ALL THAT REMAINS: "The Order Of Things"

Rating: RR
Label: Razor & Tie Recordings
Review by: Martien Koolen

The Order Of Things is the seventh album of American hard rockers All That Remains.

The band hailing from Massachusetts was quite successful over the last years as it

reached another landmark with A War You Cannot Win (2012) that debuted at position

13 on the Billboard Top 200. That album also contained two hit singles Stand Up and

What If I Was Nothing. The new single This Probably Won't End Well will probably

will end up as a hit single as well, as singer Labonte delivers a soaring refrain

which sticks in your head almost forever (not that this is a good thing tough?). For

this new album All That Remains asked Josh Wilbur (Lamb Of God) for the production,

however I do not really hear great differences with the previous albums which were

produced by Adam D (Killswitch Engage). What I really do not like are the grunting

2vocals" (in fact I actually hate grunting) in songs like No Knock, Tru-Kvit-Metal

and Criticism And Self-Realization. 

To me the best songs are: Divide with a rather catchy refrain, For You, true American based melodic power ballad stuff in the veins of Nickelback and Bite My Tongue, an up tempo song with fast guitar solos. But, overall you could label The Order Of Things as a typical non-original American hard

rock/metal album with lots of melody and even lots of fresh songs. Tracks that do NOT remain in your head; but are nice to listen to once, but no more than that I am afraid?

There are no musical surprises on the album, as most of the song structures are really predictable and I really believe that The Fall Of Ideals was their best effort so far! Maybe the band has become too "commercial", let the fans decide! To me this is rather a mediocre album which will last not very long in my CD-player.