Review Summary: Guess I'll bite the bullet...
We all know the context behind the record. I could write an umpteenth paragraph about the debate of separating the art from the artist or explain again the full context as to why the situation regarding this band is so f*cked. Plenty have done so, I'm not interested. Have fun in the comments, I'm here to judge the album itself.
The first thing that hit me when the ''new'' lineup (lol) released their first single 'Burden' is the change in clean vocals. Josh Gilbert, love or hate him, had a distinct vocal quality that helped make As I Lay Dying what they were. His replacement, Ryan Neff, fits the general requirements of playing bass and singing (and I guess being bald) but is overall a step down. His darker vocals feel more produced, strained and overall he's just a bit worse of a singer. He gets mostly decently written choruses to work with such as in 'The Void Within' or 'The Cave We Fear to Enter', but he struggles to elevate most of what he's given to sing (on 'Whitewashed Tomb' and 'Gears That Never Stop' especially).
The reason why I'm singling him out is that he's really the only thing that stands out as being different from what this band has been doing since coming back from their...first break. Otherwise, this is just another As I Lay Dying record for the most part, and probably their least memorable. My first listen through this entered one ear and went out the other one immediately as each song passed by.
It's all very ''fine''. The only songs that even remotely stand out are 'We Are the Dead', 'Strength to Survive' and 'The Cave We Fear to Enter'. The former for its sole focus on harsh vocals (and its guest vocalists), and the latter two for their more melodic focus. They unfortunately don't do enough to shake the feeling that we're mostly listening to a band on autopilot, which is borderline unacceptable considering how many things had happened to these guys. Phil Sgrosso manages to raise a few eyebrows here and there, with inspired guitar fills and solos scattered throughout the album, but he also struggles to create anything truly memorable.
Don't get me wrong, most songs on this are perfectly entertaining to listen to and reveal some fun little details with repeated listens. There's just nothing here that will truly impress most people already familiar with their work (or new listeners for that matter).
The whole ordeal isn't helped by one of the most sterile production jobs I've ever heard. Nowhere on here did I feel like I was actually listening to talented musicians shredding my ears off. The guitar leads especially feel even more MIDI than they did on the already over polished Shaped By Fire. There are moments in here where I swear each note was recorded separately, and I would be shocked if Nick Pierce actually played drums on this. The mix is also extremely crowded, where everything is so busy all the time that it's extremely exhausting to listen to. It's an in-your-face wall of sound that somehow manages to have 0 excitement to it.
Which I guess brings me to the conclusion in all of this. It's As I Lay Dying music in 2024 and sounds about 100% like you'd think that would entail. It's competently put together yet made me feel almost nothing. There are no instant classics here like even 'Blinded' or 'My Own Grave' were back in 2019, but there are worse ways to listen to harsh frequencies for 40-ish minutes.
I feel like I'm forgetting someone...
