It was a rather interesting autumn evening as All That Remains took the stage with Uncured at The Cabooze in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was extremely interesting given the circumstances.
The night before this show at The Cabooze, there was a ridiculous snowstorm that rocked North Dakota, where All That Remains and Lacuna Coil had their co-headlining gig. Lacuna Coil’s bus lost control and ended up in the ditch while hitting a snowbank, thankfully everyone was okay. Also, due to inclement weather, Bad Omens and Toothgrinder couldn’t make the billing as well. There was one band that played before Uncured but I didn’t catch their name. After getting my camera and notepad ready(yes I’m old school like that), New Jersey’s Uncured took the stage.
Madness To Creation has never listened to Uncured, so I didn’t know what to expect with the four piece metal band out of New Jersey. Uncured is composed of twin brothers Zak Cox and Rex Cox on guitars/vocals, while Liam Manley and Micah Smith pound out the rhythm section. The introduction as they came on to the stage sounded ominous, yet it laid out that anticipatory setting for the crowd to get warmed up for All That Remains. Uncured ripped into the songs “Desecration”, “Sacrifice”, and a new single off of their 2019 release “Epidemic” entitled “Resist The Infection”. This band definitely takes no prisoners as I sense some vibes of Whitechapel meets 3 Inches Of Blood with this band. The guitar playing of the Cox brothers was as tight as ever and Uncured does an outstanding job of playing those intricate riffs and arrangements while keeping the audience moving. The song “Death Valley” sounded just like that, where it was ominous and Uncured pulled off some Meshuggah inspired djent riffs into the set before closing it off with “Blinded”. Uncured did a great job of warming up the crowd for All That Remains, and the band was gracious interacting with their new fans by taking selfies and signing autographs at their merch table. I’m looking forward to hearing more from Uncured in the future.
All That Remains was next to take the stage. This night presented a couple of challenges for All That Remains, with the first challenge of being to follow after Uncured’s blistering set, while the second challenge being playing without Lacuna Coil as the co-headliner on the bill. I have seen All That Remains years ago opening up for Slipknot at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and wasn’t too impressed with them at the time(opening for Slipknot in their home state of Iowa is so difficult), however, I approached this with an open mind as The Cabooze provides a much more intimate setting as opposed to the U.S. Cellular Center. The lights went out, a roar of resounding approval went over the crowd, and the intro provided that anticipatory setting. Here comes Phil Labonte and All That Remains by quickly indicating that they’re heavy once again by starting off the night with “This Calling”, “Chiron” and “This Probably Won’t End Well”. I didn’t realize that All That Remains sang “This Calling” and you could feel the energy starting to encapsulate the room as Phil Labonte and company command the stage as if they’ve staked claim to that stage. The guitars sounded tight, and I was surprised that Phil Labonte sounds even better than live than he does in studio, which is a very difficult feat to accomplish.
All That Remains did a nice job of mixing up the slower songs(their radio play) songs with their heavy songs, the crowd sang their hearts out to songs such as their 2019 hit “Just Tell Me Something”, which features Danny Worsnop of Asking Alexandria and their smash hit “What If I Was Nothing”. After “Just Tell Me Something”, All That Remains picked it up with their hit “The Last Time” before breaking into their whiplash inducing jam entitled “Fuck Love”. Given the circumstances of no Lacuna Coil to co-headline, All That Remains treated the audience to a few extra songs beyond their setlist by playing a few cuts off of their album “The Fall Of Ideals”, before closing off the night with “What If I Was Nothing”, and their breakout hit “Two Weeks”.
All That Remains rose to the occasion on this night given that half of the bill that was advertised to be there couldn’t make it thanks to Mother Nature. The crowd rocked extra hard for them and Phil Labonte and Co. showed why they’ve been at the top of their game for years with their hard hitting riffs, and innate ability to mix in the setlist with heavy songs and slower songs in order to provide that nice balance to keep their audience satisfied and wanting more. Go check out All That Remains if they come to your neck of the woods!
On Saturday, November 9th, All That Remains will be headlining Heavy Fest at The Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts. For tickets and further information, click here.
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