ALL THAT REMAINS made an triumphant return last month with the release of the explosive new single “Divine”. Watch the video here. The track was lauded by Metal Hammer as “swinging for the fences… with a chorus that is begging to be screamed by thousands of fans,” while Revolver concurred that “it’s an all-power anthem of pinch-squealed technicality and stadium-ready sing-along hooks — makes for a righteous metalcore return.” Elsewhere, Consequence labeled it what it truly is — “a dynamic return.”
Today, the band has dropped another brand new banger with “Let You Go”. The track was produced by Josh Wilbur (PARKWAY DRIVE, LAMB OF GOD, TRIVIUM, A DAY TO REMEMBER),who also helmed “Divine”.
Watch the video for the song, which kicks off with a gnarly riff and then goes for the jugular with a stadium-sized chorus and monster breakdown, below.
“As a lyricist, I find songs about the human condition to be most compelling,” says ALL THAT REMAINS singer Philip Labonte. “‘Let You Go’ is a great example of that. So many can relate to being in a bad relationship that you can’t seem to break out of. Be it with a substance (or with a person) and this song speaks to that struggle so many of us are familiar with.”
The “Let You Go” video was directed by Tom Flynn (I PREVAIL, AS I LAY DYING, LAMB OF GOD).
“Divine” marked ALL THAT REMAINS‘ first original new material since the passing of their longtime guitar player Oli Herbert. “Divine” also ushered in a period of rebirth for ALL THAT REMAINS, which is, for the first in its career, 100 percent independent and will be releasing future material on its own label — All That Remains Records.
When “Divine” was first made available, Labonte said in a statement: “It’s been a long time since ALL THAT REMAINS released new music. A lot has changed…in both the band, ALL THAT REMAINS, and in the world around us. When we lost Oli in 2018 it was hard to envision a path forward, six years later and I am proud to share ‘Divine’ with you. ALL THAT REMAINS has new life, and that is thanks to the fans for their years of support. We would not be here without them. Go listen to ‘Divine’ and hit me up on twiX with your comments.”
Four months ago, Labonte spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for follow-up to 2018’s “Victim Of The New Disease” album during an interview with Rock Feed. He said at the time: “Right now I’m sitting in one of the dressing rooms at Henson [Recording Studios] in Los Angeles. It’s a historiful place [being the former headquarters for A&M Records and the location of A&M Recording Studios]. I mean, Charlie Chaplin‘s lot is here. Studio A, they did ‘We Are The World’ in. They mixed [METALLICA‘s] Black Record here. They mixed [Dr. Dre‘s] ‘The Chronic’ here. So I’m in this awesome place with all this history.
“This is our second trip here doing drums,” he continued. “We did four songs the first trip and that was in June [of 2023]. And now we’re doing four more, and then we’ve got another session booked in March to finish up the drums. And that should be the last of actual tracking. Everything should be done. We might have some odds and ends, like maybe some solo stuff and noodley stuff. But we should be done tracking by the middle of March.”
Regarding why it has taken six years for ALL THAT REMAINS to complete a new album, Phil said: “It has been a long time coming because — well, I mean a million reasons: because of COVID, because we had some legal actions with our label. We’re no longer on a label. We’re self-releasing it. So we’re self-financing. We’re gonna own it, which is a huge milestone. We had a great agreement with our label. We were supposed to have another record, but they let us go and they let us venture out on our own, which was awesome. I’ve got tons of love for Fearless and Concord Music Group and stuff, ’cause they let us do our thing. So that’s awesome. And we’re gonna get it out as soon as we can. We don’t want to rush it.”
