Phil Labonte Says All That Remains Are "Not The Cool Band Anymore", Vents On Tom Morello (Updated)

All That Remains singer Phil Labonte is many things, including an outspoken libertarian and gun enthusiast. He’s also been quite critical of Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello —or at least Morello‘s own outspoken political views.

Speaking with Loudwire recently, Labonte was quoted as saying:

“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”

Labonte is likely referencing these comments he made in August of 2012 following a scathing op-ed piece Morello penned about then Republican U.S. Vice Presidential hopeful, Paul Ryan.

Meanwhile, Labonte also elaborated on the decsive reaction recent material has elicited from listeners. In regards to that, he stated:

“Because we’re not cool anymore. Well the thing is we came out of the underground and we still write metal songs, on all of our records we have songs that are screaming all the way through. We still do that but we added in pop aspects and that is taboo in the metal industry.

So if you’re really into extreme metal and heavy metal we stopped being cool as soon as we started writing songs where we sing all the way through and got something on the radio.

So we’re not the cool band anymore, we’re no longer a band that an elitist can grab onto and say, “This band is true and cult.” So you … it’s like you know what … get fucked because they’re probably downloading all your music for free so I don’t care.”

Update – November 26th 12:16pm:

Despite their previous clashes, it would appear that Labonte and Morello have come to respect each others arguments at least. Morello and Labonte tweeted each other earlier today with the exchange available below:

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