ALL THAT REMAINS Guitarist Has Learned To Ignore Internet 'Haters'

Rhythm guitarist Mike Martin of Massachusetts metallers ALL THAT REMAINS told Christina Fuoco Karasinski of MLive.com during a recent interview that he has learned to just ignore the armchair critics and focus on what his band does best.

"We've always just done whatever feels right to us and done whatever we like," Martin said. "It's never been too much of a concern of 'What are people going to say if we do this?' We just do it, which is why we have so much variety.

"We get crucified by kids online, but we're so used to that. It's not a big deal. There are people who wake up in the morning and just live to hate bands on the Internet."

"Once you get used to it, it's cool," Martin said of Internet "haters." "It's a bit of a shock at first. Before I paid attention to the Internet, before Facebook, Twitter and Blabbermouth, I didn't know about any of that stuff at first. So I never really saw anything about the band, really. All of a sudden I started seeing those web sites."

He continued, "At first, it's very disheartening. At first I thought the band was failing. I thought our careers were over. 'Oh my god, all these kids hate us.' Then you have to realize the percentage of those people who go on the Internet and bitch all day is so small. You've got five to 10 kids online that are complaining about your new record, then you go headline a show and there's a 1,000 or 2,000 people there. Makes you feel better about yourself."

ALL THAT REMAINS' seventh album, "A War You Cannot Win", sold 25,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 13 on The Billboard 200 chart.

The band's previous CD, "For We Are Many", opened with 29,000 units to enter the chart at No. 10.

"Overcome", the 2008 CD from ALL THAT REMAINS, registered a first-week tally of 29,000 copies to debut at No. 16.