As I Lay Dying has announced that recording for its ninth studio album is complete, and vocalist Tim Lambesis is asking fans to help decide which songs make the final cut. The announcement was shared on Instagram.
The band said it recorded 12 songs with the intention of selecting 10 for the finished album, and is inviting fan feedback as it makes that decision.
“The new As I Lay Dying album is finished,” the band’s announcement read. “We ended up with 12 songs we’re really happy with, and now comes the hard part: deciding what actually makes the final album. We’re starting with two very different sides of the record. Polarized & Retribution — September 15.”
Lambesis explained that the two tracks represent opposite ends of the record’s sound. “Polarized” is described as a melodic, mid-tempo song with more singing while remaining heavy and driving. “Retribution,” meanwhile, is characterized as fast, dark and heavy, with no singing.
Tim Lambesis said, “So we finally finished recording the new As I Lay Dying album, and we did 12 songs with the intention of keeping 10. We’ve had a lot of conversations amongst us trying to figure out what those 10 songs are, and we figured we should bring you guys in on the conversation.”
The singer continued, “So, we’re gonna show you little clips of two songs coming up called ‘Polarized‘ and ‘Retribution‘. Over the next week, we’ll sort of introduce these songs, and then on September 15th, we’ll have both those songs come out fully. And we’ll open up some voting for you guys to tell us, do these polarizing two different ends of the album both belong on the As I Lay Dying album?”
“‘Polarized‘ is quite a bit more melodic, mid-tempo, a little bit more singing, but still very heavy and driving. And then ‘Retribution‘ is just fast, dark and heavy, no singing at all whatsoever. So those are the two ends of the spectrum. We figured we’d start there, see what you guys thought, and most of the rest of the record lives somewhere in between. But we wanna bring you guys in to just give us your feedback so we can make these final decisions together,” he concluded.
The band plans to share clips of both songs before releasing them in full on September 15, then open voting for fans to weigh in on whether both stylistic extremes belong on the album. Lambesis said most of the remaining material falls somewhere between the two tracks.
The forthcoming release follows Through Storms Ahead, As I Lay Dying’s 2024 studio album.
