Overcome

On All That Remains most recent release they take a turn for the worst. Overcome is much more commercialized than on any previous album that All That Remains has released. Gone is practically all the melo-death influences in comes a much more average commercial sounding melodic metalcore sound. The technical edge of All That Remains last release The Fall of Ideals has also been dropped.

Most of the song tempos on Overcome are mid-tempo metalcore leads and riffs except on the more fast paced numbers like Two Weeks the album highlight. The choruses are a big step down in terms of performance and melodic melodies. The guitar work is much more riff based this time around which is unfortunate, since All That Remains is much better at crafting strong leads with alternating riffs instead of more riff based songs. Breakdowns are more prevalent than on any other previous release as well and are used to no effect.

The bands performance is much weaker than on The Fall of Ideals especially Philip Labonte’s vocal performance. Philip’s vocals are more metalcore based this time around and even have a ruff sound to them unfortunately his choruses aren’t nearly as strong and he seems to be having difficulty singing on some songs. Jason Costa is the newest member here and acquits himself well on the drums unfortunately his drumming isn’t as top notch as Mike Bartlett. Both Oliver Herbert and Mike Martin have less solid performances but are still the highlight of Overcome. Jeanne Sagan bass work is inaudible like on previous efforts nothing else to tell about the bass.

Like on The Fall of Ideals the songs and album length need to be lengthened for greater effect. The lyrics are even cheesier than usual re treading on points made on countless other metalcore releases. A cover of Nevermore’s Believe in Nothing ends the album with nothing special just a solid song. Finally solos are less present and aren’t nearly as well crafted or entertaining.

Overall Overcome is a solid release but a fore warning to an even more commercialized future ahead. Hopefully All That Remains will not continue on the path laid down on Overcome in the future but instead improve upon the excellence of The Fall of Ideals. Best songs are Before the Damned, Two Weeks, Chiron, and Overcome. I recommend this album to any fan of metalcore but not the more melo-death metal fans of All That Remains earlier releases.

-5 points overall weaker band performances
-5 points album length and song lengths are to short
-5 points a much more commercialized approach
-5 points technicality gone and weaker solos