All That Remains – “Overcome”

Rating: 6/10

Massachusetts metalcore outfit, All That Remains, keeps it short and sweet on its new album, “Overcome.”

The album doesn’t pull any surprises, but manages to carry most of the momentum the band established with 2006’s “The Fall of Ideals.” The album features several outstanding tracks like “Two Weeks,” “Forever in Your Hands” and “Do Not Obey.” But none of the tracks achieve the same effect as the heavy-to-light transition in the chorus of “This Calling” off the band’s previous album.

Overall, the guitar-work on “Overcome” is excellent. The adrenaline-tailored guitar solos are very reminiscent of mid-career “In Flames” tracks and the guitar riffs share some common elements with fellow Massachusetts act Killswitch Engage. Few metalcore bands can implement guitar solos while maintaining complexity as effectively as ATR.

On the downside, it sounds like vocalist Philip Labonte’s voice was unnecessarily digitally altered during some of the clean singing sections. Labonte’s voice translates almost perfectly from previous records during live performance; altering it on the recording takes away more than it adds.

Though the digital altering of Labonte’s voice takes away from the album, he does deserve credit for expanding on alternating between singing and screaming vocals within the same section of the song. Labonte uses different vocal styles in different sections of the tracks that break-away from the common “heavy-verse, pretty-chorus” method. The resulting effect makes the songs easier to listen to for the “little-to-no screaming fan,” but does not distance fans of the genre.

“Overcome” is a worthy follow-up that is sure to satisfy fans of ATR and continues to develop the sound on “The Fall of Ideals.”