As I Lay Dying is:
Tom Lambesis - Vocals
Jordan Mancino - Drums
Nick Hipa - Guitar
Phil Sgrosso - Guitar
As I Lay Dying is a new band on the heavy metal scene. They are a bit of hardcore and heavy metal. Their guitar involves lots of deep power chords and distorted single string melodies. They are definitely on the rise to being a big hardcore band.
Their 2003 major-label release, “Frail Words Collapse,”I would say is a hit or miss amongst metalheads and hardcore kids. Some parts of songs seem influenced by bands like the Dillenger Escape Plan and others like Metallica. Their vocals are pretty much all screaming except for a few exceptions. On their next album I think they should balance it out a bit more with screaming and melodic-singing. The songs, lyrically, are fairly well-written, though not very deep. Also, their songs don’t seem to have much of a chorus, which is definitely original for metal bands.
Much double bass is used in this album. I was impressed by how well the drums are in this band. It is very fast and heart-pounding. The bass is good, but nothing special here, which is really no surprise to me in anyway.
The guitar sounds really good, but not overly skillful. It is really low and fast, but quite simple, I expect improvements on their forthcoming album; “Shadows are Security.”
One thing I definitely didn’t like about this album, is the fact that its quite repetitious. It just gets old after about 6 songs and you feel like turning it off. If it weren’t for that I’d of probably given it a 4/5 but im dropping it 3.5/5
-Joey
