As I Lay Dying - The Powerless Rise (2010)^{Release ID: 5362}

There are some great moments on this album. It combines some seriously aggressive thrash metal with more melodic sections & clean anthemic choruses. The pure shredding thrash metal tracks like "Beyond Our Suffering" & "Condemned" are peak time mosh pit madness. I love 'em! The heavier sections remind me a bit of Exhorder at their heaviest which is definitely not a bad thing. The guitar solos are also quite tasteful (in a James Murphy kind of way) & very well executed. However it's the more melodic sections that let As I Lay Dying down a bit. The Iron Maiden-ish lead guitar harmonies take away from the intensity of the album in my opinion & the clean vocal sections (which remind me very much of Linkin Park) are fairly commercial sounding. The screaming vocals are very aggressive throughout but can do with some variety. I can't help but wish that they would let go of their commercial aspirations & just mosh out for the entire length of the CD. This album is still worth a listen though as the pure metal riffs are brilliant.