AWAKENED: AS I LAY DYING WRITE THE WORLD’S FIRST RETRO-METALCORE ALBUM
These days we look back at the metalcore of the early Oughts as another pfff-worthy movement in extreme music that was ultimately about someone’s stupid fucking haircut. But that’s not why the genre blew up, why Killswitch Engage was Decibel Magazine’s Band Of The Year in 2005. But that early metalcore had a point, namely that it was a genre of heavy metal encompassing every aspect of what had come before and distilling it into something enjoyable. There were the huge power metal vocals, the Swedish melo-death gallops and wheedlies, the stark and confrontational breakdowns of the hardcore scene (which was already becoming pretty metalicized—Hatebreed and Earth Crisis never sounded like Black Flag). It wasn’t “metalcore” then; it was “The New Wave of American Heavy Metal,” a concept that made many disillusioned stateside metalheads feel a little more hopeful about the future.
On their sixth full-length album Awakening, As I Lay Dying channel the early years of the new millennium expertly. With full vigor and capability, the San Diego quintet race and plod their way through all of the guitar acrobatics, layered vocals, and concentrated drum accents anyone could ever ask for. Opener “Cauterize” wastes no time with niceties, diving straight into frontman Tim Lambesis’ guttural shrieks and guitarists Phil Sgrosso and Nick Hipa’s thick meaty chugging riffs, setting the temperature of the album to come. Often, the songs blur together, with one too many lyrics about overcoming inner trauma or endless drum fills that all seem to mimic each other. Some tracks do manage to set themselves apart from the rest — “Resilience” has a certain bombastic presence to it, the brisk pace of “No Lungs to Breathe” proves refreshing to the ear, and the strung-out atmosphere of “Washed Away” followed by the kick of “My Only Home” is worthy of a windmilling arm or two. Overall, the band creates eleven tracks of music that sounds just like the As I Lay Dying you’ve known since their formation.
Not that that’s always a good thing. The clean-vocal choruses are pretty corny at times, “My Only Home” bearing an especially whiny-sounding hook. I often find myself desiring a straight-forward melodic death metal track, even if it is tinged by American hardcore (think early Darkest Hour). But does every song here need a big hand-in-the-air chorus from Lambesis? With that said, the sheer volume of traditional early-2000s metalcore elements gives Awakening a sort of fun overkill, with the band doing so much to represent their chosen niche that they’re going over the top. The pinched harmonics are pinchier, the gang vocals are gangier, the breakdowns are floor-punchier — this record brings its style, and if you’re into that, then it kills. Sure, it won’t feature heavily on anyone’s year-end Best Of list or make a reformed metalcore listener out of Drex, but it brings all the stomp, soar, chug, whine, and crush it can. And that’s the point, isn’t it?
(three out of five horns)
-ER
