If you want to leave a lasting impression, get to the point... Clinging to airtight songcraft, knifepoint precise metallic instrumentation, and stadium-size hard rock hooks, All That Remains cut right to the chase on their ninth fulllength album, Victim of the New Disease [Fearless Records]. In fact, the quintet— Philip Labonte [lead vocals], Oli Herbert [lead guitar], Mike Martin [rhythm guitar], Jason Costa [drums], and Aaron Patrick [bass, backing vocals]—perfect their patented pummeling by wasting no time or energy at all. “We just try to trim away all of the fat,” exclaims Labonte. “It’s easy for metal bands, ourselves included, to get self-indulgent and write parts for the sake of parts. Unless an idea makes a song better, there’s no reason to put it in. We always put the song first. That’s how you stick with people. If you just write good songs, everything else will be okay.” That philosophy cemented the Massachusetts group as one of this century’s most consistent purveyors of heavy music with a bulletproof canon of arena-worthy anthems. All That Remains’ discography is highlighted by Top 10 Active Rock radio hits such as their first number one “Stand Up,” “Two Weeks,” “What If I Was Nothing,” and more. Averaging 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify (an unprecedented feat for a metal band in any era), cumulative sales eclipse 1 million albums worldwide. Not to mention, they’ve earned five consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top Rock Albums Chart and four in the Top 5. Most recently, 2017’s Madness spawned the smash cover of Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls,” which trended on VEVO and generated 21 million plus total views and 8 million Spotify streams in under a year’s time. In addition to packing houses as a headliner, they’ve practically burned down the stage everywhere from Rock on the Range to Welcome to Rockville. When it came time to commence writing for what would become Victim of the New Disease, the boys decided to go back to square one. All That Remains holed up in the Chicopee, MA rehearsal space they’ve occupied since 2010 and dove into writing alongside an old friend producer Dan “DL” Laskiewicz [Unearth, The Acacia Strain]. “We were trying to focus on what we do best,” the frontman continues. “We wanted to be heavy. We didn’t want to go to L.A. and work on a record out there again like we did with Madness. We wanted to do it where we were comfortable at home. That method has always done really well for us. We got together in the old practice space and hammered out riffs, ideas, and songs that resonated with us.” For the first time, the band recorded proper demos complete with music and lyrics, marking “the most striking difference” between previous releases. With “DL” behind the board as producer and mixing courtesy of Josh Wilbur [Lamb of God, Gojira], they delivered a striking, succinct, and sharp collection of ten anthems. “We decided to throw a curveball,” grins Labonte. “...And do the the heaviest record since For We Are Many in 2010! It was the perfect way to follow-up Madness where we did some different styles and songs and even covered a country song. People might’ve expected something more experimental, but throwing curveballs is what we do.” All That Remains kick down the door on Victim of the New Disease with the deadly barrage of opener “Fuck Love.” Chainsaw-sharp riffing and guttural growls roared as the musicians make good on this heavy promise. “We’ve started a few records with something that really kicks hard,” he goes on. “You take your heaviest song and say, ‘This is how we’re going to set the tone for the rest of the album. Here you go.’ ‘Fuck Love’ is the most aggressive song we’ve done in a while. It’s burner. We dig beginning with a shocker.” Meanwhile, the first single “Everything’s Wrong” hinges on an energetic groove that builds towards an immediately chantable chorus still underscored by muscular double bass. “If we get a good hook, we like to make sure it’s maximally exposed,” says the singer. “We want something you’ll hum later with lyrics you might be able to relate to. However, for the first time, we got to leave the double bass in!” Then, there’s “Just Tell Me” [feat. Danny Worsnop]. On the hypnotic anthem, Labonte locks into an unbreakable harmony with Worsnop, adding another dimension to the record. “We’ve been friends with Danny for a long time,” he continues. “We loved what he did. He wanted to do something more chill, and I think he hit a homerun. If you’re into rock ballad songs, you’ll appreciate it.” Everything culminated on the visceral and vital “Victim of the New Disease,” which hints at “how some ideas don’t work out—and continue not to work out, but we keep trying them” over a fiery and focused four-on-the-floor riff. In the end, All That Remains uncompromisingly tread the same path they’ve trodden for nearly two decades and delivered a definitive body of work on the way “This band is my life,” Labonte leaves off. “It’s twenty years of being