AS I LAY DYING ARE NOT “PARALYZED” BY THEIR TENTH ANNIVERSARY; ANNOUNCE HEADLINING TOUR

My own fragile sense of mortality means that I’m still adjusting to the fact that the original bands from the New Wave of American Heavy Metal — commonly mislabeled as “metalcore” — are now hovering somewhere around their tenth year of existence. As I Lay Dying are the latest band to hit the one decade mark, and while I can’t say I was one of the cool kids who has known about them since the release of Beneath the Encasing of Ashes, I do remember when I first heard Frail Words Collapse, and it really seems like it was just last week.

But enough about my own neurosis. The story here is As I Lay Dying’s tenth anniversary, which they’ll celebrate by releasing an album entitled Decas. Mercifully, it’s not just a lame greatest hits collection — instead, it will feature three new songs, covers of classics by Slayer, Judas Priest, and Descendents, and remixes of old AILD tunes by the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman, Big Chocolate, and Kelly “Carnage” Cairns. You can check out the first new tune, “Paralyzed,” below. It’s equal parts heavy and catchy, which is to say, it’s an As I Lay Dying song, and a good reminder of why the band grew to be so popular in the first place.

Decas will come out November 8 on Metal Blade, and you can already pre-order it here. And if that isn’t enough to give you your As I Lay Dying fix, the band will continue the celebration of their birthday with the “A Decade of Destruction,” which starts at the end of November and will feature support from Of Mice & Men, The Ghost Inside, Iwrestledabearonce, and, maybe best of all, Sylosis, who I personally am absolutely dying (no pun intended) to see. Here are dates, courtesy of AP:

11/30    Long Island, NY  The Paramount
12/01    Philadelphia, PA Trocadero Theatre
12/02    Sayreville, NJ  Starland Ballroom
12/03    Worcester, MA  Palladium
12/04    Washington, DC  9:30 Club
12/05    Nashville, TN  Rocketown
12/06    Chicago, IL   House of Blues
12/07    Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
12/08    Kansas City, MO  Beaumont
12/09    Dallas, TX  The Door
12/10    San Antonio, TX  Backstage Live
12/11    Lubbock, TX  Lonestar Center
12/13    Albuquerque, NM Sunshine Theater
12/14    Scottsdale, AZ  Venue Of Scottsdale
12/15    Las Vegas, NV  House of Blues
12/16    San Diego, CA  SOMA

-AR