Labonte added: “We started the sessions [for the new album] — really, the first time that I got together with Josh Wilbur, who’s producing it. Josh Wilbur, you guys know him from TRIVIUM, from LAMB OF GOD, from a ton of [other bands]. He’s worked with us [before]. He did [2015’s] ‘The Order Of Things’, he produced that one, he mixed ‘Victim Of The New Disease’, so we’ve got a lot of history with him. But he’s here [in Los Angeles], and we started with him — I think it was 2021, is actually when we started with him. He came out the first time and started working on some riffs and some ideas. And then we got our first like real song together in February of last year, where I got with Josh and wrote lyrics for a song. It was actually a song that Jason [Richardson, ALL THAT REMAINS guitarist] wrote the whole thing and kind of gave it to us. And so that’s gonna be — that’ll probably be the first one. I’m not gonna give out the name yet. But it’s gonna be a great debut for Jason Richardson.”
Speaking about the addition of Richardson, who replaced late ALL THAT REMAINS guitarist Oli Herbert more than five years ago, Phil said: “He’s super creative, so it’s a ton of fun. And this being his debut with us, we wanted it to be right. Not only is it the first record that we’ve put out without Oli Herbert, which took us a long time to kind of get used to the idea and figure out what that means and what it looks like and all kinds of things that had to happen since Oli passed away. But this being the first record that comes out with Jason, we want it to be right. There’s not gonna be any half-assed [songs] on this at all. There’s not any deep cuts — nothing at all. Right now we’re eight songs in and there’s zero deep cuts. Every single song that we’ve got, if someone else was, like, ‘Oh, let’s put this one out as the first single,’ it’d be fine. That would work as a first single. And that’s a big, big deal. Usually you’ll hear three or four songs or five and you’re, like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got some killer songs on this record. We’ve got six great songs.’ And there’s 10 or 11 songs on the record and you’re, like, ‘Yeah, these other ones are cool, but we didn’t have the time to do with them what we wanted. They didn’t quite come out the way we want, and the record label wants to have this many songs on the record, so we don’t have time to…’ blah, blah, blah. ‘We’ve got a deadline.’ So you end up making compromises, and because we’re doing it ourselves, putting it out ourselves and we’ve got a career and we’re super fortunate that people still listen to our music and we’ve still got people out there that support us, so we can take the time to deliver the record that the fans deserve.”
Last July, longtime ALL THAT REMAINS drummer Jason Costa announced his departure from the group, citing “deeply personal” reasons that “have nothing to do with any drama or anything within the band.”
Jason was the featured drummer on the last six ALL THAT REMAINS albums: “Overcome” (2008),“For We Are Many” (2010),”A War You Cannot Win” (2012),“The Order Of Things” (2015),“Madness” (2017) and “Victim Of The New Disease” (2018). He is notable for being one of the few heavy metal drummers to play solely with the “traditional grip.”
Back in March 2022, Costa left ALL THAT REMAINS‘ U.S. tour in order to “deal with some personal matters.” He was temporarily replaced by Anthony Barone, who had previously played with BENEATH THE MASSACRE and SHADOW OF INTENT.
Earlier last year, ALL THAT REMAINS‘s breakthrough album “The Fall Of Ideals”, was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) for sales in excess of 500,000 copies in the United States.
In 2022, ALL THAT REMAINS embarked on “The Fall Of Ideals” 15th-anniversary tour.
“The Fall Of Ideals” was reissued in November 2021. The best-selling title features such fan favorites as “This Calling”, “Six” and “The Air That I Breathe”.
Oli was found dead on October 16, 2018 at the edge of the pond on his Stafford Springs, Connecticut property. He was reported missing by his wife about 3 p.m., and his body was found by police face down at the edge of the pond where the water was only a few inches deep. The medical examiner’s office conducted an autopsy showing that Oli had three prescription drugs in his system — the antipsychotic olanzapine, the antidepressant citalopram, and Ambien. It also said: “Mr. Herbert‘s past medical history is reportedly significant for marijuana use.”
ALL THAT REMAINS and MUDVAYNE will support MEGADETH on a 33-city, nationwide tour, “Destroy All Enemies”, this summer. Produced by Live Nation, the trek will begin in Rogers, Arkansas on August 2 and run throughout the month before wrapping in Nashville, Tennessee on September 28.