I was rather interested to see how Massachuset’s All That Remains would follow up the precise American metal assault of This Darkenered Heart after a stint on Sounds of the Underground and rash of releases from their peers since that album (God Forbid, The Autumn Offering, Shadows Fall, etc).

Well, Im glad to say ATR has stayed on course, and delivered an amply improved yet safely restrained follow up to This Darkenered Heart ATR knows what works. Taking the expected mix of thrash, metalcore and melodic death metal, ATR sound is tight, enjoyable and unexpectedly catchy, yet doesn’t seem as forced as say, The Autumn Offering’s Embrace the Gutter or as wimpy as God Forbid’s IV. The melody has arguably been upped, especially in the clean choruses of Phil Labonte, who has really come on as an all around vocalist, and the solos of Mike Martin and Oli Herbert.

 The end result certainly results in a more KsE sort of sound, but not at the expense of sharpness. The well put together songs are well crafted to appeal both to mosh along to and sing along to. With plenty of soaring moments to wiggle your fingers in the air to and sing too, as well as the expected breakdowns, The Fall of Ideals with Adam D’s production is just a well done album that does everything right, no matter your stance on the genre, even if there is an air of familiarity around most of the tracks. Well placed opener, “This Calling” pretty much sets the template for the entire album as it sounds a lot like the last album’s title track. “Not Alone” and “It Dwells In Me” follows suite with a similarly catchy gait, making for a impressively memorable opening trio of tracks before “We Stand” presents a more controlled, mid paced anthemic number.

Though “Whispers (I Hear You)”, initially presents itself as the album’s requisite ballad, it actually ends up being one of the album’s heaviest tracks, despite the slightly ballad-y chorus and its followed up by the urgent “The Weak Willed” which shows Labonte at his most guttural. “Six” is the album’s weakest, most formulaic track and starts a run of predictable but well played and thrashy, enjoyable consistency until the blistering and my personal favorite “Empty Inside”,which features an undeniably brilliant melodic blast beat that shows when they peak, ATR are the very epitome of ballsy ballistic metal.

ATR have played it safe and kept things simple for album number three, basically keeping the puzzle pieces from This Darkened Heart in order and just making finite improvements to make The Fall of Ideals a fine example of American metal.

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