Band: All Against The World
Album title: The Furthermost
Label: Chorus Of One
Distributor: (scrapped release)
Release date: (originally planned for Summer 2008)
Release: CD

Along with albums of Gonzales and 400Colpi, Chorus Of One also sent us this “ghost” album by Portuguese band All Against The World, whom apparently no longer exist. A short research and history account was necessary to see what had happened!

You see, this Oporto based Hardcore band was founded during 2002, and soon became one of the city’s houshold names with their first 3-track demo. Then, in 2004, they released their first DIY mini-album Building The Bridge To A Better Place (recorded with the aid of local producer Mário Pereira). Although the band was at that time still looking for their own sound, the mini-album propulsed AATW to be acclaimed one of the best Portuguese bands in their genre! Originally concentrating still on playing the local venues, the band then finally take for the road, touring the rest of Portugal and Spain at first, then doing their first European tour hitting France, Italy, Holland, and Belgium (trips during which they were lucky enough to support the likes of Terror, No Trigger, Comeback Kid, Champion, Strung Out, Verse, Miles Away, No Turning Back, Down  To Nothing, Undeclinable, Cruel Hand, Downslide, and some others)! The band then recluses itself at Braga’s UltraSound Studios (which meant daily long trips to and from the studio)with renowned producer Daniel Cardoso to record their new album, and it’s at that moment that the rhythm section decides to quit altogether!

Month ofter month constant delays came about, with the band having to change bassists thrice (eventually finding one Miguel willing to step in), and having to search a long time for drummer Gustavo to lay down the drums tracks on top of eveything else. The album was released in Portigal by the Hell-Xis imprint in March of 2008, and only a month after, the band is contacted by Polish label Spook, who immediately distributed the album over there! The band then prepares to have the album released in Italy as well, having gotten in contact with Chorus Of One. However, when the Italian label had already burned the 500 copies of the initial release, they were still waiting for the artwork, and when that came over the Internet, the file was corrupted and unusable! By now, we’re talking October 2008, and the band announces that they’ve gotten a distribution deal for the Benelux with Googlife Recordings…also that they hope the Italian release to happen in November.

But then Fate strikes when the singer (deamed by the label as being the only decent person in the band) exits, leaving the others literally on their bums. A decision is made to quit the band altogether, but then in December they come back on that decision and start out trying to find a new singer (that was also the last news on the band’s website – what happened after is a mystery only the band members and their direct surroundings know the answer to). Meanwhile in Italy, they’re still waiting for the album artwork to be sent over. E-mails inquisiting about the related problems, the future of the band, etc…remain unanswered…and the label is stuck with 500 copies of an album which they cannot sell at the moment! Tired of waiting about, they’ve eventually decided to send out promo copies…we even received 2 discs at once, which tells us something about how fed up with the Portuguese band they are at Chorus Of One…in spite of the fact that they still feel The Furthermost is a killer album!

An assessment which I support fullheartedly. Great up-tempo tunes mixing Oldschool Hardcore with Newschool, with the necessary tempo changes and breaks, short solo leads, and a rather prominent bass, nicely aggressive lead vocals (flautering towards Screamo, but without the mushiness inherent to that genre) supported by ample backings without becoming corny. A couple of remarkable sound samples (Dr. Gaius’ in The Planet Of The Ape telling his chimp collegue scientists that Man has no understanding, can only be though some simple tricks…in the intro of “Life Under The Sun”; and a more elaborate outtake from some newscast in the middle of “One Second Ego”). Regretfully, they finish the 11-track album with a porn-infused bonus track (including a tacky vocal in- and outro), which isn’t even announced in the track-list…but musically, this band is…or rather wás, as things stand at this moment…great! At myspace.com/allagainsttheworld, you can still listen to 4 tracks off the album, and I’m sure that, having heard what the band was about, you’ll understand why the album just might’ve made my year-lists…if we’d had it sent over last year!      

95/100

Tony.