This is how Ken Susi joined All That Remains

Ken Susi, formerly of Unearth and As I Lay Dying, discussed how he eventually joined All That Remains as Jason Richardson’s successor in a recent interview with RichardMetalFan, as per Blabbermouth.

I  called [All That Remains guitarist] Mike Martin not too long ago just to say ‘what’s up?’. I can’t remember why. I just randomly call my friends… So Mike and I have, in the past, gone to Bruins games and Red Sox games, and sometimes you just meet up for chicken, or if Adam [Dutkiewicz, Killswitch Engage guitarist and acclaimed All That Remains and Unearth producer] comes in town, ’cause he lives on the West Coast now, we’ll meet up and we’ll have food or something. So it’s always good to see Mike… I went to go see Lamb Of God and Killswitch and I bumped into Mike at the show and we made plans to hang out. So I called him and he was just kind of, like, ‘Hey, dude, I have a baby coming,’ or whatever, and he’s, like, ‘Do you think you could fill in for me? And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. No worries.’ And at that point he told me that he was suspecting that something was up between Jason and the band. And he was, like, ‘I don’t know who’s gonna play guitar on this tour or whatever, but I would love for you to at least cover for me.’ And I just said, ‘Hey, let me take a stab at the stuff. Let me see how insane the guitar stuff is.’ ‘Cause I’m a good guitar player.

A lot of people don’t know my abilities, because I’m a songwriter first and I don’t like to shred over the top of every single song I write. So people know that I solo, people know that I contribute and I can play, but they also know that I’m not a wanker. So I was just kind of, like, ‘Let me go through all this stuff. Let me see what’s up.’ And so I started learning all the music anyway ’cause I agreed to fill in, and I just started learning the solos while I learned everything. And at that point Phil [Labonte, All That Remains singer] was just, like, ‘All right, this is great. Awesome. Let’s move forward.’ And it got to the point where we met up and I’ve been playing with Mike and learning stuff and we’ve been going back and forth with tunes and all that other stuff.

Susi went on to explain that there has already been talk of his contributing musical ideas to All The Remains’ next studio album, which will be the follow-up to 2025’s “Antifragile,” the band’s only effort with Richardson.

The craziest thing is that while I was learning the All The Remains stuff and the tours in May, I was writing so much music,. It was just one of those moments where I have this prolific — so much music’s flowing out of me. I had a lot of family stuff happen. I just had a newborn son, and my father got sick, and I had all these really emotional things, and I had nowhere to put my feelings. And out of nowhere, music just started pouring out of me. So I went to the band and I just said, ‘Hey, guys, do you like any of this stuff? Because I know that you just wrote a record with Jason, which is awesome, and now he’s out of the band. Do you guys need help with writing and all this other stuff?’ And they were really respectful and receptive. And I just said, ‘What do you think?’ And they seemed to be really into it. And at that point, I thought they were gonna make an announcement about ‘you’re touring with us’ and it turned into, ‘Hey, you’re in the band.’ [Laughs] Well, Phil called me and he was, like, ‘Hey, how would you like to play in the band permanently?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s such an honor.’ Because they’ve seen me play all the songs and shred the solos and I’m sending them videos so they know I don’t suck.

To be honest with you, I’m a very polarizing person, where I go on stage and I run around and I have a good time. Some people take me as a joke, so they don’t know how good I am ability-wise. But a guitar player will tell you how good I am, or not, or whatever. I don’t know. Everyone has an opinion. My thing is all I can say is the announcement that was made, I’ve never felt more re-energized to play music and also so loved in a way where people make me… People talk so much shit online that you never hear anything good, and All The Remains camp as well as their fans have accepted me so quickly and so confidently that I expected so much more turmoil and so much more hatred or, ‘Oh, this guy one time, he missed a riff’ or something. You know what I mean. Everyone’s down to just talk shit. But, man, I feel so great that everyone’s been so nice to me.