All That Remains proves its metal fest mettle.

Byline: Craig S. Semon

Moving from silence and solitude to Golden Gods, All That Remains is headlining this year's New England Metal & Hardcore Festival. And, according to Mike Martin, it's something that the band had never thought could happen.

"Five years ago, you're thinking, yeah, right," said Martin, the Springfield-bred band's rhythm guitarist. "You see the bands come through like Morbid Angel and all these bands that you always considered to be really gigantic bands, but you never consider yourself on the same level. Being asked to headline the entire thing is pretty awesome."

As for Worcester, Martin calls it the best place to play and the place the band usually gives its best shows.

"It's always the most people. It's always the best crowd response," Martin said. "Worcester's definitely the place to play, especially in Massachusetts."

For this weekend's homecoming of sorts (and third show of the band's U.S. tour), fans can expect a 15- to 17-song set, featuring six or seven from the band's new disc "Overcome," as well as some from 2006's breakthrough "The Fall of Ideals" and "some super old ones from out of the archives," Martin said.

Among the other bands performing at the festival are Between The Buried and Me, The Haunted, The Acacia Strain, Suffocation, Lamb Of God, As I Lay Dying and Children Of Bodom. There will also be a Developing Artists Stage at the nearby Chaser Nightclub, 90 Commercial St.

Formed in 1998, All That Remains also features singer Philip Labonte, lead guitarist Oli Herbert, bassist Jeanne Sagan and drummer Jason Costa. Herbert is actually a former guitar teacher and Martin is one of his former students. Today, Martin says, it's "pretty awesome" playing with his old guitar teacher.

Now that All That Remains has reached headlining status, the band members have quit their day jobs and no longer have to worry about selling cell phones (Labonte), teaching guitar (Herbert), doing "animal science stuff" (Sagan, according to Martin), selling board games (Costa) and working at the family's beer and wine business (Martin).

While it may seem to some people that All That Remains is an overnight success, Martin said, that couldn't be further than the truth. It was 11 years in the making, many of them very difficult years, Martin said.

"The first tour I did with this band I was like, `Oh, man, I don't know if I can do this?' We're in a conversion van driving around the country for seven, eight weeks," Martin recalled. "We didn't have enough money to get hotel rooms. We didn't have enough money to do anything. It was brutal."

An unexpected break for All That Remains came when the band's song "Six" was featured on "Guitar Hero II."

"As soon as we got that first song on `Guitar Hero,' our sales skyrocketed back up," Martin said. "At the time, we had no idea what kind of impact it would have. We were like, `Oh, cool we're going to be on a video game.' We had no idea."

Marking its first performance in America since returning from an extensive tour of Europe, Australia and Japan, All That Remains performed April 7 at Revolver magazine's "Golden Gods Awards" at the Club Nokia in Los Angeles. And, not only were they performers at heavy metal's answer to the Grammys, they were star-struck fans.

"We're walking down the black carpet right next to Alice in Chains and the guys from Korn were there," Martin said. "Ozzy Osbourne also walked right by me while I warming up to go on stage. But his bodyguards made sure that no one got anywhere near him."

Martin said the highlight of the evening, and quite possibly his career, was seeing one of his idols (Vinny Paul from Pantera) in the balcony rocking out while All That Remains was playing.

"To us, that's like pretty much making it in music, if you see Vinny Paul rocking out to you while you're playing."

The New England Metal & Hardcore Festival

When: 6 p.m. Thursday ("Atticus Pre-Metal Fest Party"); noon Friday and Saturday.

Where: The Palladium, 261 Main St., Worcester.

How much: $40 for Friday or after 7 p.m. Saturday; $79 for 2-day tickets for Friday & Saturday (which also includes admission to the kick-off party on Thursday). $45 all-day tickets for Saturday are sold out. Tickets are available at all FYE Stores, online at tickets.com or by calling [phone]. (www.metalandhardcorefestival.com)

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: All That Remains members: Mike Martin, Jason Costa, Phil Labonte, Jeanne Sagan and Oli Herbert.