As I Lay Dying are a metallic hardcore band from … well, somewhere in the United States. If that’s precise enough for you. Now, in an attempt to explain the aural onslaught that you experience when listening to ‘Frail Words Collapse’ I will conduct this review in a stream of consciousness style, detailing my thoughts and feelings as I listen to the record. Here goes:
Right okay …. Fuck, yes! Drum roll to solo intro. These guys win points already. Holy shit, yes, there goes the screaming. Ah, nice screaming vocals there. Very Zao-esque. Now what’s this? A metallic breakdown? Well, it was good, it’s gone on a bit too long now. Come on, speed things up again. Thankyou! There we go. Hmmm … ’94 Hours’ eh? I wonder what this song could be about? Well, I have no idea what the guys saying so I can’t really hazard a guess, but then who needs to sing along when you can just rock out by yourself? Not me, that’s for sure. Oh, now that’s funky! I’m a sucker for an atmospheric solo breakdown and THAT is an atmospheric solo breakdown. Why they felt the need to fade out for 25 second at the end of the song is beyond me, but then who am I to judge? Still, nice start. ‘Falling Upon Deaf Ears’ is up next. OK, that’s some rapid fire drumming going on right there, sliding beautifully into a pounding verse. I like the way it’s gone all … erm … whats the word? Discordant. Yeh, that’ll do. Discordant. I’ve gotta say, as fist pumpingly satisfying this song is it’s missing something … oh god no, there it is! That’s the missing link. Now I can really pop out the old air guitar moves. Yeh alright, enough already with the breakdowns. You have too much of a good thing, you get allergic to that good thing. At least, that’s what I was told as a kid. Maybe that’s why my lips started swelling up when I had peanut butter a while ago. Too much peanut butter. What is it about nuts that makes so many people allergic anyway? Sorry, where was I …. ‘Forever’, yes. The Zao influence is definitely there, but there’s an Atreyu vibe pulsating through this release, I can feel it. Like Atreyu, but not as damn cartoony. There’s something about Atreyu, as good as they are, that makes me feel uneasy. I don’t know, it’s like they’re not entirely convinced of what they’re doing but fuck it, they’re going to do it anyway. Which is cool, but it’s like asking for a steak and, instead, getting a really nice painting of a steak. It’s great, and it’s kind of what you want, but not really. And you know, you’re happy that you’ve got this painting of a steak and you’ll probably hang it up when you get home, but you’re still damn hungry. But anyway, the Evergreen Terrace-esque breakdown at the end of ‘Forever’ is a real stomper. I can see the band throwing themselves around the stage in mock slow motion to this one.
‘Collision’ is a little bit of a down point on the record. Aside from the neat, yet bizarrely poppy intro solo, there’s little to distinguish it from the rest of the stuff. And why does the drumming sound so flat? The drumming on the rest if pretty phenomenal. Was this the last song to be recorded? Was the drummer just downright bored? Did they swap instruments for a laugh? Did Animal from the Muppets take over the stool?> God no, Animal wouldn’t let the side down, he’d bash those skins like there was no tomorrow and his particular phenomenon went out of the window ten years ago and he was struggling to make ends meets since Kermit left him in the shitter and ran off with the all the profits. Hell yes, he’s one awesome drummer.
Fuck, is that Chino Moreno halfway into ‘Distance is Darkness’? Listen carefully kids, it’s very ‘White Pony’ era Deftones. Which of course, is far from being a bad thing, but a little unexpected amongst the full on metal that we’d just been hit with. For a minute there, I thought they had some soprt of Matchbox 20 style outro on that song as well, that shit me up good and proper! Turns out it was just the music on a pop up flash advert in the background. My god, the score nearly rocketed downwards then. Weird…. But anyway, back to the music actually being played, ‘The Beginning’ is easily one of my favourite songs on here. A deceptively simple solo leads into a a head bobbingly satisfying song that sort of gently batters you into submission, as opposed to smashing you so hard in the face you don’t even notice. That’s the difference between say, AILD and Zao. I like Zao, but yet again, there’s something not quite right. It’s like the melodies just aren’t quite perfect, that killer hook just doesn’t sink all the way in. But with As I Lay Dying, the hooks come thick and fast. The intro’s, the pounding double bass breakdowns, the screaming which is gloriously melodic yet evil enough to scare next doors kids into not throwing things over the garden fence. You know, it’s how the Atreyu vocalist wants to sound like but can’t. And the variety on here is pretty impressive too. ‘Song 10′ starts off with a depressing and jangly opening, completely out of place you’d think, but it leads perfectly into the skull cracking second half of the song. Then you’ve got album closer ‘Elegy’, taking everything great about this record and expanding upon it to create a night on five minute masterpiece. Beautiful
Wow, well, I think I got carried away there. But, for simplicity, here’s As I Lay Dying in a handy equation, relating to other metalcore bands around at the moment.
Darkest Hour >> As I Lay Dying > Atreyu = Zao > Bleeding Though.
I hope that makes sense. If not, just buy the damn album. On the whole, it slays like Sarah Michelle Gellar with ADD on the set of Blade.
Ross