Phil Labonte of All That Remains – photo by Liz Ramanand

All That Remains is a band that as a metalhead I have “heard of” but never really heard, despite the fact that “metalcore” as a sub-genre of metal was practically created in Cleveland by the band Integrity. I liked Vision of Disorder in the 90’s, Shadows Fall some early God Forbid and maybe Killswitch Engage, but for the most part I stayed away from the genre.

I have to say though that Phil Labonte, vocalist/founder of All That Remains may be one of my new favorite personalities in metal. Mainly because he doesn’t fall for all the pop-culture political brainwashing that so many others in rock & metal do.

He was recently interviewed by Loudwire, where he was asked about his “fued” with Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello and wearing an anti-Obama shirt while on stage in New York. He had this to say:

I specifically wore this shirt because I knew I was coming to New York. In fact the girls sitting down there gave me a look when I was coming to meet you and were like, “Look at his shirt” and I’m like, “Yeah, look at my shirt.” Nobody’s f—ing punk rock anymore, I was never a punk rock guy but punk rock is supposed to be against the machine, against the establishment.

I was talking crap about Tom Morello because how can you be Rage Against the Machine and then vote for someone that’s in the party that controls both the House and the Senate. So you’re against the machine but you’re voting for the candidate that is supported by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. That’s not raging against machine, that’s jumping into the machine’s pocket, that’s lining right up behind the machine.

Political correctness has permeated the society that we live in to the point where – it used to be okay to be crap, you’re free to be crappy. The freedom of speech doesn’t exist so you can say, “I hate the New York Jets or I love the New England Patriots or whatever” it’s so that you can say really controversial shit.

He’s fiercly pro-second amendment and even is the part owner of a gun shop. He had this to say in another interview about his politics:

I’m a libertarian. I believe that the government is massively expansive and has taken powers that it does not have. It should not be in the business of deciding who you should or should not be able to marry. It should not be in the business of deciding what drugs you can and cannot take and what you can put in your body.
It should not It should not be in the business of taking your money in the form of taxation.

It should not be in the business of deciding if you should carry a gun. We don’t need all these federal agencies that we have. They’re a waste of money. They end up being bureaucracies. The government never ends up getting smaller. It only gets bigger.

Right on. I don’t know if All That Remains will become one of my favorite bands musically, I doubt it. But keep on raging against the machine dude!