All That Remains
The Fall of Ideals

Release Date: 2006 | Tracklist

Definitely the most crucial thing about the fall of ideals was the consistency of the album. Both of their previous albums lacked consistency, take This Darkened Heart for an example. This Darkened Heart had probably three great songs (And death in my arms, Focus Shall Not Fail and This Darkened Heart). Every other song on that album felt like it was over before it had ended, and could only be listened to a few times before the song got old. There was no energy, no flame. Despite this, The fall Of Ideals was quality on another lever, it didn't feel boring once. Sure there were low points but you were always picked straight back up. I cannot say that there are suburb songs and poor songs on The Fall Of Ideals like This Darkened Heart. There are only suburb to good song, and this was the best and most crucial improvement after this darkened heart.

Another huge con of the fall of ideals was the unique mixture of technical and hardcore riffs. Usually you will only get a band who does one or the other, leaving you wondering what a mixture might sound like. Every main riff and most other riffs had various technicalities but remained something you can bang your head to. The best example I can think of is a mixture of parkway drive and hatebreed riffs. This works extremely well, sounds so damn hard to play and kicks so much ass. It’s a prime method used in all All That Remains albums but none as much as The Fall Of Ideals.

Positive number three = vocals. The vocals used in this album by Philip are unrivaled. He can change his scream or his melodics with ease, and they all sound great. Metal core only ever works if the melodics sound perfect, providing a contrast to the screaming. Some bands like Killswitch Engage with Howard, or Chimaira in Pass Out Of Existence, have failed on epic proportions because their melodics just don’t sound as if they should be there. Philip, however, has nailed it. Philip failed to differentiate his melodics but the single high pitch singing voice was well and truly enough to be one of the biggest high points on The Fall Of Ideals. Philips scream is also agonizingly good, and it kind of sounds like there are ten different people singing. Philip has the standard scream, used commonly on The Fall Of Ideals. Its low and aggressive. He then has the death metal voice heard in The Weak Willed. It sounds killer, kind of like Glen Benton from Deicide. He then has his standard yell (Primarily heard on This Darkened Heart). This is best used speedily and creates a lot of energy. It was rarely used in The Fall Of Ideals). Philip then has his ‘demon voice’ also heard at the end of “The Weak Willed”. This is eerie, creepy and sounds downright impossible to be coming from a person’s mouth. Despite this, Philip can readily sing like this at any concert. Then he also has his melodic voice, which sounds great. What a legend, pulling out all the stops to create this awe-inspiring album.

The instruments in this album are generally used to well affect. The bass is never heard. The guitar is pretty cool and while it has a good range of technical riffs and also tough riffs, there are quite a few just plain tough riffs which sound pretty cool. A good example is at the end of “This Calling”. The solos are also high powered and very song fitting. Most are pretty fast, just pure shredding, but even these have their slower parts that are just plain emotional, and fit the song very well. The drums in this album are pretty alright. They are fast and there are heaps of mini solos that you can only really detect if you are listening for them. A few times I felt that Lucas was just arrogant, trying to play far too much than he had too. In general, the drums were good, really fast, and did well to complement the music.

I found that The Fall Of Ideals was a quality album, very solid, with a few basic flaws like song length and overly played instruments. The lyrics are also a bit to self righteous for many people. It was a great album despite these things, and is highly recommended for any metal core fan or hardcore fan looking for something fresh.

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3.8 excellent

Rank: #132 for 2006