Metal group As I Lay Dying releases new music video

Preceding the Sept. 25 release of its newest album, "Awakened," via Metal Blade Records, metal act As I Lay Dying has released a music video for the record’s first single, "A Greater Foundation".

For any great music video, there are two obvious key components: the music and the video content itself.

"A Greater Foundation" does well for itself on each front, but neither aspect is breathtaking or revolutionary.

First, let us take a listen to the musical content.

This song is the epitome of the metal sound, and it will undoubtedly please fans of the band’s previous work.

Chugging, staccato guitars are met with precise and powerful drums as vocalist Tim Lambesis issues forth his trademarked ferocious screaming style.

The verses are driving, blast-beat ridden offerings of metal aptitude, and the pace only briefly slows during the chorus to give way to a more melodic approach to the genre.

The song smoothly rides this contrast of styles to the bridge, where it becomes a bit too "emo" for my tastes.

While the music is still perfectly appropriate, this notion rests solely on the vocals of bassist Josh Gilbert, who provides a break from the screaming by singing a clean, nasal melody to carry the song.

I do not have a problem with clean singing when it is executed properly within a metal song, but when it is nasal and frail, no thanks.

The song takes this vocal style to its conclusion, which results in a disappointing finish to an otherwise promising track.

Where the visuals are concerned, the music video is quite average.

Set to a graffiti-laden cement backdrop, the video depicts the band, decked out in traditional metal garb, headbanging, screaming and performing the song in its entirety.

This is par for the course where metal videos are concerned, so do not expect to be blown away here.

Surrounding the band in the video is a rowdy and fired-up crowd who moshes and flails to the music, clearly endorsing the track’s heaviness and tight structure.

"A Greater Foundation" is not a terrible song or video; it is just not spectacular.

As I Lay Dying has fashioned a lengthy career in the world of metal with its penchant for brutality, and this song is just another day in the park for the California natives.

With a relatively stagnant period for metal underway, one can take solace in the fact that As I Lay Dying is working hard to keep our horns happily at attention.