As I Lay Dying - Frail Words Collapse

Posted Apr 16, 2007, by Big Hoss.

“Frail Words Collapse” contains everything a great metal record should have. A lot of the songs have a very big dramatic/epic feel to them and it keeps the disc pretty riveting from start to finish. Immediately you can tell these guys listen to a lot of In Flames. A lot of their songs are structured in the same fashion, only As I Lay Dying has more of a hardcore feel than In Flames. There is also a little At The Gates in As I Lay Dying’s guitar style. On "Frail Words Collapse" the band utilized more of a “show me your riffs” style to writing, as opposed to adding dual guitar solos where everyone would expect a guitar solo to happen. On songs such as “A Thousand Steps” and “Falling Upon Deaf Ears” the band experiments with a more spazzy style reminding me of Dillinger Escape Plan a little. There isn’t too much clean vocal singing on this one, but it doesn’t really matter. Their singer has a great screaming voice that shouldn’t disappoint anybody. Even if you think the record totally sucks, you can’t bash this guy’s voice. My only real complaint with this CD is the production. The band has good guitar tones, but the kick drum and snare could have used A LOT of extra work. There are a lot of bands like As I Lay Dying, but I think these guys pull it off better than most of them. I will say that they are suffering from a bit of an identity crisis, but its not that glaringly obvious. This is As I Lay Dying's second full length and they are definitely light years ahead of their first offering "Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes". It’s not fair for me to recommend this CD solely to Hardcore and Metal kids, I recommend this CD to anybody. If you aren’t a Metal fan by nature, give it a shot! You might just surprise yourself with this one.