I had not really followed what was going on with the guys in All That Remains before getting the chance to catch them as one of the openers for Arch Enemy in late 2005. They intrigued me enough and when I got to hear their Prosthetic Records release The Fall Of Ideals, I was completely sold. This was an album that showed that the current crop of Metalcore bands every so often would shock you with a group that was like a panzer tank assault on a straw hut. They went on to open for Dragonforce, and while I missed this show I received reports from people who went citing that they were grabbing the album as soon as they could get online to do so. This impressed me as while both bands are capable of blistering speeds they are vastly different in their musical presentation. These dates were capped off by an appearance on Ozzfest that same year. Tonight at New York's Irving Plaza we would find All That Remains in a headlining spot and to make it more special the event would become a complete sellout. The openers were The Human Abstract, Misery Signals and Cellador but I would not be there for those performances. Tonight I was strictly there for ATR and my time only allowed me the main band. Perhaps some other time since, I have seen those other names on bills of late, so I am confident that they shall return soon.

Read on for Ken Pierce's review of the February 21st show!

ATR would hit the stage like an attack force and that is an understatement. Lead singer Phil Labonte originally was the singer for Shadow's Fall, so based on that bands history and style you can well imagine that he knows how to get you going during a live set. Yet, as I got to observe them again an in this status I realized that everyone in the band is allover the place as often as possible. The twin guitars delivered by Mike Martin and Oli Herbert were really shredding and it was all they could do to keep up with the bands new drummer Jason Costa. Costa comes to them from the band Diecast, and he is a worthy addition to the lineup. I was really digging on the way he would pummel the double bass drums with machine gun fire time and then a second later be doing a slower tempo. He is tight and on the money and thankfully could be grounded by their bassist Jeanne Sagan during the show. She holds the whole thing together very ably and shows that being the only girl in the group does not faze her in the least. Given that The Fall Of Ideals is still a top-selling Metal album on the shelves and still being found as fresh by the larger community - it was understandable that the set tonight would be primarily focused on those tracks. If you have not grabbed a copy of this yet then you really need to do so. The great thing about tonight's show was that the intense vibe was literally flowing from off of the stage and into the crowd. The feeling was so powerful that the audience was jumping, slamming and crowd-surfing from almost the moment that they began playing. I was glad to have made it out of the photo area in one piece because not since the early days of Slayer have I seen the crowd going this insane. The security team really needed catcher's mitts for this night's event and that is no joke. Outside of the great Metal being given out tonight I had to laugh when during one of the songs I turned to the right of me and found Labonte standing right next to me waving to his band. I joked about his needing to be somewhere else, and he smiled saying he wanted to see the show for a moment. Within seconds he was back down there and raging once again. A totally killer night and one that will long stand in my memory of covered concerts.