It was about 7:30 in the morning last summer; I was sleeping in my step mom's house when my cousin came in blasting the first single off of As I Lay Dying's record
Frail Words Collapse . "What the hell is this noise?" I thought to myself, "Wow nice generic guitar riff I"ve only heard that one about 25 times." Regardless of the fact that I was annoyed and tired, first impressions can be quite deceiving. About three months later I found myself checking out the same band, as my music taste had changed a bit. I ended up checking out their newer release Shadows Are Security and enjoying it quite a lot. Of course I figured that I ought to give Frail Words another listen now that I was open to this type of music. Disappointment? Yes and no. A good record? Yes and no.
Frail Words Collapse is the band's first release on Metal Blade Records, allowing more accessibility for listeners. Do not take that as a negative statement,
As I Lay Dying is a very deserving band of the metalcore spotlight. Their thunderous drums, brutal yet catchy guitar riffs, pounding rhythms, and unique vocals make As I Lay Dying fairly easy to pick out in their field of music. Standing out in the metalcore genre can be quite a challenge. For better or worse, As I Lay Dying manages to do so by utilizing all of their signature elements. Do not let that deceive you, they are not merging genres together, progressing any genres or things of that nature; the band pulls off an enjoyable blend of melodic leads over a monstrous rhythm section and layers some great vocals atop of it. As plenty of bands show, this can be a hit or miss style and at this point in the band"s career, they were no exception to this.
94 Hours kicks off the record in a great fashion as all of the band's signature elements are present here. The single string hammer on pull off riff is speedy while drums blaze in the back round. Between the thundering blast beats, drum rolls, and superb double bass usage, drums are easily a highlight of the record. At around 1:22 in the song an inhuman amount of speed is shown as the drums go to double time. Structure wise the song is solid, as there is a little breakdown/bridge early in the song. Where this would often drag, a pleasant lead is provided, preventing boredom from occurring. Halfway through the band makes nice usage of a tempo change. As things slow down a well placed melodic riff cuts through while the vocals persist with their vicious nature.
94 Hours is a great representation of what the album has in store and a nice choice for an opener as well as a single.
Falling Upon Deaf Ears is a bit slower than the opener, but hits equally as hard. The drums stay fantastic throughout the song as do the riffs. Variety is shown as the riffs do not become spoiled or over used. A great tremolo picked riff is played and harmonized by both guitars as it is the perfect build up for the solo. It is quite often to find a solo from the band, but when they pull one out it is extremely enjoyable. The solo focuses more on capturing emotion than shredding, as it adds plenty of substance to the end of the song.
A nice roll opens
Forever , the second single off the album. The band enters with the chorus, showing a bit of distinctive structure from the previous song. Around the 30 second mark the clean vocals are introduced. Simply put, they are mediocre and lack powerful delivery. The rest of the song is fairly enjoyable due to superb drumming and more nicely executed riffs. At times the guitar riffs capture the emotion of the song more effectively than the clean vocals. Not a bad thing at all, as they are more persistent than the clean singing. The ending of the song drags on at times but as a whole the song is enjoyable.
Collision picks up the tempo, opening with another great riff. While the intro is very enjoyable, the verse marks the beginning of repetition. The rhythms are very similar to that already used in the record. Vocal wise the song is up to par, as the screaming does not let down for a second. The verse repetition really sets in and kills the positive aspects the song had going.
Shriek! It is
Distance is Darkness . It is highly recommended you keep your distance away from this track. The diminished high pitched chords make up the intro to this song, it sounds like utter chaos for plenty of the song. Some terrible clean vocals come in, attempting to balance brutality with emotion; let's say this is far from equilibrium. This marks the first major miss of record as this track is just plain awful. They attempted to show more of their hardcore and emo influences failing miserably in the process. Speaking of those emo influences,
Behind Me Lies Another Fallen Soldier shows them throughout the song. The clean guitar intro sets a slower tempo for the rest of the song. Intro wise, the riff is alright although it almost sounds out of place at this point in the record. In terms of heaviness the song picks up, but does not come close to matching the power created by some of the earlier tunes. The main vocals for the second half of the song are enjoyable, but the atmosphere created by the intro puts a strangle hold on rest the song. Nothing really goes anywhere and a very dull state dominates the track.
Undefined picks things up opening with a tremolo picked riff. There is a great deal of double bass used in this track but the rest of the kit is not forgotten; as some very nice fills are present. The breakdown features some great guitar licks, a bit lower and gloomier than what is found in the previous tracks. While this is a nice change of pace, the song clocks in at just over 2 minutes and some repetition is shown in the rhythms.
A Thousand Steps Back uses the same style as Distance is Darkness with the diminished chords. This time things are less chaotic but still far from organized. The chords and the blast beats just give a headache to the listener even though the song is a mere 1:45; once more a low point of the record.
The Beginning opens with a very interesting guitar riff. Some creative constructive was used in crafting this intro as it sticks out on the album. After the intro however, the structure of the song becomes repetitive and predicable. Rhythms, tempo changes, and transitions sound way too similar to what has already been heard. This is not necessarily a bad song in general, just at this point in the CD, this is the case since there is nothing new to offer here.
Song 10 opens with a clean riff that drags on way too long. The first 2 minutes of the song does not seem to go anywhere as the riff repeats along with the drums. Around the 2:20 mark a new riff is introduced building up to the distorted verse. Vocals come in as the heaviness increases. Similar to its previous attempt at the slower song going heavy, this one fails just the same. The song is far too long and does not progress at all for the first half. All in all a very poor effort is found here. Now the diminished chords are finally utilized somewhat successfully in
The Pain of Separation . This song has a fairly unique feel which at this point is quite a relief. The intro of the song features the entire band and exercises some different rhythms. Vocal wise this song is a heavy as possible. Some double bass and diminished chords provide a well done transition at about the 1:15 mark. The palm muted riff sounds noticeably diverse from the previous melodies heard. Just as the song starts to drag on, some drum rolls change the pace up. The outro is drags on but as a whole, some attempts a creativity are shown during the song and are praiseworthy.
The final song on the record is a jewel you had to dig through an entire mine to find.
Elegy is a beautiful mix of heaviness and melodic leads. Right from the intro head banging is almost mandatory. Some new rhythms are used in an effective fashion during the verses. The guitars do a great job of changing up the riffs throughout the song. While riffs are repeated at times, they are enjoyable and fit the song in superb fashion. The fury of the vocals is countered with some nice emotional riffs as shown at around the 3 minute mark. It seems that everything slows down just the right amount as the scale of melodic and heavy has been balanced successfully after several failed previous attempts. The song begins to fad out with the riff providing a bit of an epic ending to quite an inconsistent record. Regardless of that, the last impression of the record is a great one.
Inconsistency is one word to sum up As I Lay Dying's Metal Blade debut. This was more of a transition album for the band; with plenty of the hits and positives on this CD, As I Lay Dying was able to realize their strengths and continue to build upon them. Their misses and negative aspects were found and later improved upon in plenty of cases. With the future came developed clean singing and a more effective use of their various influences; what went wrong here was successfully patched up on later. Seemingly, this is the record they had to create to figure out how to successfully craft the music they intended to. That aside, the positives on the record hit the bull's eye while the misses did not even hit the board. There is a great deal of liking to be had on this record between the melodic riffs, thumping drums, and the overall aggression provided by the record. However, repetition between song structure and rhythms sets in and hurts the record at times. In the end listening to medium size doses at a time, this record can be a good listen.
Final Rating: 3/5