a musician. We’ve been able to weather some storms in the music industry, survive, and come out thriving. We didn’t just ride a trend; we built a real career out of writing songs. We don’t have a look or a gimmick. We have five dudes who write songs.” — Rick Florino, September 2018 SHORT BIO Since their formation in Massachusetts during 1998, All That Remains have built an undeniable legacy upheld by airtight songcraft, knifepoint precise metallic instrumentation, and stadium-size hard rock hooks. As a result, they’ve outlasted trials, tribula- tions, and trends to stand tall as as one of this century’s most consistent purveyors of heavy music with a bulletproof canon of arena-worthy anthems. All That Remains’ discography is highlighted by success at Active Rock including radio hits in the top 10 such as “Two Weeks,” “What If I Was Nothing,” and their first number one “Stand Up,”. Averaging 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify (an unprecedented feat for a metal band in any era), while cumulative sales eclipse 1 million albums worldwide. Not to mention, they’ve earned five consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top Rock Albums Chart and four in the Top 5. Most recently, 2017’s Madness spawned the smash cover of Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls,” which trended on VEVO and generated 21 million plus total views and 8 million Spotify streams in under a year’s time. In addition to packing houses as a headliner, they’ve practically burned down festival stages everywhere from Rock on the Range to Welcome to Rockville. In 2018, the quintet—Philip Labonte [lead vocals], Oli Herbert [lead guitar], Mike Martin [rhythm guitar], Jason Costa [drums], and Aaron Patrick [bass, backing vocals]— perfect their patented pummeling by wasting no time or energy at all on their ninth full-length album, Victim of the New Disease [Fearless Records]. — Rick Florino, September 2018

Party-hearty death metal rockers Attila formed while in high school in their hometown of Atlanta in 2005, around the core of founders Chris "Fronz" Fronzak (vocals) and Sean Heenan (drums). The band played parties and festivals in and around Atlanta. Their first long-player, 2007's Fallacy on Statik Factory Records, has been an underground favorite since its release. Their second album, 2008's aptly named Soundtrack to a Party, was also issued on Statik Factory; it garnered the same praise as its predecessor. Attila's popularity on the death metal scene is due in part to creating their own ironically named subgenre called "Party Death Metal." Rather than take themselves seriously -- as nearly every other practitioner of the hardcore punk-meets-extreme metal prowess called death metal is wont to do -- Attila take a lighthearted, laid-back party animal approach, writing utterly ridiculous lyrics to accompany their fast and furious thrashing. The band has toured with Arsonists Get All the Girls, See You Next Tuesday, Chelsea Grin, American Me, and We Are the End. The band's personnel changed considerably during its formative years and finally stabilized in 2008 with Heenan and Fronz, bassist Paul Ollinger, and guitarists Nate Salameh and Chris Linck. Artery Recordings was formed by the partnership between Artery Management and Razor & Tie, who'd heard about Attila via Chelsea Grin. Label boss Mike Milford saw them perform on the Grand Slam tour in 2009 and signed them. Rage, their debut recording for Artery, appeared in 2010. Produced by Joey Sturgis (We Came as Romans, the Devil Wears Prada), Outlawed arrived in 2011, followed in 2013 by About That Life. The band's sixth studio long-player, the Sturgis-produced Guilty Pleasure, arrived the following year, and in 2016 they made the move to the Markus Staiger- and Shawn Keith-founded SharpTone Records and released a new album, Chaos. ~ Thom Jurek

When a band has had as storied and, at times, controversial a first decade in the limelight as Escape The Fate, there is often a temptation to focus on that past, rather than concentrating on the future. Yet after releasing their fifth, and arguably most significant studio album to date, the upcoming chapters of the Vegas quartet’s career not only look bright, but are set to resolutely be their best yet. “This new album is, without any question in my mind, the best thing that has ever borne the Escape The Fate name, by a distance,” enthuses frontman Craig Mabbitt with no hint of hesitation. A remarkable statement given the last two ETF records gatecrashed the Billboard top 30.  “Sonically, we’ve always been a diverse band who have everything from ballads to really heavy songs - and our fans expect that - but I think on this album we’ve gone full force with it. The heaviest songs are the heaviest we’ve ever written, and the poppy songs are the poppiest we’ve ever done. We came to this kind of ‘who cares what people think of us’ realization this time around - we’re amplifying everything that we love about this band in all directions and it has been incredibly liberating.”