As I Lay Dying - The Powerless Rise

Published June 02 2010

*=Staff's pick	Beyond Our Suffering* Anodyne Sea Without Conclusion Parallels The Plague Anger And Apathy Condemned* Upside Down Kingdom Vacancy The Only Constant Is Change The Blinding Of False Light

Genre	Metalcore	Tim Lambesis/Josh Gilbert	Vocals
Tracks	11	Phil Sgrosso	Guitar
Runningtime	44 Min.	Nick Hipa	Guitar
Label	Metal Blade	Josh Gilbert	Bass
Release	11 May 2010	Jordan Mancino	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Adam Dutkiewicz/Band
Similar artists	Killswitch Engage, Atreyu

As I Lay Dying is, so I've heard, the biggest selling artist on the Metal Blade-roster. The Christian metalcoreband does have a frantic following, and has produced 4 full-length albums prior to the album we have here. While there are a few metalcore bands worthy of praise, the subgenre is, sadly, filled to the brim by bands that offer little in ways of originality. The mixture of powered aggression mixed up with some more melodic influences can be, and have become, somewhat of a curse for the genre. But, I'm the first one to give any record a fair chance - if it works, it works regardless of genre.

And the record starts up pretty well with Beyond Our Suffering, a fairly energetic and aggressive tune with some nice screaming done by Lambesis and Gilbert and some pummeling drumming from Mancino. But then the record take a sharp turn left straight into the ditch. As long as As I Lay Dying is playing in the aggressive way, they are quite enjoyable, but every so often the mix with the more melodic elements, a.k.a clean vocals, they lose me. And also, the more aggressive parts, with the ever existent breakdowns soon lose their appeal to my ears.

The production is, of course, nice and fat - a mix of smoothness and aggression, and just dangerous enough to appeal to a broad audience without scaring off too many not used to heavier music. Personally I would appreciate a little dirtier sounding mix, because now with the songs on the record "The Powerless Rise" gets too streamlined for me.

Halfway through the album I'm not entertained. The first few minutes of Condemned though rescues "The Powerless Rise" from complete failure. I'm sorry As I Lay Dying, but "The Powerless Rise" sounds somewhat like the title, powerless, and though the band is screaming at the top of their lungs, the sound isn't relishing to my ears.

See also review of: An Ocean Between Us , Shadows Are Security

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	5	7	6	5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Martin