As I Lay Dying – The Powerless Rise
Metal Blade Records 2010
As their fifth album released on Metal Blade Records, As I Lay Dying didn’t hesitate to pull out all of the stops for their new release The Powerless Rise. Maintaining the feel of their last album An Ocean Between Us while revisiting the rawer edges of Frail Words Collapse, this album can easily be considered as one of the best ever released out by the San Diego-based metalcore band.
The album opens up with a head-thrashing introduction through “Beyond Our Suffering” and throughout its duration maintains a high atmosphere of brutality, while using mellower parts of songs to intensify such an atmosphere. Songs such as “Anger and Apathy”, “The Blinding of False Light” and “Anodyne Sea” plays a large part in the atmosphere. The peak comes in the album’s single “Parallels”, which combines the best of both words while continuing to raise the bar. The track “The Blinding of False Light” concludes the 11-track album though a more mellow side of As I Lay Dying (which isn’t saying much on this album).
It is also noteworthy that this is the first album since Frail Words Collapse that there is not a track that is mostly mellow. So As I Lay Dying fans that cannot stand the softer tracks can rejoice.
Conclusion: Get this album. There are a lot of deals floating around for it right now. If you could only buy one album from the As I Lay Dying discography, this would be the one.
[rating:6/7]
Reviewed By: Bryan Jones
