Madness (All That Remains Album)

''Madness'' is the eighth studio album by American metal band All That Remains. It was released on April 28, 2017, on Razor & Tie Records. ''Madness'' is the first studio album produced by Howard Benson, as well as the first album to feature bassist Aaron Patrick. While this is the band's next-to-last album with guitarist Oli Herbert, it is also their last album to be released in his lifetime.

Background

Vocalist Phil Labonte told '' Revolver'' magazine about band's approach on the new disc: "We wanted to mix it up a little bit and write from a vocal perspective this time. So I went to L.A. and came up with vocal ideas and melodies and then sent those chord progressions back to Oli Herbert and he wrote riffs in response to that. Doing it this way turned the record into a vocal album as opposed to a guitar album. And that affected some things. Like, there might be less intricacy in the riffs because they were written in response to my voice."

Musical style

Labonte added that the majority of the new songs features "significant programming and electronic sounds. And that's something we wanted to have flowing through the entire record. So you're gonna hear that kind of influence on most of the tracks."

Phil also stated: "On this record, there's five songs on the record that are exactly what you would expect from ''All That Remains''. There's some songs where we kind of were, like, 'All right, let's push this and maybe change what we can do, or what ''All That Remains'' is allowed to do.' But it ain't like we're not heavy anymore. And if you're just, like, 'Oh, they're not heavy anymore,' then you're just not listening."

Reception

The album received mixed reviews. Aaron J. Marko of ''Exclaim!'' described the album as mediocre, generic and archaic. Christopher Di Carlo of Overdrive magazine, on the other hand, described the album as beautiful yet heavy.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Phil Labonte; all music composed by All That Remains.

Personnel

All That Remains

* Philip Labonte – lead vocals, art direction, cover design
* Oli Herbert – lead guitar
* Mike Martin – rhythm guitar
* Aaron Patrick – bass guitar, backing vocals
* Jason Costa – drums

Additional musicians

*Mark Sereikas - additional guitar on "Thunder Rolls"
*Benny Goodman - piano/keyboards and additional engineering/production on Thunder Rolls at Speak EZ Studios, Randolph, MA
*Cory Paza - bass and additional engineering/production on Thunder rolls at Speak EZ Studios, Randolph, MA

Freedom Chorus

*Diamante (also does additional vocals on "Thunder Rolls")
*Meron Ryan
*Sidnie Tipton
*Lenny Skolnik
*Seann Bowe

Production

* Howard Benson – production, mixing
* Mike Plotnikoff – co-production, engineering
* Hatsukazu "Hatch" Inagaki – engineering
* Shaun Ezrol and Carl Stoodt – assistant engineering
* Bob Ludwig – mastering
* Lenny Skolnik, Seann Bowe, Howard Benson – keyboards and programming
* Marc VanGool – guitar tech
* Jon Nicholson at Drum Fetish – drum tech
* Joe Rickard – pre-production, drum programming
* Igor Khoroshev – string arrangement on "Back to You"
* Paul DeCarli – digital editing
* Nick Haussling – A&R
* Tom Gnolfo – A&R administration
* Diamante Azzura – backing vocals
* Josh Strock – composition

Charts

References

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2017 albums
All That Remains (band) albums
Razor & Tie albums
Albums produced by Howard Benson
Alternative metal albums by American artists