Review Summary: Self-immolation never sounded so good.
When Tim Lambesis was charged with hiring a hitman to kill his ex-wife in 2013, the future of
As I Lay Dying was cast into serious doubt. Was this the end for arguably one of metalcore’s central pillars? Would fans ever forgive him? If they make another album in future, will it be any good? The answers are no, maybe, and hell yes. But these answers would take 6 years and 2
Wovenwar albums to come, so fans had to settle with listening to
Awakened over and over again or attempt to enjoy two albums of great musicianship combined with average singing. Don’t get me wrong,
Awakened was great but it was missing that all-consuming passion that was found in
The Powerless Rise, which is one of my favourite metalcore albums, incidentally. Enter the long-awaited follow-up
Shaped By Fire. This is an apt title, considering the fact that the sheer amount of passion here is much like fire itself, consuming not only the band itself but everything around them.
This passion can clearly be heard and felt from the first note. (I’m talking about
Blinded, not the slightly out of place electronic clash in the intro
Burned To Emerge.) You can tell that they really mean what they’re putting out, from the intense drumming of Jordan Mancino and the impressive guitarwork of Nick Hipa and Phil Sgrosso to the energetic screams of Tim Lambesis and the almost heartfelt singing of Josh Gilbert, it all gels together nicely and hits you like a train. What’s interesting here is that although the structure is clear for most songs and mostly follows the verse > chorus > verse > breakdown > chorus > solo > chorus formula, it does not feel formulaic or ever get boring. This may be because they are putting a real effort into meaning what they’re saying, even if they are saying the same thing over and over again. (We get it, Tim. You’ve been through a hard time and you’re very sorry.) Thankfully, there is some attempt to introduce musical variety in the form of
Redefined which is one of the heavier efforts and
The Wreckage which starts off with singing and is one of the slightly slower tracks; perhaps unusual for
As I Lay Dying and metalcore in general. It is also hard to choose a single best song on the album, which is both good and bad. On the one hand, there are no real stand-out tracks. On the other hand, this is because they are all equally impressive; maybe not in a technical sense but in the level of energy here. The production is very decent too. The drums are punchy and the bass is even audible. Although, why the production is much clearer on
My Own Grave than the other tracks remains a mystery.
However, this is by no means a perfect album. One gripe is that the lyrics seems to all follow one particular theme: redemption. While they do say that you should write about what you know and this is all Tim has known for the past 6 years, some more lyrical variety would have been nice. There are also one or two weaker tracks.
Gatekeeper tries to set itself apart from the other tracks by being slightly heavier, but it doesn’t really work in the context of the rest of the album. It’s almost as if something is missing here; the passion and drive is there but it never really goes anywhere. While other songs seem to have a clear plan and formula, this is as if they are shouting into a void over a continuous breakdown for 3 minutes with a disjointed solo in the middle, and then the song ends with nothing having been achieved. I also feel that the last two songs lack the emotion that the rest of the album has. Although
Only After We’ve Fallen and
The Toll It Takes are solid tracks, it feels as though they ran out of steam slightly; the singing and musicianship seem to have been toned down a bit, which is a shame.
When it comes down to it though,
As I Lay Dying have been shaped by fire (even if the fire was started by Tim himself) but this fire from fans, music journalists, and even from members of the band itself has led to the release of one of the most passionate and driven metalcore albums in recent years. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
