Overcome

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.