As I Lay Dying/American Tragedy "split" CD
[Pluto]
California's As I Lay Dying starts things out with five tracks of melodic Swedish metalcore crap. Well, except for "Illusion", which is dissonant, detuned metalcore that sounds sort of like something that would be on Solid State Records. God damn am I sick of this stuff. I have completely lost track of how many bands there are currently playing this style of metalcore, and like most of them As I Lay Dying offers absolutely nothing new to the genre. The songs aren't memorable, the writing is generic, and the recording isn't all that hot. The only song that stands out is "Forever", which introduces some fucking excellent singing vocals and more energetic melodies, as well as additional dynamic shifts (clean breaks and such). If all of the songs were like this I could appreciate it. Sadly, that's not the case. The biggest problem here is that the guitar tone is weak as hell. It's sort of thick and chunky, but there's no crunch to it at all. It just falls flat. The drums sound okay, they could be a bit warmer, but the bass plays a large role, and the vocals sound fine. They just need to turn the distortion way the fuck up on those guitars and turn down the vocals a little. All of the lyrics are personal stuff, nothing special, nothing awful. "From here to eternity, We begin understanding, It is our hearts that define what has meaning in life, Some will ask how can this be, But it was you who made me feel." Next, American Tragedy, also from California, throw out six songs of chaotic metalcore that's chock full of screaming vocals, riff changes galore, crazy disharmonic dual guitar runs, and that sort of thing. I'm not so into this either, simply because the songwriting is so disjointed. Some of the stuff they break off is pretty fuckin' good, but the songs are just all over the place... there's no cohesion. It's a really jagged listen because as soon as you start to get into it they go off into some stuttered rhythm or tremolo picking pattern, then drop a clean break with some jazzy drums and singing. I don't know. I admire their attempt at covering a wide spectrum of styles, but when there's no real flow to the writing it doesn't really do any good. The production here isn't half bad. I'd turn up the bass and give the drums a bit more snap, but the vocals are alright, and the guitars are pretty heavy. Some of the notesy riffs are a little choppy, but the chords sound nice and thick. The lyrics here are also personal, but a bit more derivative as far as the content goes. "Open up turn around watch me die, I've found comfort in being alone, Now I hold my heart in my hand, With its last attempt to mend this wing, You're dead in my eyes, Let me feel your cold embrace one more time, So I know what I won't miss..." That all sounds very familiar to these ears. The layout's not bad. The color scheme is consistent, and I really like the layering of abstract text and background images that look like video stills. Some of the fonts are sort of plain, but they're clean enough to work, and I like the way the song titles in the booklet are larger and handwritten, rather than just using typical typefaces. What can I say? Neither one of these bands really strikes a chord with me. I will say that if As I Lay Dying were to head in the direction of "Forever" they could do some real damage, and American Tragedy could be more powerful if they'd hone their writing skills, but both bands are swimming in a large pool of immense typicality right now, and that's not the best place to be. (4/10)
Running time - 36:08, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Forever, Spite and Splinter]
Pluto Records - http://www.plutorecords.com

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