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By GREG MAKI
With an album that has sold nearly 275,000 copies (2005’s Shadows Are Security) and the headlining slot on the 2006 Sounds of the Underground tour under their belts, As I Lay Dying easily could have sniffed the crossover potential and returned with a follow-up full of slick, watered-down riffs and sugary choruses. Instead, An Ocean Between Us is a superb metal album—no wimpy, Bullet for My Valentine-style melodies here.
Produced by the band and Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz (All That Remains, Unearth) and mixed by Colin Richardson (Sepultura, Machine Head, Slipknot), the disc has a huge sound with a biting guitar tone from Nick Hipa and Phillip Sgrosso, and a virtuoso performance by drummer Jordan Mancino—he has become one of the best in the business. Tim Lambesis is a good singer and the album has its share of melodic choruses, but more often he’s in growling mode and he sounds absolutely ferocious. You can find an occasional breakdown, but I don’t see how you can call this band “metalcore” anymore. This is metal, dynamic and powerful, and An Ocean Between Us further establishes As I Lay Dying as one of the leading acts in the genre’s modern crop.
Standout tracks: “Nothing Left,” “I Never Wanted,” “The Sound of Truth,” “Wrath Upon Ourselves”
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