Rating: 3/5
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Commercial success on Razor & Tie has been a double-edged sword (razor?) for All That Remains, who have seen increasing sales over the last three albums, but with the price of a restrained attack. Fellow Massachusetts metalcore magnate Adam Dutkiewicz prodeuces albums like this in his sleep, and those familiar with the back catalogue of ATR, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, etc. will find little new on For We Are Many.

The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate released September 15, 2009 on Metal Blade Melodic death metal bands akin to latter day Death or [insert Gothenburg thrash band here] have such challenging prerequisites and evolutionary expectations. This was the problem with TBDM for their last three albums: relentlessly indistinguishable cacophonies dominated. Their progressive absorption of talented metal musicians has helped. This is the second album with ex-All That Remains drummer Shannon Lucas, and replacing John Kempainen is guitarist Ryan Knight. His tenure with Arsis must have helped the band class up their craft, as their songs are more memorable than [...read more]

All That Remains - “Overcome” [Prosthetic] … their fourth album finds the Springfield, MA quintet keeping pace with their tradition of Metalcore infused with Gothenburg Thrash and (now) more Pop than ever … this works on some tracks (1, 3, 5, 9), but others sound carbon copied (6, 7, 8 ) and honestly, “Two Weeks” smacks of Linkin Park … they accepted a daunting task covering Nevermore (11) but it was a safe bet that turned out bland … new drummer Jason Costa (Diecast) replaces Shannon Lucas, who is now in The Black Dahlia Murder … FCC OK … 2008Sept09 1. Before The Damned 2. [...read more]