As I Lay Dying - An OceanBetween Us

Tue 11th Sep, 2007 in Music Reviews

For their latest album, An Ocean Between Us, As I Lay Dying have taken a creative turn in their musical direction that will take any critic by the balls and make them rethink their judgements of the band! Or for the fan, it will open their mind to a new sound as AILD beckon for you to follow them into this new direction of melodic sounds and lyrics.

Never one to be caught up in the riff raff of similar reverberations, each record from AILD has had something new to offer that is ripe and appeals to fans to be the “record you need right now”. Branching up and out of this mantra, AILD’s hottest release, An Ocean Between Us is a perfect example of this credo.

With no added water, the dynamics of this new album are much more aggressive and their melodic diversity sparks an originality previously unseen by the band. With influences in Classic and modern rock, this outfit has infused their influences into their metalcore sound and taken the genre to new heights.

Recently speaking to guitarist Nick Hipa regarding the direction of the album; he mentioned that the band all “pushed themselves to new creative heights which was an entirely different experience compared to their previous makings”.

He explained they were “crafting a sound they were not capable of on previous records and experimenting with different things which were once out of their comfort zone, this time they just threw themselves into it head first, – with this new spark, the flame has continued burning”.

With new ideas and an overall brilliant product to offer across the board from song writing to instruments,the album is more dynamic which allowed the production to sound bigger because there are ups and downs throughout.

Signed with metalcore records, An Ocean Between Us is the forth studio album by AILD. An Ocean Between Us debuted at number 8 on the US billboard 200, with sales close to 40,000 and still climbing. The first single to be released from the album is Nothing Left I suggest putting the coffee down and replace it with a shot of this tune for your wake up remedy. The instrument arrangements are swift, tight and durable, without undermining the other talented musicians, I can’t help think drummer Jordan Mancino’s velocity is outstanding in this song.

The prominent Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage guitarist) was conscripted as chief producer for the album and British record producer, mixer and recording engineer Colin Richardson’s (worked on albums such as Trivium, Bullet for My Valentine & Cannibal Corpse to name a few) had the honours in mixing the album.

Promoting their latest release, As I Lay Dying kicked off their world tour in Wolverhampton Civic Hall UK on September 7th. Hold onto your seats Aussie fans, rumour has it AILD will be touring here in Feb 2008 as part of the line up for the Soundwave festival.