal scene than the overpowering djent movement of other bands. The guitar work from guitar wizard Oli Herbert is probably the most skilled in a long time. Sadly, this would be the last time we would hear his great guitar skills, due to Herbert's passing 3 weeks before the album was released. By the way, yes I said the word "passing". It's one of those euphemisms my mom wants me to use to be more polite. But please don't expect me to say it all the time. After all, you would never call death metal "passing metal". Let's move on.
Speaking of politeness, I won't mention the title of this first song because there's a swear word in it... OK fine, I'll compromise by censoring the word. It's called "F*** Love". Even without the F-word, the song is the true return to the more brutal side of All That Remains, probably more brutal than anything the band has ever done, but a little too dramatic and restrained. "Everything Wrong" is almost the opposite of the first track, starting with a soft 40-second intro, before diving into mid-tempo heaviness with Labonte's clean singing. There are some more dominating ruthless screams in "Blood I Spill", which sorta reminds me some of Demon Hunter's metalcore albums. "Wasteland" is another heavy track, but the chorus should've been more powerful.
The album's main tuning is drop B, which is similar to the tuning in Behind Silence and Solitude. However, "Alone in the Darkness" is one of only two songs not in that tuning, or at least not in the B minor key. This is a D minor ballad with emotional melodies and atmospheric clean guitar passages. The next track "Misery in Me" is another raging bull that retains a more rational ethos. "Broken" is another furious song with a groundbreaking catchy chorus.
"Just Tell Me Something" is another ballad and the other song in the album to not be in B minor. This D-flat minor ballad is almost a sequel to "What If I Was Nothing?" (from A War You Cannot Win), and it features Asking Alexandria vocalist Danny Worsnop in his own verse and in a dynamic duet with Labonte. An outstanding moment! An aura of dark (but good) vibes appears in "I Meant What It Said" with a song structure switching style from heavy to melodic. That's probably one of the band's most inspired works in a very long time. The title track is as heavy as the first track, while still having clean vocals, and also Oli Herbert's splendid swan song, ending his career in a bang.
Despite the secondary production, the music is incredible. After reducing the metalcore in the previous 3 albums, they brought it back with what may be their strongest sound in their entire career. What a terrible shame Oli Herbert isn't here to enjoy the success. Oh how proud he would be. But now with former Chelsea Grin/Born of Osiris guitarist Jason Richardson by the band's side, I have a more deathcore/djent feeling about their next album, if they ever make another in the future....
RIP Oli Herbert 1974-2018
Favorites: “Everything’s Wrong”, “Alone In the Darkness”, “Just Tell Me Something”, “I Meant What I Said”
