Classic Bands and Why We Love Them: As I Lay Dying

This week’s “Classic Bands and Why We Love Them” contribution is from Chris Davis of Texas In July.

2003, my freshman year of high school, was a pretty awesome year for me as far discovering new bands and music. But one band in particular has stuck with me and made a huge impact on my life every day since. This band is As I Lay Dying.
   
I had bought the Headbangers Ball compilation CD, which featured many great bands but it was the second-to-last track on this disc that really knocked my socks off and caught my attention. The song was “Forever” by As I Lay Dying, and it was heavy yet melodic and had what I thought that time to be the craziest guitar riffs. I was hooked! I played that song on repeat for a few days, and then bought the album Frail Words Collapse a few day later. My mind was blown, the album was phenomenal front to back. Something fresh that I could connect to and be inspired by. I was hooked on As I Lay Dying.

Fast forward two years to 2005 and AILD released the album Shadows Are Security. This album was not only groundbreaking for the “Metalcore” genre as we know, and established their sound, but completely turned my world upside down. It changed how I thought about music, how I approached writing music and was therapeutic for me in many ways. I also saw them live for the first time, around this time period, and left the show stoked on life! I had never seen a band put on a show with such high energy, and yet play all of their instruments so well and so effortlessly. I knew from that night on, that being in a touring band was what I wanted to do with my life. They gave me the inspiration I needed to fully pursue my dream.

Fast forward once more to today, two albums and a ten year anniversary EP later, AILD released their 5th full length album in September and show no signs of slowing down. AILD has been making and releasing albums for more than twice as long as most bands careers last in this genre it seems. It takes a groundbreaking and inspirational band to have that kind of longevity. Longevity that I think can now classify AILD as a classic band.

TIJ and many of the bands we share the stage with these days owe much thanks to AILD for the music they’ve made, boundaries they’ve broken and inspiration to further expand on the musical styling they helped mold in to what we now know as “Metalcore.” They only continue to inspire me and so many other people around the world with every album they release, and I hope to one day share the stage with them. Thank you Tim, Jordan, Phil, Nick and Josh for the incredible music you have given us over the past 10+ years. You will forever be a classic an legendary band in my heart!

Review: As I Lay Dying - Awakened

Metal is such a saturated genre lately, with so many subgenres and bands just rising out of the ground to try and claim their fifteen minutes of fame. With so many bands I find myself questioning how some of the older bands that started their careers in the early 90s and 2000s are still doing. My question seemingly has already been answered for me, with As I Lay Dying’s newest album, Awakened. Being an already well known and established band, the question is; how does their new release fare?

The intro track of any album usually does two things. One, it will set up the mood for an album and two, it will set up your expectations of an album, what you should expect out of the rest of it. Cauterize tells me two things about this album. It tells me that this album follows through with aggressive and powerful tones and excellent sounding metal riffs, great vocals, and plenty of solos. Tim Lambesis shines through as usual, delivering powerful heavy hitting vocals, along with Josh Gilbert providing equally powerful clean vocals on  every track on the album. Lyrically the content is as powerful as ever, many tracks providing memorable choruses by Josh and verses by Tim, heard in many tracks. Tim deserves accolades  for being one of the more  ”understandable” vocalists in the metal genres, pronunciating his lyrics clearly.

My favorite tracks of this record are Cauterize, Defender (a powerful track both vocally and lyrically, offering positive inspiration), and Overcome (the intro solo to the song is simply beautiful), but really every track is good on this record. That in itself while initially being a positive aspect, also lends to the fact that there isn’t a huge deviation in sound between tracks. They’ve stayed relatively true to their previous styles and sound, with some songs incorporating heavier metalcore and thrash metal influenced riff work. As stated previously there is a lack of experimentation within their last few albums that they’ve release and that is also true for this one. While it never hurts to stick to your established sound, it also never hurts to stray the path and try something somewhat different.

There’s not much more I could briefly say about this album without going into a detailed track by track review, so please excuse this rather short review.. Awakened is a strong album, well produced, well written and well sounding. Fans of As I Lay Dying  will love it, fans of metal and its subgenres will enjoy it, concert goers and moshers will love it played live (there are plenty of moments in this album for moshers to just let loose). This album in my eyes is a true example of Modern American Metal. Pick it up when it drops  September 25, 2012.

-Christian

Pre-Orders Available for As I Lay Dying's "Awakened"

It’s time to be awakened.

The Grammy-nominated rock group AS I LAY DYING will release their sixth album, AWAKENED, September 25 on Metal Blade. Pre-orders are available today, August 20, via: http://www.metalblade.com/asilaydying/. After wrapping a successful run as a main stage act on the Rockstar Mayhem Festival with Slipknot, Slayer and more, the group will headline a special album release show-full details to be announced soon. On October 15, they’ll launch a European tour with Trivium, Caliban and Upon A Burning Body before returning to the U.S. in November for a nationwide tour.

AS I LAY DYING just completed a video for the new single “A Greater Foundation.” The rock group teamed with director Drew Russ (A Day To Remember, Falling In Reverse) and producer Robby Starbuckfor the performance-based clip which was shot on location in Los Angeles. "We were all impressed with Drew’s ability to capture the intensity of live band performances in his videos, and ‘A Greater Foundation’ is no exception, explains bassist JOSH GILBERT. “ Drew’s technique, along with the all-day participation of some of our diehard fans in Los Angeles, definitely accentuated the energy of the song and makes for an exciting and dynamic video. We can’t wait to unveil it!”

For AWAKENED, the San Diego-basedband–NICK HIPA (guitar), TIM LAMBESIS (vocals), JORDAN MANCINO (drums), PHIL SGROSSO (guitar) and JOSH GILBERT (bass)–holed up in the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO with renowned rock producer Bill Stevenson (Descendents) and mixer Colin Richardson. AWAKENED marks the follow-up to the Decas EP (2011) which reached # 2 on the iTunes Rock Chart. The group’s last LP, 2010′simmensely successful The Powerless Rise, debuted on the Billboard Top 200 at #10. The Powerless Risealso reached #2 on Billboard’s Independent Albums Chart and #3 on Billboard’s Hard Music Albums Chart.