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At All Cost

It's Time to Decide (2005)
E1 Music

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Anchors
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on January 20th 2006

There’s a pretty fine line between original and being straight out ridiculous in your musical approach. I don’t know which side of that line Texas’ At All Cost would paint themselves, but after a few run-throughs of It’s Time to Decide, I’d have to put them clearly in the latter.

It would seem at first that the band has a pretty straightforward approach to metal, not unlike Killswitch Engage or Underoath on their first two albums, but quickly something seems off; it’s the singing. It’s not off because there’s singing in a metal record, as Killswitch and Underoath both did that, but more in the way that these sung vocals are presented. They’re rarely used in accompaniment with the screaming; the music grinds to almost a complete halt for them, but it’s not that either. The vocals are presented in a manner that would feel right at home in your favorite club, or on a dance remix.

They use a vocoder, so almost every single sung lyric sounds extremely metallic and just disattached to the rest of the music. If this was a Paul Oakenfold song, nobody would be the wiser, but seeing as we’re dealing with metal, the result is a horrid amalgamation that’s simply cringeworthy. Even the small amount of sung vocals not tampered with by the vocoder take away from the power of the rest of the music. The vocalist handling the screaming has a tremendous voice for complimenting the metal riffs, and the highs and lows both sound completely on point throughout. It’s a shame that the sung vocals are implemented at all, because the screams have the ability to gorgeously compliment the riffing, but it seems there’s always something blocking the two from hitting their stride together.

At the base of it all, it is a metal album, and that part of it is great. There is the question of whether or not some of the sporadic hardcore breakdowns are truly necessary, but it’s a minor qualm when compared with the album's other problems. It’s because of the intrusive singing that my favorite track on the album is instrumental. “It Burns Black” is an extremely mellow, groove-driven track that makes great use of some bluesy guitars, and just beautiful tones from every aspect of the instrumentation. Following that up is another extremely strong track, in which there’s only some brief background vocals, allowing for At All Cost’s pulverizing metal attack to finally spread its wings without anything to hamper the delivery. The vocals are just scathing, and the rest of the musicianship so tight and fluid that it really makes me angry that so much potential was dragged to the bottom with poor choices.

Next time a band wants to be “inventive” or “unique,” do it on your own time, or make it worth listening, rather than destroy what could have been an extremely solid metal album.

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Anonymous (March 27, 2006)

"Next time a band wants to be “inventive” or “unique,” do it on your own time"

Are you a fucking idiot? It IS their own time. Don't buy the album if you don't like it.

Anonymous (February 4, 2006)

I think they hav a few bertie oel sounds ye cant suck me off wank head !1

Anonymous (January 30, 2006)

Horrible, horrible music. The video is so horrible. This band is horrible. Their album is horrible. Horrible, horrible.

Anonymous (January 26, 2006)

"Next time a band wants to be “inventive” or “unique,” do it on your own time"

Quotes like this are why bands like Fall Out Boy and every shitty Victory band (minus Darkest Hour) are polluting our airwaves.

i totally agree with you.

At all costs is sick

Anonymous (January 23, 2006)

WE ARE AT WAR!!! WHAT IS IT FOR?!?!?

Anonymous (January 23, 2006)

The fact that a band is trying to do anything that isn't a prepackaged genre at all intodays times should be worth 5 stars.

The back half of this record is awesome, the vocoder is a bit overdone but it sounsd organic to me

Anonymous (January 23, 2006)

"Austin's hardcore darlings"

Um, that would be World Burns to Death.

Anonymous (January 22, 2006)

I only checked this out because it looked like a Deicide review out of the corner of my eye.

Anonymous (January 21, 2006)

vitustinnitus (January 21, 2006)

for anyone in the know: is this the band that formed out of Fourth Round Knockout?

their song about Casis ruled.

rkl (January 20, 2006)

sex with underage girls is the ultimate privelege of being in a band, dont get jealous.

Anonymous (January 20, 2006)

rory phillips is a piece of shit that fucks 12 year olds. fuck that guy.

Testiclese (January 20, 2006)

most of the cd is boring, but some parts made me get excited

stevejonestherealbones (January 20, 2006)

i dont listen to at all cost cause they are bigger pussies than blacklisted

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com

Anonymous (January 20, 2006)

I just don't like this band at all. My friend loves the clean vocal shit and I just hate it and I hate the screams to and the music just seems bland like most other hardcore/metalcore whatever acts out today.But these guys know how to fucking part-ay I tell you what insane dudes.

Anonymous (January 20, 2006)

it's the producer, ex-impossible rory phillips -- he does the vocoder thing with every album he does (see recover)...

danperrone (January 20, 2006)

there were some parts of this that were ok

but those clean vocals were just wack

Anonymous (January 20, 2006)

I've been a fan of At All Cost since they were Austin's hardcore darlings and blah blah blah. It's a solid album but the songs that have been re-recorded have lost alot of their fire. Their old cd "What's Left to Inspire?" is a million times better. High production values killed this album.

crazytoledo (January 20, 2006)

Not that bad. The one song on their pure volume page is good.