All That Remains - Victim of the New Disease

All That Remains’ album last year, Madness, was one of the few big metal albums I intentionally ignored. I hadn’t really enjoyed the trajectory the band decided to take on The Order of Things, and I had heard from numerous believable sources that Madness was a double-down on the bland radio metal formulas that have seduced so many of their contemporaries in metalcore for the past few years. And I didn’t feel like purposely subjecting myself to more music I was almost certain was going to be terrible (I have also listened to and discussed albums from bands like Hollywood Undead and Asking Alexandria that I was almost certain were going to be terrible too, but I did go into those with the benefit of the doubt). Victim of the New Disease, though, was touted as a return to form, a little triumphant redemption I hope for for a lot of these aging bands getting sucked into the clutches of radio-friendliness, and from what I can tell, All That Remains’ fans have been appreciative of this 180°. Not all is victorious surrounding this album, however. Just a few weeks prior to its release, original guitarist Oli Herbert died unexpectedly, leaving the band shaken just before embarking on a tour to support their return to form. As for the album itself, I still wouldn’t call it quite a complete return for All That Remains. The band do come through with several extended bursts of potent metalcore fury very reminiscent of the days of old, but between those moments of the band proving that they still have that fire in them, they also deliver a lot of these truly terrible bright-and-shiny melodies that make no sense in the context of the aggressive content of the album, constantly halting any momentum the album begins to build.

The first song, “Fuck Love”, is a relentless, energetic exhibition of the most furious groovy metalcore of the band’s early career. It is a rather messy track that kind of just throws everything at the wall (really hard) with not really any ideas beyond trying to defibrillate the band’s metalcore heart with screams and double-bass. The pissy lyrics aren’t really flattering either, but I’ll take this over an even deeper submission to the throes of radio. The very next song, “Everything’s Wrong”, though, channels the band’s slower, more melodic side, but not a particularly exciting display of it, with a particularly lazy and soulless chorus. The song “Blood I Spill” is a slightly better example of their old style, blending clean and gruff vocals over a far more interestingly arranged and powerfully performed instrumental structure. It, and the subsequent song, “Wasteland”, remind me a lot of the good era of Five Finger Death Punch.

The album takes a break with the more acoustic number, “Alone in the Darkness”, which is both unnecessary and dull in its complete lack of dynamic. The album resumes its alt metalcore melodicism with “Misery in Me”, which resorts to a thoughtless melody to balance out its metalcore-driven verses. The song right afterward, “Broken”, is another stale, alternative groove metal piece that sounds a lot like Five Finger Death Punch used to. It’s the song “Just Tell Me Something”, though, that is the album’s crown jewel of sappy, Hot Topic alt metal, and Danny Worsnop’s presence came as no surprise when he showed up in the choruses and his own verse. The following track, “I Meant What I Said”, is another melodic alternative metal cut that follows the same formulaic structure the band can’t seem to get away from, and it just feels like nothing at this point in the album. I do like the breakdown at the bridge, however, which was much needed after the corny autotuned moment preceding it.

The album ends with the short burst of punchy heat of the title track, which leans more heavily on the growls the way the opening track did, book-ending the album with its most fiery moments.

For all the talk of it supposedly being an earnest departure from the more mainstream style the band had cultivated, All That Remains can’t seem to quite let go of their radio-rock tendencies on Victim of the New Disease. They show that they can still crank out heavy new material, but it’s so sparse and clearly not the most artistically invested music they’ve made, this feels more like a damage control album to mend grievances with old-school fans than anything else. Or perhaps they really do want to fix that bridge that The Order of Things and Madness burned, and perhaps it’s the higher-ups only letting them do so to a very limited extent. But either way, this album only partially accomplished what it set out to do. I’m sure at least some fans will be happy with the effort, but I think the most alienated of the band’s fanbase will remain feeling scorned, if not pandered to.