A WORD TO BREAKAWAY GUYS: Even though the lyrics of As I Lay Dying strongly reflect the band’s Christian faith, we understand that families have widely varying convictions about styles of music, fashion and appearance. So here’s what Breakaway suggests: Strive to honor your parents as you make media choices. Evaluate together bands and artists you read about in this magazine, and get more information about them before you buy the music.
What words come to mind when you think about metal? Maybe blazing, wailing guitars? Or crunching, crushing rhythm? What about hardcore? Probably screaming or growling.
Mash the two genres together and you get metalcore. And one of the dominant practitioners in this brand of rock is the San Diego quintet As I Lay Dying, whose name is drawn from a William Faulkner novel of the same title.
It doesn’t take more than a minute of listening to the band’s latest, An Ocean Between Us, to realize that all the descriptive words above apply to AILD. But as with Transformers, there’s more than meets the eye—or in this case, the ear—when it comes to this band of Christian metalcore minstrels.
Not only is AILD heavy, they’re also one of the most poetic, profound and . . . even prophetic. At times this band’s lyrics sound as if they could have come from C.S. Lewis or Oswald Chambers—or maybe an Old Testament prophet. You know, the men and women called by God to tasks such as speaking confrontational truths to God’s people and to those who didn’t know Him.
You might think that a heavy metal band would be a strange place for someone like that turn up today. (It probably is.) But that’s what this band is all about. As I Lay Dying delivers pummeling songs that lance the lies that money and stuff will satisfy our souls. And along the way, they boldly remind us that we are unable to save ourselves; only God can give us the gift of salvation.
Metal—and Christian—to the Core
When I first encountered AILD’s 2005 album, Shadows Are Security, I needed the lyrics sheet to understand what, exactly, frontman Tim Lambesis was roaring about. But when I looked closely, I was blown away by the spiritual insights. Not only did the band focus on how Christ brought hope and purpose; they seemed unusually discerning about the deceptive messages our culture tells about where we can find satisfaction.
Those intertwined themes—the emptiness of the world’s promises apart from God and the fact that our only hope is found in Him—also saturate An Ocean Between Us. On “I Never Wanted,” for example, Lambesis turns his back on materialism: “I will no longer adore/These things that will never satisfy me.” And “Within Destruction” echoes the human plight referred to in Romans 7:18 and Romans 6:23’s answer to this dilemma: “For I have fallen and there is nothing good within me/Yet I’ve been given life I will never deserve/For without forgiveness, my soul is lost.”
AILD is on a mainstream label, Metal Blade, but that hasn’t kept the band from talking boldly about their faith. “We hope to intelligently represent a faith that has been misrepresented in the entertainment industry,” Lambesis says on their Web site about his band’s mission in the predominantly dark world of metal. “Most of the bands we tour with would never hear a well-represented explanation of Christianity if we just stayed home.”
An Ocean Between Us debuted last summer at an amazing No. 8 on Billboard’s mainstream album chart. Given AILD’s growing success; their unapologetic, faith-fueled stance; and the barrage of e-mails from Breakaway readers, we wanted to learn more about what makes the band tick. I recently talked with lead screamer, er, singer, Tim Lambesis, to learn more about the convictions that shape his band’s messages.
Breakaway: To get started, tell us about the significance of your latest album’s title.
Tim Lambesis: Lyrically, that song [“An Ocean Between Us”] deals with the idea that we can’t chase the dreams the rest of the world has. It’s about separating our way of thinking, realizing that what the world sometimes views as valuable is ultimately meaningless. Specifically, the idea I had in mind when writing that song was materialism. The world’s view of success is usually money-focused. I realized I could sit around and wait for the day I made a million dollars or achieved the goals the rest of the world has, or I could really choose to think differently—to have an ocean of difference between me and that way of thinking. As Christians, we might put that idea in these Scriptural terms: We can’t serve two masters.
I noticed a number of scriptural allusions on An Ocean Between Us. What portions of Scripture do you draw inspiration from?
Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books, both from a literary standpoint and from its meaning to me as a Christian. Ecclesiastes has influenced a lot of my songwriting.
On the latest album, the song “Within Destruction” focuses on how we are inherently sinful. Romans [3:23] says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Because there is so much darkness in me as a person apart from Him, I realize that hope doesn’t come from me. It doesn’t come from within; it comes from God.
“The Sound of Truth” challenges the idea that we should let our feelings guide all of our decisions. It also talks about how living a life of faith means going against the grain of our culture. What would you say to teens who might depend too much on feelings when it comes to their faith?
If people want to live against the grain, which is obviously a biblical teaching, it shouldn’t be only emotion that drives them to do that. Our emotions are important, and God is able to use them to help us get heading the right direction. But if it is strictly emotion that drives us to do the things that are against the grain, whether it be following God or deciding not to worry so much about money, feelings alone probably won’t get us through. We need to take time to understand why we are choosing to live that way.
What other things influence your songwriting?
A lot of times it’s just me trying to better understand the emotions I’m going through and how I can better understand my own relationship with God. Sometimes it’s about understanding my struggles and how I can learn from those things. My approach to songwriting is a personal one, but because I write from my Christian worldview, it tends to have almost a devotional aspect to it. Hopefully other people can relate to that.
I can definitely see some of those themes of struggle on certain songs. What would you say to someone who feels your music is too emotionally negative?
A lot of people in the metal genre tend to focus on what’s negative. But when I reflect on what is hopeless and the things that are negative about this world, it helps me realize what’s truly important. Pointing out those things actually helps me to hope [in the right things]. The way I write lyrics is very much like a time of devotions. Hopefully when others who feel a strong sense of negativity read our lyrics, they’ll [realize they’ve placed their hope in the wrong things] and go, OK, there is so much that I need to change, so much that I have sought after that will not make me happy.
What would you say to those who might be concerned about the hardcore style of the vocals and songs in general?
I don’t think that any particular type of guitar distortion or vocal approach is inherently sinful. Given my parents’ generation or even my older brothers’, for that matter, I do understand how it is a bit of a shock to hear music that comes across so aggressively. But I think that the passion and the emotion behind that can be taken a lot of ways. My vocals, for example, release the passion that is behind our music. I do understand how some people view it; it doesn’t sound very Christian. But I think that’s a social thing that is shaped by the way we’ve grown up.
Can you share any stories about relating to bands with different beliefs?
One of the first non-Christian bands to take us on tour was reluctant to do so because they thought we were going to have a Christian fan base that would protest their shows. But they decided to let us join them for two weeks. About a week into it they said, “You guys have completely broken down all the stereotypes that we had of what Christians were like. We always felt that Christians were judgmental and unwilling to listen.” While they admitted they didn’t see eye to eye with us on everything, we felt that we had a chance to break down some walls, and they told us they looked forward to touring with us again. The conversations we had with them were conversations I suspect they never would have been willing to have with any Christians before that. 
