Surprise albums can be a lot of fun. But if you announce that you’re not going to announce your album, then isn’t that sort of like announcing your album? Is it still a surprise album by that point? Well, Springfield, Massachusetts-based metalcore favorites All That Remains are dividing by zero as they’ve announced their upcoming surprise album.
In a recent interview with California radio station 96.7 KCAL (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), All That Remains vocalist Philip Labonte explained the band’s plans for the release of their next album:
“We’ve got some music out, and there’s a full-length record coming eventually. And I say eventually, just because I don’t wanna give anybody any kind of heads up about when it will come out. ‘Cause we’re not gonna tell anyone. When it comes out, it’s just gonna show up. So, we’re not gonna do the big pre-order, blah, blah, blah. It’s gonna be, ‘Hey, go to Spotify or go to iTunes and listen right now.’ But there’s a full-length coming. And it’ll be well worth the wait. And I hope that ALL THE REMAINS fans that have gotten a taste of the new stuff with [recently released singles] ‘Divine’ and ‘Let You Go’, hopefully they’re as excited about more new music as we are.”
As for the producer of the album that they’re definitely not announcing right now, Labonte said that Josh Wilbur produced it:
“Josh is well known for his work with LAMB OF GOD. He’s worked with MEGADETH. He’s worked with TRIVIUM. I think he worked with KORN. He’s done all sorts of metal records. He did ‘The Order Of Things’, which is our record that came out in 2015. And Josh and I work tremendously well together. I feel extremely comfortable with his opinions and when we’re writing, we’ll get together and we’ll write the lyrics and stuff together. And his opinion is something that I put a lot of value in it. And I really think that he knows his stuff when it comes to getting not only the sounds that ALL THAT REMAINS looks for, but also helping me to tell the story that I’m trying to tell. A lot of times when we’re writing, he’ll just be like, ‘Well, what’s this about?’ And he’ll ask me to tell him the story behind the song. And he’ll just start typing as I’m telling it. And he’ll be, like, ‘All right, cool. I think we got the first verse here.’ And then we’ll go ahead and he’ll pick lines or words, things that I said, and he’ll put them together in a way that looks cool. And then we’ll go ahead and we’ll adjust it a little bit. I’ll change this line or move that around. And he’s really, really great at getting the real spirit of what I’m trying to say out of me. And I feel real comfortable telling him really personal things because of that. So, like I said, he did ‘The Order Of Things’, but he also did ‘Victims Of The New Disease’, which came out in 2018, the last record we did with [late ALL THAT REMAINS guitarist] Oli [Herbert]. So, yeah, he’s a great friend, a great producer and I couldn’t be happier to work with him again. He’s wonderful.”
Alright, so we’ve got information about the producer, we’ve got two singles off the album, so I guess basically we have an album announcement without a date. Really kills the mystery of the whole thing, doesn’t it?