Album Review

As I Lay Dying - AwakenedAs I Lay Dying – Awakened

These metalcore heroes stole my heard with An Ocean Between Us, then follow up The Powerless Rise pushed that love into and obsession, if this album is even close to matching the quality of the previous 2 records then I’m scared what’s actually going to happen to me. With the difference between each of their albums being so extreme it’s hard to predict what kind of album they’ll have chose to produce; Frail Words Collapse was purely heavy, Shadows are Security tries to keep that style but add melodic vocals and chorus pieces in, An Ocean Between Us had its drop dead heavy moments but was mostly full off melody and cleaner tones and then came The Powerless Rise which was technical and heavy for the most part with melodic moments carefully placed at opportune moments.

The first few tracks are hard to place, I can feel a variation at work, “Cauterize” open’s us up in a bit of a messy way - much like “Beyond Our Suffering” did with The Powerless Rise – and I found myself initially a bit put off by it until I gave it a fair few spins before I started to find it to have a very technical structure and in fact captures much of what As I Lay Dying is all about right at the source; but then “A Greater Foundation” has the hard tones yet layered with the cleaner style , with verses that blow your face off when slotted alongside those drastically slower choruses, strangely though it really fits. “Wasted Words” is like the personification of what a cross between the previous 2 albums just is; there are sinister distorted tones alongside eerie melodies which are the 2 best parts of the last couple albums.

I’m just glad they’ve kept those breakneck style drum lines and breakdowns, not a touch on “Anodyne Sea” from the last album because that was absolute insanity but songs like “Whispering Silence” with its breakdown outro and “Overcome” come close. “Defender” and “No Lungs To Breathe” vocal and lyric wise are the best as they are really catchy and pull at your stomach with the atmospheric tones, so does “My Only Home”. On the whole then this record adds another 11 songs of diverse material to their back catalogue, as a standalone CD it’s really strong and I’ve fell in love with it, it’s not as aggressive as The Powerless Rise nor as atmospheric as An Ocean Between Us but there’s an even balance with a few more twists and turns to make it a massive release that really encompasses who As I Lay Dying are as a band and what they are all about

4.5/5

Review by James Webb

 Band Members

Tim Lambesis
Jordan Mancino
Nick Hipa
Phil Sgrosso
Josh Gilbert
 Track Listing
1. Cauterize
2. A Greater Foundation
3. Resilience
4. Wasted Words
5. Whispering Silence
6. Overcome
7. No Lungs To Breathe
8. Defender
9. Washed Away
10. My Only Home
11. Tear Out My Eyes
 Band Related Links
As I Lay Dying Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?