Description

Where to start? All Else Failed have been destroying the Philadelphia, PA hardcore/metal scene with their patented chaos – encased in subtle melodic hymns – for so many years and in the the year 2001 the band released their second (and finest) full-length called Archetype. On this album the band seems to have found the perfect combination of in-depth technicality and spiteful brutality. When summing up All Else Failed’s overall sound, fuse Coalesce (Give Them Rope-era) and an ISIS level of intricacy – also add prominent synthesized samples and melodic hardcore and that gives you some inkling of what’s happening on Archetype. All Else Failed’s vocal executions consist of mid-pitched harrowing screams – vocalist Luke Muir has a set of pipes like no other amongst his respective peers. Adding to the uncompromising nature of Muir’s bloodcurdling strider, the emotionally sung passages are deceiving in their serene nature. His sweet serenades of twisted depression and agony wreak havoc on the senses, leaving the listener’s mind in shambles. Despite the frantic and harshly screamed vocal delivery, every word is clearly enunciated – the clarity is mesmerizing as is the depressive undertones of the lyrics. Luke Muir’s lyrical expressions are very unique and take hold of the listener after only one listen, leaving his tales of terror ingrained in their psyche. The twin guitar and bass assaults find themselves sounding incredibly explosive while co-existing together with delicate ease, allowing each individual riff to be thoroughly felt. Every previous release of All Else Failed’s was amazing in its own right. But after being exposed to the flawless production (Ben Weinman – The Dillinger Escape Plan) and sheer magnitude of the material that makes up Archetype, it is hard to look back on those recordings and find the same impeccable sound and mastery. Nine new songs and four re-recorded and revamped versions of songs from In Times of Desperation EP and the In My Gods Eye record round out this astounding record. Once described to me as the soundtrack to suicide, All Else Failed have shed their skin of despair and become the inevitable scalding archetype of revenge and malice. Such a devastating transformation was bound to happen. Archetype is no longer the soundtrack to suicide, but the sound of determination, ready to batter you with baseball bats wrapped in razorblades. But, “we both saw this coming…this is what we get.”

Track list:
1. The Hutton Play
2. Did You Think Of Me?
3. Choker
4. Route 1
5. A Long Drive
6. A Release
7. While I Say One Prayer
8. Prototype
9. Your Days Are Numbered
10. The Emesis Basin
11. Grain
12. In Time
13. Stray Bullet