Ever since the dawn of the 21st century, the members of All That Remains can be located in either one of two places at any given time - in the recording studio or on the road. And the seemingly tireless band is still at it, as evidenced by the arrival of their seventh studio album overall, The Order of Things, which was issued on February 24th.

Currently on the road with In Flames and Wovenwar, All That Remains frontman Philip Labonte spoke with BraveWords correspondent Greg Prato about The Order of Things, the meaning of 'Tru-Kvlt-Metal,' how their current tour is going, and future plans for the band.

BraveWords: Let's start by discussing the new album, The Order of Things.

Philip Labonte: "We worked with a new producer on this one, Josh Wilbur, who your readers would know from Lamb of God and Gojira. We met with him in I think it was May of last year, and basically, everyone chewed his ear off a little bit, and got to know him and his perspective, and what he was thinking where the band should go. We were all like, 'Yeah, this sounds good. This sounds like something we would be excited about working together.' So we were like, 'Alright, let's go.' So he came up and we did pre-production for a couple of weeks in New England, and he had to go back to finish up another project, and came out and tracked most of the record - most of the guitars, drums, and bass were tracked in Zing Studios in Westfield, Mass., which is where we've done most of our other records. And then I flew out to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks and finished up the vocals out there."

BraveWords: Which songs are you favorite?

Philip Labonte: "It's hard to pick a favorite song or favorite songs - especially with a record like this. Because really, from front to back, there's not a lot of low spots in my opinion. I think it's our best record. I think it's the most dynamic. It's got the most variety, which is something that we kind of strive for as a band. As much as we catch flak for not putting out the same record over and over, that's something that's done by design. We don't want record after record to sound the same. There's some bands out there that they have their style and they're kind of in a position where they're forced to stay that way. And we're a band that has made sure we can carve out our own niche, doing our own thing. I like 'Divide' a lot, I like 'For You' a lot, I like 'No Knock' a lot, I like 'Tru-Kvlt-Metal' a lot. It's not like the three single songs are my favorite songs. I don't know that I could pick out one, or even a few, that were favorites."

BraveWords: What is the story behind the song title, 'Tru-Kvlt-Metal'?

Philip Labonte: "The song title is our earmark to the people that like to criticize bands for doing what you're not supposed to do. Your readers are definitely familiar with the phrase 'Tru-Kvlt-Metal,' where it comes from, and the black metal bands and stuff, and how there's some kind of litmus test as to you're whatever enough - if you're death enough, if you're cult enough, if you're metal enough. And so we were just kind of taking the piss out of that whole idea, by saying, 'We do what we want to do, and you can call it what you want and talk all the crap you want, but it's not going to really change anything'."

BraveWords: What about the song 'This Probably Won't End Well'?

Philip Labonte: "The funny thing about that song is probably everybody at some point in their life, has been in the situation where it's kind of like, 'Hey, hold my beer and check this out,' you know what I mean? Or, 'This is a terrible idea, but I'm going to do it anyways.' So, it's kind of like that kind of perspective. Writing it was cool. I don't really have any specific memories of writing the song. I know I wrote the first riff in it, and that's kind of where the song started. And that's usually how most of our songs start - someone comes up with a couple riffs, and says, 'Hey, what do you think of this?' And we'll start piecing it together. Both Josh and I were working on the lyrics together, so there were a couple of lines that I did, a couple of lines that he did, and it kind of goes along with a lot of the rest of the record - there's a lot of really sarcastic things in a lot of the songs in this record. And I think that it comes through in that song too."

BraveWords: A video has been filmed for the song, as well.

Philip Labonte: "It was cool - they had a drone! So we got some really cool shots. And it also made me want to go buy a drone. We were initially going to burn the house down, but we couldn't get clearance from the fire department. We tried to set it up so they could come out and do a training exercise - we'd set the house on fire, and get the shots in front of the house, and let the fire department have their exercise, but we couldn't quite get the clearance. It was cold that day - I was really hoping it could have burnt down."

BraveWords: How has the tour with In Flames and Wovenwar been going so far?

Philip Labonte: "It's been great. The In Flames guys are great, the Wovenwar guys we've known for years and years, from their other band before Wovenwar started [As I Lay Dying]. I think All That Remains' style of music is a really obvious fit with a band like In Flames, who's had such a long career, and who has had some significant evolution through their career. I think that having us on tour with them works really, really well for both bands."

BraveWords: How have the new songs been going over live?

Philip Labonte: "Really well. We're actually opening with a new one - we're opening with 'No Knock.' That's a bit of a change for us. We hadn't historically opened a set with a new song. But it's going over well. There are already kids that know the words and are singing along. So it's been a good time. We can actually fit three new songs into a 40 minute set, so we do 'No Knock,' 'This Probably Won't End Well,' and 'Pernicious'."

BraveWords: What is in store for the future for All That Remains?

Philip Labonte: "Touring forever. We're going to be on the road for at least a year - probably longer. I know that we're going to be going to Europe in June for the festivals, and there's talk of another European tour possibly this year. We're trying to redouble our efforts to put some effort into areas outside of the US. Our label I believe just opened an office in Amsterdam for a European office. So hopefully we can get out there and put some time on the road in Europe and get a little more exposure over there."