As I Lay Dying have finished recording their new album, but the band still has one major decision to make: which 10 of the 12 completed songs will make the final tracklist?
“The new As I Lay Dying album is finished,” the band announced. “We ended up with 12 songs we’re really happy with, and now comes the hard part: deciding what actually makes the final album. We’re starting with two very different sides of the record. Polarized & Retribution — September 15.”
“So we finally finished recording the new As I Lay Dying album, and we did 12 songs with the intention of keeping 10,” vocalist Tim Lambesis said. “We’ve had a lot of conversations amongst us trying to figure out what those 10 songs are, and we figured we should bring you guys in on the conversation.”
“So, we’re gonna show you little clips of two songs coming up called ‘Polarized’ and ‘Retribution,’” the singer continued. “Over the next week, we’ll sort of introduce these songs, and then on September 15th, we’ll have both those songs come out fully. And we’ll open up some voting for you guys to tell us, do these polarizing two different ends of the album both belong on the As I Lay Dying album?”
“‘Polarized’ is quite a bit more melodic, mid-tempo, a little bit more singing, but still very heavy and driving,” Lambesis added. “And then ‘Retribution’ is just fast, dark and heavy, no singing at all whatsoever. So those are the two ends of the spectrum. We figured we’d start there, see what you guys thought, and most of the rest of the record lives somewhere in between. But we wanna bring you guys in to just give us your feedback so we can make these final decisions together.”
The upcoming release will mark another chapter in As I Lay Dying’s long-running career. The group formed in San Diego, California, in 2000 and released its debut album, Beneath the Encasing of Ashes, in 2001.
The band went on to release albums including Frail Words Collapse, Shadows Are Security, An Ocean Between Us, The Powerless Rise and Awakened. Their blend of metalcore aggression and melodic songwriting helped establish them as one of the prominent bands in the genre during the 2000s.
As I Lay Dying entered an indefinite hiatus in 2014 after Lambesis was convicted and sentenced to prison for soliciting the murder of his estranged wife. The remaining members formed Wovenwar during that period before As I Lay Dying returned to activity in 2017.
The band’s most recent studio album is Shaped by Fire, released in 2019. The new record will follow that album and is expected to become the group’s ninth studio release, although its title and official release date have not yet been announced.
For now, fans will have an opportunity to hear Polarized and Retribution in full on September 15 before helping the band decide which songs complete the final album.
