Categories
Live Reviews

All That Remains – Live

With The Haunted & Anterior
Brighton Concorde 2
23/1/08

It’s Friday night in Brighton, and as the serpentine queue braves the coastal breeze, it is evident that most in attendance are here to see one band and one band only, Sweden’s thrash titans, The Haunted. Fortunately, the enticing prospect of an evening spent in the presence of copious amounts of alcohol, as well as ear shredding metal, is more than enough to maintain some inner warmth for the almost exclusively teenage audience.

Setting the tone for the evening are Welsh Five-piece
Anterior,(8/10) who belt out a rousing set of modern metal fury, replete with plentiful maiden-esque twin guitar harmonies, fret melting solos and cast-iron riffs. If you couldn’t tell already, Anterior are a guitar junkie’s dream, securing an impressive amount of applause for some choice cuts from their debut album, ‘This Age Of Silence.’

Fifteen minutes later and the floor of this former tea room is transferred into a seething morass of ecstatic bodies, as The Haunted (9/10) blast onto the stage, with a blistering rendition of new track, ‘Little Cage.’ During a set every bit as ferocious as their ominous backdrop would suggest, Peter Dolving and Co showcase just why they are one of the most revered outfits anywhere, utterly feral renditions of classics such as ‘99,’ ‘D.O.A,’ and ‘All Against All‘ demanding the desperate banging of heads. Dolving is a compellingly deranged focal point, spitting his Misanthropic paeans to suffering and aggression with terrifying conviction. It is amazing to consider the impact which the Bjorler Brothers and their projects have had on metal, indeed, without At the Gates or The Haunted, the current swarm of so called ‘Melodic Death metal’ bands would not exist at all (but don’t hold that against them!) Concluding with ‘Hate Song‘ from their eponymous debut album, The Haunted have given a performance which will be referred to reverentially by Brighton’s metal contingent for a long time.

That is perhaps more than could be said about All That Remains (Pictured – 7/10), though that is not to say that they were anything less than an exemplary live unit. But when at least one third of the audience beats a hurried retreat to the bar before their set, one can tell that the best has already come and passed. Nevertheless, the US Metalcore corps deliver a cohesive set largely culled from Breakthrough album ‘The Fall Of Ideals.’ While it would be difficult to deny that their music is highly derivative, it must be said that when really getting into their groove, such as during sing-a-long favourites ‘This Calling‘ and new single ‘Two Weeks,’ no one currently ploughing this same trough can surpass them. Jason Costa’s drumming is simply phenomenal at times, and vocalist Phil Labonte strikes up a good rapport with those who chose to watch, but as the night comes to an end with a rare older song, ‘This darkened heart,’ it is clear that this has been a victory for The Haunted, and likewise, a victory for all in attendance. Excellent stuff.

Rob Sayce