On The Tour Bus With As I LayDying

Thu 29th Sep, 2005 in Features

“The other day both the Black Dahlia Murder and we were doing video interviews and their guitar player Brian (Brian Eschbach), had just gotten out of the shower so he had a towel around himself, and was happy to do the interview. But when he pulled the towel off he was just totally naked in the middle of the interview!” recalls As I Lay Dying vocalist, Tim Lambesis. He is sitting in the back of the tour bus at Ozzfest, San Bernadino, California, an hour before they’re due to go on stage. “And shameless as he is,” Lambesis continues, “he kept on just doing the interview, and he actually took the microphone and started to interview other people! Unfortunately the police came and arrested him, and he had to go to the police station. I don’t know how they bailed him out but they got him out the next morning or later that night!”

“All the bands that we’ve been hanging out with from the side stage are all getting along, we’ve all become friends. When the show’s over, the side stage closes at like, four o’clock, so everybody just kind of hangs out. And you know, it’s interesting, because the camaraderie on this tour is just above normal where everybody just hangs out and becomes friends.”

As I Lay Dying are an audience favourite at this year’s Ozzfest, and considered  to be the first of the Second Stage headliners. It’s no surprise, after the release of their latest album, Shadows Are Security, As I Lay Dying are making waves in the metal scene and gaining attention amongst hardcore fans for their crossover metalcore style of music.

“Well musically there’s a lot more single notes and a lot less power chords, from a guitar stand point. And from a mentality point of view, I don’t think much has changed for us. But metal typically, hasn’t been as down-to-earth as hardcore especially throughout history. I like a lot of Minor Threat and Black Flag, but with those bands it’s very important to understand that that’s what they believed in and really tried to change society and the world around them and metal’s kind of been about shock and some of the lyrics have been like, fantasy base and those are things that I don’t really like. And I’ve always been drawn to the hardcore scene because of the mentality of it, but I felt like a musician that it didn’t really challenge me anymore that’s why I started playing metal music.”

What makes As I Lay Dying unique is the way they have masterfully created a perfect balance as an apparent metal band with hardcore roots. They are the ultimate formation of two of the best aspects of metal and hardcore combined into one.

“I grew up listening to a lot of hardcore bands and even punk bands and I think our material has a lot of a hardcore sound, and then in the past few years I’ve gotten more into the classic metal bands like Iron Maiden. Our new CD is much more metal than anything we’ve done in the past, but because I grew up in the hardcore scene, which is the mentality we still have, people still consider us to be a metalcore band even though our music is mainly metal.”

Lambesis continues, “The reason why I got into metal was because a lot of the hardcore bands were sounding more metal, like Madball and stuff. And that stuff became heavier and more metal influenced… I remember when Earth Crisis started recording, when they were on Roadrunner, they were starting to release records that I think were very, very metal sounding. They were one of the first bands to bring some of the hardcore kids into metal, and in my opinion were very groundbreaking back then, ” Lambesis says. “They were incredibly heavy but down-to-earth and the mentality of being in a hardcore band is something that will always stick with me no matter how metal our music sounds.”