All Else Fails – The Oracle – What Was, Is, And Could Have Been

They say that over production can be just as damaging as a lack thereof.  After giving a listen to Canada’s All Else Fails’ latest album, The Oracle – What Was, Is, And Could Have Been, I’m very close to using them as an example.  The Edmonton, Alberta four-piece’s commonplace combination of hardcore and metal combines with a plethora of melodramatic symphonic extras for a sound that feels staged in the producer’s booth.

Look no farther than the indulgent instrumental opener “Overture.”  Filled with glitz and gothic glam, would-be cello and violin strokes usher in a cascade of excess that does little more than hide the normative nature of the core music.  Once the music starts up it’s all shock and awe with songs like “This World In Flames” and “The Burden Of Life” cycling through bouts of assessable clean melody pressed up against dark growls, and backed by a thunder of token metalcore thumping and chugging riffs.  It’s a functional formula, but one without much mark of its own.  Songs like “Fallen” and “Monster Eats The Pilot” work to a certain extent because they avoid the essential “cheese” of their neighbours – not because they succeed on any brilliance of their own vision.

In their biggest stab at wrapping The Oracle in profound meaning, All Else Fails imports the inspirational words of past speakers.  “The Oracle” is a simple two-minute moody backdrop to American president Ronald Reagan’s landmark speech on wartime morality “A Time For Choosing,” while “Obsidian Walls” features a lengthy passage played to a theatrical doomsday beat about environmental stewardship from the daughter of renounced environmentalist David Suzuki’s at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio Centro, Brazil.  While the strength of each origins cannot be denied, much of the album’s attempt at a larger purpose relies on these segments as a crutch.  In fact, the album’s overarching thematic social ambitions would have passed over my head entirely had it not been for the clarity of these imported orators.

The Oracle has their moments, but All Else Fails mostly just takes itself too seriously.  When the band lets loose, as per the creative standout and album closer “Robots!!! KOLTG,” it’s hard denying the band’s potential, I just wish these moments weren’t so few and far between.