The Powerless Rise is the fifth studio album by American metalcore band As I Lay Dying. The album was released on May 7, 2010 in Europe and was released on May 11, 2010 in the United States. The Powerless Rise debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 38,000. The album features three singles: "Beyond Our Suffering", "Parallels", and "Anodyne Sea". Music videos have been released for all three, with the latest one ("Beyond Our Suffering") consisting of live footage.
Writing and recording
As I Lay Dying began writing songs for The Powerless Rise in mid 2009 following two years of touring for the band's 2007 album An Ocean Between Us.[1] By the end of September, the group had finished "about 6-7" songs and was scheduled to enter the studio on October 17, 2009 where they would continue to write new songs. This is in contrast to previous albums by As I Lay Dying that had been written over the course of only a few months.[2][3] The three years between the release of An Ocean Between Us and The Powerless Rise has been the largest gap between releases from the band to date. Frontman Tim Lambesis stated that while some bands "need to rush out a crappy record so they can start touring again to pay their bills," As I Lay Dying had been working hard to "make a record worth listening to (hopefully), and start touring again when we're done."[4][5]
The Powerless Rise was produced by Killswitch Engagelead guitaristAdam Dutkiewicz and Daniel Castelman, and was mixed by Colin Richardson and Martyn Ford.[5][6] Adam Dutkiewicz also produced As I Lay Dying's An Ocean Between Us. According to guitarist Phil Sgrosso, Dutkiewicz was chosen over ten other producers the band had talked with after "realizing that Adam understands our sound better than most."[7] Castelman and Richardson were also audio engineers on An Ocean Between Us.
The record was released on May 11, 2010, to generally positive acclaim. The Powerless Rise currently holds "universal acclaim" status for generally good reviews on Metacritic with a 81 out of 100.
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