All that Remains - Overcome

Ok, now for me to go through the painstaking process of reviewing one of the most famous and most infamous metalcore albums in history, Overcome by All that Remains. Remember, I used to be in love with this album back during the time of its release. It was roughly two years ago that I started going “eeehhh” at this album. One thing that I’ll never change my mind about is that their performance at the 2009 Mayhem Festival was great and very entertaining. One thing that I also haven’t changed my mind about (yet) is that the only song by them that I still like is from this album, Two Weeks. But I’m even growing old of that song now. Now that I’ve listened to this thing for the first time in what seems like forever, I’m ready to write a good review on it…well, not that kind of “good”.

I’m having an extremely hard time finding positive things to say about this record. I can only say raw factual things and negative things. The heavy parts are extremely dull and horribly rushed, the melodic parts are derived from nu metal bands Disturbed and Saliva (neither of which are total disasters). I’ve heard a lot about the apparent excessive use of auto-tune in the singing, but I’m having a very hard time hearing it. There is one thing that’s easily noticeable, and that is that the singing HAS had A LOT of editing done on it. I’m serious, the singing sounds completely artificial! No, I don’t hear the uneven changes in pitch caused in auto-tune, but I definitely can tell that there was a hell of a lot of editing on the vocals.

The screaming has obviously had editing done on as well because there is no way that a vocalist can change the sound of his scream THAT much in only two years. So I can see how people would hear edited vocals and instantly just say “auto-tune” because that’s the only form of vocal editing they know of, but speaking in technical terms, there hasn’t been any auto-tune performed (that I can hear) other than possibly changing the pitch of his vocals before he starts singing so that he can sing a line with higher notes that he can’t quite reach. But I’m not saying that just because I don’t like the vocals, if for some crazy-ass reason, the vocals are actually pure and raw, then the singer just sucks altogether. So there’s really no getting out of that one, the singing sucks regardless of what’s been done to them.

Everything that the guitarists and bassist play is dull and boring. Yes, they play everything that needs to be played to be considered metalcore, but it’s completely unoriginal and FUCKING DULL, DULLER THAN A SPHERE! The distortion sounds cool at first, but then quickly gets in the way of any emotion they might be putting into what they’re playing. But I highly doubt that the guitarists are putting ANY kind of effort or emotion into their playing. I can’t even hear the bassist, so there’s no point at all talking about her.

Well, here’s a unique thing about them (if you’re hoping to hear something like that about them): they fuse metalcore with another genre. This is something that’s been done for over a decade, the most common fusion being metalcore with death metal (most commonly known as deathcore). But there are bands like Threat Signal and Demon Hunter that fuse metalcore with thrash metal, Mnemic whom fuses metalcore elements with industrial metal, Mutiny Within and Periphery who fuse metalcore with several genres like melodic death, alternative metal, power metal, djent (which I don’t consider a real genre), and rock. All that Remains fuses metalcore with hard rock and nu metal (mainly new metal, but there’s enough hard rock in their music that it should be mentioned).

So metalcore+nu metal+hard rock=All that Remains. If you ask me, that’s a pretty difficult task to pull-off and make it sound legit. Well, All that Remains has been doing that for the past 10 years and it sucks. The idea was great, and at first, the nu metal sounds they were implementing in their music were from heavier bands like Mudvayne and Slipknot. Now, they use much more melodic, mainstream and easier-selling nu metal elements that are most notably used by Five Finger Death Punch (although they’re rock now), Saliva, and post-2002 Disturbed. This has ended up in a complete collapse in the band’s quality and creativity. No wonder drummer Mike Bartlett left the band instantly after they released The Fall of Ideals in 2006! They started sucking!! But don’t get me wrong, the idea was great, but once the experimentation with better-selling nu metal elements started, they went downhill.

If you can’t quite pinpoint my opinion on this album, it sucks. It’s painful enough listening to it while I’m writing this review. I would give this album a 4/20. Nothing else needs to be said in this review, don’t waste your time on this piece of trash, it’s not worth your time. There are so many better metalcore bands than All that Remains! THIS ALUBM IS TRASH!