All That Remains Issue Video for Metal Cover of Garth Brooks’ ‘The Thunder Rolls’
For the longest time, metal and country were apparent mortal enemies. In recent years, however, we've seen a number of bands either express their love of country or get involved with country projects or covers. All That Remains added themselves to that list this year with their cover of the Garth Brooks hit "The Thunder Rolls" on their latest album, Madness, and have just issued a music video for their rendition.
Quickly putting any reservations fans might have aside, this cover opens with booming tom strikes and a highly melodic guitar lead, cementing "The Thunder Rolls" in the metal realm. An airy, clean-toned melody lies in the background as the verse moves forward, anchored by more tension-building stick work. Phil Labonte's voice is layered with effects to invoke a more ethereal feel, exploding over the chorus with the help of an uplifting, impassioned female vocal.
"We're continuing to push what people's notion of what All That Remains is and what we're allowed to do and what we're willing to do, in what ways we're willing to go and experiment," Labonte told Billboard, who premiered the video. "So far the reaction has been really cool. It's also kind of what I expected; Our core audience likes a lot of diverse styles of music and gets it, and I think there's enough stuff on it for people that haven't heard All That Remains before to be kind of lured in. That's always our point -- How can we reach out to new people?"
Speaking about the band's new direction on the whole, Labonte told Full Metal Jackie, "I think that if writing music isn’t interesting to you then I think that it shows in the music, it shows in the song. If you’re just trying to go through a formula that you’ve used time and time again, it kind of shows. That’s something that I don’t want to happen with All That Remains. I don’t want to be a formula band, I don’t want people to think that they know what the next All That Remains album is gonna sound like."
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