All That Remains - A War You Cannot Win (2012)

What does it take to become a band of legendary proportions? I think that you have to have at least these five factors. 1. A huge fan base. 2. Consistency. 3. Make great live performances. 4. A good band chemistry. And 5. an urge to keep challening and evolve the music your creating. All That Remains has all those factors... except the last one. Ever since the amazing "The Fall of Ideals",  which contains three of the best songs from the 21st century ("Six", "This Calling" and "Not Alone"), All That Remains has just been stomping in the same spot for the last 4-5 years. The albums "Overcome" and "...For We Are Many" was dull and so far from groundbreaking as you can get. I hopped that "A War You Cannot Win" would show that the band still has something new to offer the world. I was wrong.

"A War You Cannot Win" is just like its two predecessors. Good in production but horrible in innovation. It is deja-vu through the entire album. In other words, IT'S BORING!!! But I gotta say that the album started promising. The songs "Down Through The Ages" and "You Can't Fill My Shadow" is some of the better songs from the era after "The Fall of ideals". Good structures and some good singing. Unfortunately, they can not hold up the entire album.

The rest of the songs should not even be mentioned. Those tracks has dissapointment written all over them. No innovative riffs, no great build ups and it does not even feel like the band is trying. They are just running on stand by. I have nothing against any of the band members but for god sake show some balls. Try a different angle. Think outside the box. Do something completely different. Just stay out of this line and take another direction. One thing you could try is to have one song with only harsh vocals. Try to show more of that hard side.

I think this is the last album from All That Remains that I will listen to (if I do not decide to listen to their previous albums again). The band must make some drastic changes to get their carrer up and running again. As it is now, the band is just stalling and living on previous merits. So come Oli, Philip, Mike, Jeanne and Jason. Time for you to shake things up.

Songs worthy of recognition:  Down Through The Ages, You Can't Fill My Shadow

Rating: 4/10 Non-believers