Metalcore. Is there a style of metal that has come along since the hairspray days that was more immediately dated than metalcore? From the foundational days right through today, it's hard to listen to a metalcore record and not feel like it's 2005. What's weird about that is how metalcore is what should be the perfect music for the modern age of metal. It is a blend of everything that metal currently is; down-tuned guitars, technical (at times) playing, ferocious screaming, and beautiful melody. But there was a short shelf life, and most of the bands that cemented the genre started drifting towards other ideas, as All That Remains did as they morphed into more of a radio rock outfit. That was not received well at all. It makes you wonder if their return to a more aggressive side with this record is a strategy, rather than where their inspiration took them.
We get off to a bad start with "Fuck Love", whose flaws should be evident without me saying anything. Those three minutes of screaming are somehow considered 'edgy' or 'angst' when coming from a man in his forties, when it would be called a temper tantrum if he was four. I don't expect everyone to be a true poet, but there is a degree of maturity I require these days. I'm not that old, and stuff like this song makes me cringe too hard to put up with it. If it wasn't immature, I would tell "Fuck Love" to fuck off. I'm better than that, though.
The other two songs we got a preview of are worlds better. "Everything's Wrong" and "Wasteland" are phenomenal tracks, and the reason I'm talking about this album, considering I had never gotten into All That Remains before. "Everything's Wrong" hit me the first time I stumbled across it, delivering a dark and melancholy form of radio rock that is beautiful and slightly haunting. Phil Labonte sounds great, and his lyrics are more introspective here. I'm not sure how it isn't getting traction on the modern rock charts. It is everything Disturbed is trying to be, but runs circles around them.
The band's years spent escaping metalcore have, ironically, made them better at exactly that. A song like "Blood To Spill" is metalcore through and through, but Labonte now has a better grasp (or better help) writing melodies that fit the balance the best of the genre always offered. In between the chugging riffs and screaming verses, the chorus sits as the melodic center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, a gift for those of us who get tired of being yelled at by overgrown man-children.
"Misery In Me" is an interesting track, because the pre-chorus is almost a straight copy of Killswitch Engage's "In Due Time". Since that wasn't exactly a deep cut, I'm not sure how no one who worked on the record didn't hear that similarity, as the last thing a metalcore band wants is to invite comparisons with the group that's done it the best. At least the chorus that follows is solid enough to make sure the entire song doesn't get swallowed up by the 'borrowing' of that melody.
I assume the more hardcore fans will hate the acoustic ballad "Alone In The Darkness", and especially "Just Tell Me Something", which is the most mainstream song on the entire record, and is the closest thing here to the records that have been turning fans off. I, though, enjoy that song. I went back and listened to the band's last record to get a bit of context, and I understand why fans were upset. Those songs weren't very good at the style they were trying to be. This time around, they're much better at writing for the masses.
Aside from that opening stumble, "Victim Of The New Disease" is actually a very good record. It vacillates between metalcore and modern rock, but both styles are done well, and Labonte's melodies are solid and sturdy. "Fuck Love" is lousy, but everything else is highly enjoyable, and indeed a return to form. All That Remains might have a bad reputation these days, but this should help them rehab that.
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