Manitoba Live Music Event

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MRG CONCERTS PRESENTS

ALL THAT REMAINS
w/ Throw The Fight

Doors 7pm

GA Advance $ 23.50 / GA DOS $ 27.50 + SC
All Ages
Tickets at Ticketfly.ca / Music Trader

For 15 years, Massachusetts-based quintet All That Remains have written and released… whatever the hell they felt like with total disregard for what was considered trendy. Fronted by self-confessed contrarian Phil Labonte, the band has experimented with a range of styles including pop, rock and caustic metalcore with just one objective – to create great songs that come straight from the heart. 

“Our goal has always been to write songs that we like,” Labonte says. “All That Remains has seen a lot of criticism about the songs that we’ve written and what people think we’re supposed to do. We started as a very underground death metal kind of band, we’ve since moved away from that and have never apologized for it. The music we’ve written has been reflective of that and I think the lyrics, the ideas, have always been reflective of that as well.” 

And through it all, All That Remains have experienced considerable success. The band’s last album 2015’s The Order of Things reached #3 on the Billboard U.S. Hard Rock Albums chart and #5 on their Top Rock Albums chart. And to date, All That Remains have sold over a million albums Worldwide. The band has headlined across the world and played major festivals, including the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Fest. 

Yet along the way, All That Remains have taken flak from just about everybody: extreme metal purists who accused the group of selling out, rock fans that don’t get the screamy stuff, liberals who object to Labonte’s right-of-center lyrics and conservatives that can’t understand the singer’s non-violent, Libertarian ways. Labonte’s response – bring it on! 

Madness, All That Remains’ eighth album, is the band’s most musically eclectic, provocative release to date – full of undeniable hooks, incisive riffs, electronic samples and a variety of vocal styles. And, of course, the range of subject matter addressed pushes the band’s limits further than ever. 

As contrary as he wants to be, Labonte still values quality over confrontation. Madness, produced by Grammy award winning Howard Benson (Halestorm, Papa Roach, Chris Cornell), is All That Remains at their best, offering a level of accessibility and diversity lacking from much of today’s hard rock and metal. The first single and title track, “Madness,” is a microcosm for the rest of the album. 

All That Remains started working on Madness in the spring of 2016, then in April Labonte flew from his home in Western Massachusetts to Los Angeles to start working on vocal melodies and lyrics with Benson. It was the first time the band didn’t have fleshed out riffs and fully written rhythms to serve as guideposts for the vocals. At first, the process was difficult and the band members were uncomfortable, but the more they worked on the record the more excited they became about the way the songs were coming out. For the first time in years, they felt genuinely challenged and inspired to learn new ways to create. 

“If you ask someone, ‘Is this what you expected?’ It’s always a ‘no,” Labonte says. “And that makes me happy. Is anyone challenging what the listener expects anymore? We don’t do stuff because we’re supposed to.” 

Labonte accepts he’ll continue to be misunderstood. Some will love Madness, some won’t, but the album will make an impression on everyone who gives it an honest listen. Asked how he’d like to viewed, Labonte responds, “I want to be the guy that really challenges people’s ideas. I’m fucking punk rock. Punk rock hasn’t been punk rock for 30 years. For too long metal has been bullshit, milky pandering crap. What happened to metal? What happened to punk rock? What happened to being anti-establishment? I wanna bring that all back.”