This album is quite interesting to me personally. When i first heard As I Lay Dying, it was
94 Hours, and i really didnt like the song at all.
Forever was better, but still I just couldn't get what all the hype was about. Then as I was going through a bunch of old downloaded songs cleaning out my harddrive, i found "Distance is Darkness". Oh man, was I hooked. To this day that song is tied with Zao's Savannah as my favorite "metalcore" song.
Frail Words Collapse kicks off beautifully. Ironically,
94 Hours is now one of my favorite AILD tracks. lots of melodic guitar work with their appropriate, if overused, palm mute/kick drum syncopated rhythms. Think Iron Maiden-stlyed melodies over slowed down Fear Factory rhythms and thats about the musicianship on this track
The next 3 tracks;
Falling Upon Deaf Ears, Forever, and
Collision, are all good tracks, each mixing large amounts of melody with above-par rhythm guitarwork. nothing really amazing compared to real death metal like Nile or Behemoth, but still fairly complicated stuff, and miles ahead of the musicianship of most their peers.
The kick drums, as has been mentioned, are a fundemental element to AILD's music, but on this album theyre a little loud. with
Distance is Darkness, the sound is perfect. It's unrelenting brutality and chaos packed into about a minute and a half, and it's orgasmic for any fan of crushing extreme metal. I like how they round out the song with the next minute's cleaner-ish-sounding-ish outro. some might scream "emo!" and turn up their noses, but it really is the perfect sound to round out this track, and it really is emo. just emotion, no frills or fancy musicianship.
***Attention Readers***
this is where the album begins its "sag"
Behind Me Lies Another Fallen Soldier was a song on their last album. I dont like it on this one either. just mediocre and boring. waste of my time.
Undefined had about the same effect on me the first time, and although I like it more now, it's still not really a great track. See, AILD's strenghth on this album is also their fault. They make really great, repetitive riffs that just dont seem to get old. Unfortunately for them, not all riffs are like that, such is the case with this song.
A Thousand Steps starts off heavy, fast, good and brutal. but then its like they cut out the song's torso and just left the legs. it gets off with a great running start, where the hell is the rest of the song?
track 9 is
The Beginning, and its really refreshing to have something different come out of the stereo. this song is like
94 Hours in that the melodies are very Maiden-ish, but unlike
94 Hours, its a little more "chill". Dont know how to explain it, its just got a lighter feel that works real well. In Flames gone Underoath? Thats what this track makes me think of.
The only things i will say about
Song 10 is that it is the tenth song, it's intro is way too long/repetitive, and it is boring when it gets past the boring intro. the lyrics should be replaced with "Filler! Filler!" etc.
The Pain of Seperation is fairly trite. It reminds me a lot of A Thousand Steps. only, boring and way too repetitive.
Elegy is a masterpiece. This song is so good, it's what AILD has been trying to do this entire album, and this song succeeds. The main riff is repetitive, but it never gets old. ever. And thats saying a lot since this is almost a 5 minute song. Wonderful.
Overview
A great album, minus the filler uninspired tracks. and
A Thousand Steps could have been good, it sounds like they were just lazy and decided to cut the song early. The vocals arent the best, and on
Undefined and some parts of
The Beginning it is evident that the vocalists voice isnt going with the music that well, but for the most part it does fit, and it is good. I mean look at Hatebreed, Underoath, Norma Jean, etc.
AILD takes a bit too much flak in my opinion. The only songs that i really dont like the lyrics to are the aforementioned crappy fillers and
Collision, but thats what everyone rags on them about since the drumming and guitar work are really solid. The bass is even good, though not prominent at all except on some parts of
Elegy. Much potential here, and on the new album it shows, though it missed out on the best parts of this record. But thats beside the point.
Overall
3.5/5 Great songs, but as an album, not so solid
Recommended Listening
Distance is Darkness 5/5
Elegy 5/5
Forever 5/5
The Beginning 4.5/5
