2007-11-28
Great reviews all over, more and more fans and great success in sales – it seems that even before listening to As I Lay Dying's fourth studio album, one's take on it must be taken while considering the huge success rate this San Diego, California band is having in the metalcore genre, putting it at among genre leads such as Caliban, Killswitch Engage (who's Adam Dutkiewicz also produced this album) and Unearth.
So what's the racket about? Generally this is one metalcore band that's stated they're fed up with how the genre sounds, and has decided to attempt innovation by making each track on "An Ocean Between Us" slightly different in terms of genre, influences and overall feel…throwing and playing around with ideas within the overall context of metal, including thrash & Swedish melo-death and within the band's signature playing style (i.e. forceful double bass drumming, crushing guitar riffing and some catchy licks).
An appetizing intro, "Separation", opens with a slow swelling guitar solo winking at Swedish melodic death metal escorted by whispering and other tension-building effects to lead into the strong opener "Nothing Left" (also a single); it’s a forceful track, with punching bass lines, non-stop drum action, sing-along HC-style vocals and a catchy lead riff. So far so good, but trouble starts right in the heavier follower title-track, which just appears to be a heard-it-before number with a tacky chorus.
This album's main fault is sounding too much like a mash-up of other albums and bands. "Within Destruction" being a thrashing Lamb Of God-ish number (with harsher vocals obviously); "Forsaken" giving a go at a more melodic current-In Flames edge; "Comfort Betrays" sounds a bit too similar to beating from The Black Dahlia Murder; "I Never Wanted" as an alternative-metal tinged number with a massive distortion wall, effected vocals and a very sentimental tone. These all cause an overall feeling of unoriginality, that As I Lay Dying is just a symptom of a culture that can only collect and mimic, and has trouble creating something new.
That may sound harsh, but the album does start off well, and does pick up towards its end. "Bury Us All" is pretty solid, its rapid follower "The Sound Of Truth" includes hectic melodic riffing, and is one of the album's clear highlights. The short guitar-tapping interlude "Departed" sets a dream-like atmosphere, gets the listener ready for a blast, and in comes the majestic, tight, bombardment of "Wrath Upon Ourselves"; Armageddon packed in four minutes, that's how menacing it sounds.
"An Ocean Between Us" closes with "This Is Who We Are" as an obvious statement. As I Lay Dying aren't gods, don't consider themselves ones, and as humans only do what they can to try and understand the world around them. While popular and widely praised, it seems that "An Ocean Between Us" will drown somewhere in the ocean of similar album in years to come; an ocean where only the keenest of keen fans would tell it apart from the others around it, where sentiment and lack of a more general view refuse to mark it as simply overrated.
Ofer Vayner
