As I Lay Dying

It's hard not to brush this one away, mainly due to the generic metalcore band name, but hold up just one metal minute. As I Lay Dying manages to avoid the genre's clichés and instead create sincere and well-constructed tunes that sound just as good, if not better, when they slow things down into melodic terrain. Vocalist Tim Lambesis has a great clean singing voice and manages to mix up the feel of the album with several different styles of singing. The band skitters between fancy, fast-pickin' riffin' and bigger power chords, creating an album that is as diverse as it is honest and as emotionally exhausting as it is empowering. Watch out for a couple tunes that recall generic metalcore (those high guitar squealies gotta go), but this is excellent for a genre overpopulated with total rubbish.