As I Lay Dying – A Long March: The Early Years

Just before the long weekend I went out and bought As I lay Dying‘s A long March: the first recordings. A while back I saw these guys live during A Taste of Chaos tour, and what I remember is leaving the floor area and saying to my friend Bobby, “that was epic”. I remember the beat of the double-kick, beating as if it where one solid tune, the gut wrenching screams of the vocalist, and the amazing guitar solos. Since then I have been listening to their more recent cds, “Frail Words Collapse” and “Shadows Are Security“, and all I could think about is how I wanted more. Finally Bobby told me that this cd came out, and I was appeased.

This is not one cd, but a compilation of their original works, with the re-recorded version of their EP, Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes, which was done in their first few months of being a band, and the original songs form the EP. The beginning is the re-recorded songs, which include some of my favorites like, The Beginning and Forever, they sound like the songs you would receive in their other cds, with clear quality, showing off the bands excellent talent, the only thing about these songs are that some of them are already featured on past cd’s, so the new enhanced quality is not necessarily a new thing for some of theses songs.

The next “section” of this cd is great, it is the original recording of the first songs they made as a band; well I could only assume considering the cd says the first few months. The music displayed in this section truly demonstrates the early roots of this band. Some of my favorite songs off this section include The Innocence Spilled, which is a slower paced song filled with the raw emotion that is commonly found in their songs. It is then followed up by Behind Me Lies Another Fallen Soldier, which is another powerful song that ties in beautifully with The Innocence Spilled.

The cd is wrapped up with the original recordings of the EP. Personally, I love this part of the cd, sure it is the same songs that are in the beginning
of the cd, but it lets you see how the band has progressed through the years. The same songs are still my favorites, but now I have a more profound respect for what makes them so great. It may be that the only reason that the original songs sound different from the re-recordings is because of lack of proper recording materials, but even so, it makes no difference and concludes the cd wonderfully.

All in all, this is a must buy if you are a As I lay Dying fan, and do not already own the original copies of these cds.