When I was asked to do a review for “Decas”, the new CD by As I Lay Dying, a smile swooped across my face. You see, I had already bought the album and I love it! So, no need for a review, just go buy it! It’s that good! Well, in my humble opinion anyway.
……………….!
Ok, I see you’re still here. So much for my opinion! Ok, here is the skinny of the cd “Decas” by As I Lay Dying!
The first three songs are new songs, and if The Powerless Rise was any indication, the band is definitely moving in different directions sound-wise, and expanding upon their metalcore base they started out with so many moons ago. Here is a breakdown of each of those songs.
“Paralyzed” is a great new song that definitely has the solid metalcore foundation, yet also encompasses many traditional metal elements, including the guitar solo, the chorus, and some of the melodies. I can hear some Iron Maiden influences here! It is a great song, and deserves a play on your MP3 player or home stereo system!
“From Shapeless to Breakable” is also a new song, track #2 on the CD. This song, while still keeping the metalcore foundation with breakdowns and bass drops, adds a lot of thrash riffing and soloing, and the riffing just shreds during the guitar solo while a steady thrash rhythm is played in the background. Yep, thrash. In fact, there is a lot of thrash metal sound throught this album.
“Moving Forward”, the 3rd track and last new track on the CD, is another great song, again with breakdowns and bass drops, but also with traditional and thrash metal overtones. These three songs should appeal to all metal heads (with the exception of the die-hard hardcore black metal purists), so if you’re a truly diversified metal head, then give these songs a spin!
Ah, track #4. This is a cover song titled “War Ensemble” originally done by Slayer in 1990 on the “Seasons in the Abyss” album. The song is a performed very well, and probably sounds how it would sound should Slayer re-record it today. Great song! However, I’m not sure why AILD selected this particular song to cover, specifically due to the lyrical content. If I ever get a chance to ask Tim or the other guys about this, I will! Here is an excerpt of lyrics from the song (end) just so you can better understand my curiousity:
Propaganda war ensemble
Burial to be
Bones shining by the night
In blood laced misery
Campaign of elimination
Twisted psychology
When victory is to survive
And death is defeat
Sport the war, war support
The sport is war, total war
When the end is a slaughter
The final swing is not a drill
How many people I can kill?
Track #5, “Hellion” comes in short at .44 seconds. I’m not sure if it’s a cover or not, but it sure sounds familiar.
Track #6, titled “Electric Eye” is another cover, this time by Judas Priest. Another great cover and another great song!
Track #7, “Coffee Mug”, comes in at 40 seconds and I’m not sure if it’s a cover or not, I am assuming it is although I’ve never heard it before. Sounds somewhat punkish!
Track #8, “Beneath the Encasing” is a re-recorded medly of previous AILD songs from the past. Since I recently became a fan of AILD, I’m not sure what those songs are. I can tell you that this is one of my favorite songs on the CD, as it rocks hard, thrashes harder, and is 100% pure metal!
The remaining tracks #9 – #13, are AILD songs that have been remixed by different DJ’s. It sounds as if AILD is going dubstep! Very interesting and cool that they are experimenting!
Seriously, these DJ’s that remixed these tracks did a excellent job, and at least 3-4 of them sound like heavy dubstep, which is another type of music that I enjoy. What is dubstep you ask? Buy the album to find out, or do a search on Google. Very heavy and sic’ synthesizers, broken vocals, electronic music is the best way I can describe it.
Here is a quick breakdown of each song and the remixer:
#9 – The Blinding of False Light – Innerpartysystem Remix (dubstep)
#10 – Wrath Upon Ourselves – Benjamin Weinman Remix (dubstep)
#11 – Confined – Kelly (Carnage) Cairns (dubstep and rave)
#12 – Elegy – Big Chocolate Remix (electronica with some dubstep)
#13 – Upside Down Kingdom – Contest Winner – Iron Krill Remix (dubstep)
In closing, there is pretty much something for everyone here. I recommend it as a buy for ALL metal fans, and also as a buy for electronica music fans (house, party, rave, dubstep, drums n bass, etc). Excellent album, worth every penny I paid plus some!
Musically this band is going places, and I can’t wait to see where they go next! “Buy It”
Rating: 9.5/10
Written By Thrasher777 [Brian]
Current Line Up:
Tim Lambesis – lead vocals
Jordan Mancino – drums
Phil Sgrosso – rhythm guitar
Nick Hipa – lead guitar
Josh Gilbert – bass guitar, clean vocals
Decas tracklisting:
1. Paralyzed
2. From Shapeless to Breakable
3. Moving Forward
4. War Ensemble (Slayer cover)
5. Hellion (Judas Priest Cover)
6. Electric Eye (Judas Priest Cover)
7. Coffee Mug (Descendents cover)
8. Beneath the Encasing of Ashes (Re-Recorded Medley)
9. The Blinding of False Light (Innerpartysystem Remix)
10. Wrath Upon Ourselves (Benjamin Weinman Remix)
11. Confined (Kelly “Carnage” Cairns Remix)
12. Elegy (Big Chocolate Remix)
Record Label: Metal Blade Records, 2011
Hellion is also by Judas Priest … its the intro to Electric Eye
Your are right, thanks Pete 🙂
‘Coffe Mug’ is a cover by Descendents, a punk rock band from the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descendents
To me the remixes are a real miss on this album. All they do is make me want to listen to the original track…
And considering ‘War Ensemble’:
“We originally recorded that song per the request of a video gamer,” Hipa commented. “It was called Homefront and they had reached out to all these bands [Misery Signals, Acacia Strain, Periphery, The Ghost Inside] to do war themes covers, and we were one of the bands they reached out to. And they’re like, ‘Yeah, anything that’s war-themed.’ We could have done ‘Helter Skelter’ by the Beatles or a Bob Dylan song, but we were like, ‘You know what? We might as well just do Slayer because it fits.’ You don’t want to do a cover that’s that random.”
While the cover may not have originally been recorded for ‘Decas,’ Hipa explained that it made it on there because As I Lay Dying wanted to show their diversity on the album and with ‘War Ensemble’ they could give a clear demonstration of their raw, brutal and aggressive side. “Slayer, for any metal band, [is] the ultimate purveyor of the fast and furious riff, and we have a lot of those in our band…So we recorded it for that [Homefront] and when we were putting ‘Decas’ together, we just thought like, ‘Hey, why don’t we just do a few more covers and throw the Slayer one in there? If Slayer represents the brutal and more aggressive side of the band, let’s do something that represents the melodic twin-guitar vibe of the band.’”