Maximum Metal Rating Legend
5 Excellent - Masterpiece. A classic.
4.5-4 Great - Almost perfect records but there's probably a lacking.
3.5 Good - Most of the record is good, but there may be some filler.
3 Average - Some good songs, some bad ones at about a half/half ratio.
2.5-2 Fair - Worth a listen, but best obtained by collectors.
1.5-1 Bad - Major problems with music, lyrics, production, etc.
0 Terrible - Waste of your life and time.

Note: Reviews are graded from 0-5, anything higher or not showing is from our old style. Scores, however, do not reveal the important features. The written review that accompanies the ratings is the best source of information regarding the music on our site. Reviewing is opinionated, not a qualitative science, so scores are personal to the reviewer and could reflect anything from being technically brilliant to gloriously cheesy fun.

Demos and independent releases get some slack since the bands are often spent broke supporting themselves and trying to improve. Major releases usually have big financial backing, so they may be judged by a heavier hand. All scores can be eventually adjusted up or down by comparison of subsequent releases by the same band. We attempt to keep biases out of reviews and be advocates of the consumer without the undo influence of any band, label, management, promoter, etc.

The best way to determine how much you may like certain music is to listen to it yourself.
Band
As I Lay Dying
Title
Awakened
Type
LP/EP
Company
Metal Blade
YOR
2012
Style
Metalcore/Hardcore
12/27/2012 - Review by: Eric Compton
These guys consistently deliver crushing blows every time out
Roughly fourteen years of metalcore now and it hasn't dwindled a bit. Just this year alone we've seen All That Remains, Parkway Drive, Shadows Fall and a teaser from Bullet For My Valentine. Chalk up San Diego's As I Lay Dying as another entry in the metalcore scene for this year. "Awakened" is the group's sixth album to date and the follow-up to 2010's "The Powerless Rise". Once again Metal Blade is involved in the release, the album is produced by Bill Stevenson (Rise Against, Comeback Kid) at Sterling Sound and Colin Richardson (Machine Head) does the mix at Treehouse Studios in the UK. The record clocks in at eleven tracks and the iTunes version gives us two extras in "Unwound" and an extended "A Greater Foundation". It is hard to believe that this is really record number six, yet it still sounds so fresh and invigorating. These guys consistently deliver crushing blows every time out and "Awakened" is really no surprise. Honestly, I took an album or two off from the band simply because metalcore just became way too much too often. I am still coming back to the original dozen or so bands that seem to set it off a little more in terms of melody and clean singing. This hard hitting approach has plenty of Tim's aggressive 'core vocals but it's the clean singing of Josh Gilbert (bass) that seems to elevate this band into the higher echelons of the genre. Favorites are the two singles thus far in "Cauterize" and "A Greater Foundation", both of which has phenomenal charging riffs crossed with taught and precise melodic vocals.
  • 1 :REVIEW COUNT
    3.5 :AVE RATING

ALL REVIEWS FOR: AS I LAY DYING
TITLE
DOR
COMPANY
REVIEWER DATE MADE RATING
Awakened
2012
Metal Blade
Eric Compton12/27/2012
3.5

ALL INTERVIEWS FOR: AS I LAY DYING
INTERVIEW INTERVIEWER DATE TAGLINE


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