The MCB Review: As I Lay Dying- The Powerless Rise

"The Powerless Rise" cover art.

I know many of the band’s longtime fans will disagree with me on this- but As I Lay Dying’s last album “An Ocean Between Us”, came out as the band’s most complete and full bodied work. It added more melody to the band’s fierce sound, which had been muddled by an endless procession of screams and wails on the band’s first few albums.

Given the band’s success with “Ocean” (It debuted at #8 on the Billboard Charts), you might think As I Lay Dying would try and make this album their big push into the mainstream hard rock world—guess again.

The eleven tracks builds on the variety on “Ocean”, but gets back to some of the raw fury that longtime fans will enjoy as well on “The Powerless Rise”. Tracks like “Without Conclusion” and “The Plague” show that lead singer Tim Lambesis can still roar with the best of them, while the band tries to keep some level of melody to the music without turning it into a scream fest. Producer Adam Dutkiewicz (yes, that Adam from Killswitch Engage) keeps the production tight and much more full than the band’s earlier work.

If there is one thing that hinders this album is that towards the end, the songs began to lose that variety and get a little monotonous on songs like “Vacancy” and “The Only Constant Is Change”. But even at that point, you realize that As I Lay Dying did stick to their guns and delivered a quality album for the most part.

“The Powerless Rise” will end up as one of the biggest metal albums of the year, but only time will tell if it will be one of it’s best.