As I Lay Dying - Shadows are Security DVD/CD Combo

Shadows are Security: SPECIAL EDITION CD/DVD
by: As I Lay Dying
2006 Metal Blade Records
Bonus DVD in double digi-pack

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Description

SPECIAL EDITION CD/DVD
Double Disc bonus DVD/CD Combo in a digi-pack. Over 80 Minutes of New Content! Exclusive behind the scenes recording of "Shadows are Security". Full length videos as well as the making of the videos, The Darkest Nights, Through the Struggle and Confined. Also includes extended liner notes by tim Lambesis.

Since forming in early 2001, San Diego, CA's As I Lay Dying has come to embody the idea of how important hard work is for a young band trying to cut their teeth in today's underground music world. The band signed with Pluto Records after only their first demo, and then hit the studio to record their debut full-length album, Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes, which was released in June of 2001. After much of the remaining year spent on the road, the record was soon being hailed as one of the best metal debuts of the year. The band went back into the studio in the spring of 2002 to record five new tracks, to be released as a split with good friends and fellow San Diego natives American Tragedy. Their sophomore release for Pluto was also called one of the best albums of the year by many critics, and took the band to new heights and attention. Throughout all this time, the band toured endlessly, ensuring every kid anywhere in the country would have a chance to witness As I Lay Dying live. So the band set forth to build their fan base one fan at a time, night after night. After nearly two years and two successful releases on Pluto Records, As I Lay Dying signed to legendary metal powerhouse Metal Blade Records to be their new home. As I Lay Dying's Metal Blade debut CD, Frail Words Collapse, was released in the summer of 2003 and became a huge breakout album for the band, and metal in general. Soon the band was selling out clubs around the county, being seen on MTV and Fuse, and found themselves hailed as one of the top American metal acts of today. Their newest album is poised to cement their already impressive reputation. Released in June of 2005, Shadows Are Security came out with tremendous buzz that propelled the album to open as the #1 Independent Album in the country and #35 on Billboard's Top Album Chart. The band is also featured co-headlining the Hot Topic Stage at this year's Ozzfest.

Tracks

Meaning in Tragedy
Confined
Losing Sight
The Darkest nights
Empty Hearts
Reflection
Repeating Yesterday
Through Struggle
The Truth of my Perception
Control is Dead
Morning Waits
Illusions

Related Artist

Artist Bio

MORE ABOUT AS I LAY DYING
As a wise band once pointed out, what happens on the road always comes home. Sure, you can read into the darker side of that sentiment, but if you’re talking about the San Diego quintet As I Lay Dying, for whom the road literally has been home since day one, the never-ending trail of unfamiliar cities, stages and faces that comes with touring has only cut a path toward something brighter.
Formed in early 2001 to realize the developing musical vision of ex-Society’s Finest guitarist Tim Lambesis, As I Lay Dying first took shape as a trio, with (now-former) guitarist Evan White and drummer Jordan Mancino rounding out the lineup. One month into their lifespan, the group hit the studio to record their first album, Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes, released that June by Pluto Records. As I Lay Dying caught the touring bug shortly afterward, and started what to this day remains a pattern: With each new tour stop came new converts to the group’s sound, and as more people caught on, Pluto Records found a new best-selling release in Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes—which, massive as it was, barely hinted at the material As I Lay Dying still had brewing inside of them.
Released by Pluto Records in August of 2002, As I Lay Dying’s split CD with fellow San Diegans American Tragedy offered the first sign of where the band was headed. Though the chugging breakdowns, growled vocals and dissonant riffs of Ashes were still present in As I Lay Dying’s five tracks, a stronger sense of melody undercut the music’s darkness, resulting in songs that not only stuck in your head as easily as they tore it off, but that also started to garner serious attention for the band. So, touring as relentlessly as ever behind their latest effort, As I Lay Dying found themselves landing on the radar of several prominent record labels, with Metal Blade ultimately sealing the deal in March of 2003—and the band’s Metal Blade debut, Frail Words Collapse, dropping on an unsuspecting public that July.
Long story short: Produced by Lambesis, Frail Words Collapse crystallized everything As I Lay Dying had been working toward into a massive knockout blow. Even though mainstream acceptance still eluded them, it didn’t matter: Sonically, the band had united the classic “Göthenburg sound”—the punch-press rhythms, snarling vocals and melancholy riffs of seminal Swedish bands like At The Gates—with the chugging heartbeat of modern hardcore, launching themselves into the forefront of a new scene of metal bubbling under in the U.S. Relentless touring, several lineup changes and a growing fan buzz later, As I Lay Dying found themselves setting records they didn’t even know existed: Heavy rotation on FUSE and MTV2’S Headbanger’s Ball for their “94 Hours” and “Forever” videos; a No. 1 most-downloaded spot at the now-defunct MP3.com; record sales in the solid six-figure range based heavily on word of mouth; and festival dates and world tours alongside heavyweights such as Killswitch Engage, In Flames, Shadows Fall, Lamb Of God and Hatebreed. And, of course, with each tour came new fans, who told their friends, who told their friends, who told… Well, you get the idea.
Enter 2005. Strengthened by the road, creatively on fire, and with their lineup both solidified and contributing equally to the songwriting process, As I Lay Dying enter Big Fish Studios in Encinitas, California (the same place they’d recorded Collapse), at the beginning of January. With Lambesis at the production helm, along with help from bandmate Phil Sgrosso, and engineer/co-producer Steve Russell once again behind the boards, the quintet sequestered themselves until spring and emerged with their leanest, meanest and most focused effort yet, Shadows Are Security.
“ All the touring we did off Frail Words Collapse really helped us learn what songs worked in a live setting and which ones didn’t,” says Lambesis, “and that helped us focus on the direction of this record. There’s a slower, ballad-type song [“Repeating Yesterday”], but even it serves a purpose in tying the whole record together. As far as energy goes, I think all these songs are gonna be tremendous live.”
Thematically, the record is just as heavy, with Mancino’s coffin-tight drumming and the guitarists’ melodic, lockstep riffage dropping like exclamation points around Lambesis’ lyrics. While he hesitates to call Shadows a full-blown “concept album,” Lambesis admits there’s definitely a concept, and a very intentional sequence, guiding songs like the soaring “Confined,” the spiritually revealing “Control Is Dead” (featuring Zao’s Dan Weyandt on guest vocals) and the album-summarizing “Illusions.” “My lyrics have always come from a very personal perspective, but this record really is a story of the last two years of my life, and everything I’ve learned since then,” says Lambesis. Lyrically, the record flows in the same way, where I start by questioning what I've been taught, re-evaluating what’s meaningful and recognizing what's meaningless.” If all that sounds a little lofty, Lambesis easily brings it back into perspective: “It’s really about love, and learning how to love all over again.”
With (surprise, surprise) another massive tour schedule ahead of them to support Shadows And Security, including a prominent slot at the annual Cornerstone Festival and one of the headliner slots on the second stage of Ozzfest 2005, As I Lay Dying will have ample opportunities to bring the love—and the pain, and the noise—to audiences worldwide. And while Lambesis acknowledges that it’d be easy to let this sort of massive jump in the band’s profile go to his head, he just as quickly shows how grounded in reality As I Lay Dying are. “We all know that metalcore is really popular right now, and sure, it would’ve been easy for us just to write a straight-up metalcore record to cash in on that popularity,” he says. “But I really do feel like we’ve made a record that, even though it’s got slight metalcore elements, is just a timeless, classic metal record.
“ Besides,” he adds, “with everything I’ve learned about who we are as a band these past few years, why would I ever want to go back to the way things were?”