An Ocean Between Us is the fourth studio album by American metalcore band As I Lay Dying, released on August 21, 2007, by Metal Blade Records. It debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, with sales close to 39,500.[2] The album includes the singles "Nothing Left", "The Sound of Truth", "Within Destruction", "I Never Wanted" and "An Ocean Between Us", with music videos produced for all five. "Nothing Left" appears on the radio soundtrack of the 2008 video game Saints Row 2.
Musical style
An Ocean Between Us is a metalcore album that incorporates elements of heavy metal, thrash metal, hardcore punk, and melodic death metal. Guitarist Nick Hipa said of the album's style, "collectively we've all pushed ourselves, and we're all doing things that we weren't even capable of doing on the last record. And on top of just experimenting and trying different things, I think we just wrote some pretty sick jams, so I'm happy with it."[3]
Vocalist Tim Lambesis said "[we] spent some time listening to our last album [2005's Shadows Are Security] and, just from being on tour, we became a little bit jaded by how the genre — as a whole — has sort of copied itself over and over again. We decided we wanted to be more diverse, even down to the point where we sort of felt like we should really focus on writing songs in different categories, and then pick the best songs from those categories and use them for the record."[4]
Reception
Reviewers praised As I Lay Dying's progression in both musicianship and songwriting. Chad Bowar of About.com described the album as more accessible and diverse than its predecessor, saying "As I Lay Dying has always been a band with a lot of crossover appeal with both metal and hardcore fans. They are the type of group that has the fanbase to play both Ozzfest and Warped Tour."[5]
