As I Lay Dying Plays The Cotillion, 3/11

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It's hard to believe that a veteran metal band like San Diego's As I Lay Dying could be just hitting their stride now, some 10 years and five full-lengths into an already stellar career. Still, even after just one listen to the quintet's latest, The Powerless Rise, you can't ignore the obvious: One of modern metal's best just got better.

Similar to their approach on 2007's Grammy-nominated An Ocean Between Us, the band chose to employ the production prowess of Adam D. and record a majority of the album at singer Tim Lambesis' own private studio. The end result is The Powerless Rise; the first true collaborative effort between the current AILD lineup.

Although they didn't know it at first, the band's creative potential kicked into overdrive with the introduction of bassist/singer Josh Gilbert in 2007, who played on Ocean but was not involved with the writing. For the previous two albums, the brunt of the instrumental development was spearheaded by guitarist Phil Sgrosso, whose penchant for melody and riffconjuring suited the notoriously powerful drum stylings of drummer Jordan Mancino, complimented the lead guitar work of Nick Hipa, and exacted Lambesis's vision for the bands' overall intensity. The aforementioned format remained the same on Powerless but with the addition of Gilbert's musical contribution, added yet another facet to an already established creative dynamic. The result is an album built upon the strength of its parts and the remarkable ways in which those parts become a cohesive whole.

Powerless is the much-anticipated follow-up to 2007's Grammy-nominated An Ocean Between Us and the band's RIAA certified platinum DVD This Is Who We Are. In addition to enjoying more than one million in total career sales in the U.S. alone, in recent years As I Lay Dying have toured extensively throughout the world, including headlining runs on Warped Tour, Sounds of the Underground, Bamboozle, Ozzfest and Taste of Chaos. They've shared stages with the likes of Iron Maiden,, Heaven and Hell, Slipknot, Deftones, Shadows Fall, Hatebreed, Unearth, Mastodon, Black Sabbath, Killswitch Engage, In Flames, and Lamb of God (to name a few). These accomplishments have undoubtedly earned the band a prominent place among metal's elite, yet even with such lofty milestones behind them, AILD's journey continues.

As I Lay Dying 7:30 pm Friday, March 11 with special guests Winds of Plague and After the Burial. Doors

open at 7:00 pm. Advance tickets are $17.50 at Select-a-Seat, The Cotillion, House of Sight & Sound and the employee clubs. Tickets on the day of the show will be $20.00. Presented in association with KingFor more information and to charge tickets by phone call (316) 722-4201 or log on to

Productions. thecotillion.com.

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