After two years of heavy touring, As I Lay Dying returned to the studio to begin recording their fourth album,
Shadows Are Security, which saw a mid-2005 release. The album was released at just the right time, as metalcore records like
Killswitch Engage’s
The End of Heartache and
Shadows Fall’s
The War Within had recently begun to receive considerable mainstream attention just months before, charting within the top 25 of the
Billboard 200.
Shadows Are Security faired similarly, debuting at #35 and moving well over 300,000 copies internationally. Sales statistics aside, the record was the band’s most technical effort to date, spearheaded by tracks like
"Confined" and
"The Darkest Nights". Interestingly, the liner notes to
Shadows Are Security include meanings for each of the album’s twelve tracks, providing insight into the band’s creative process.
The band quickly followed up the success of
Shadows Are Security with the release of a compilation album called
A Long March: The First Recordings in 2006, paving the way for their 2007 full-length release
An Ocean Between Us.
An Ocean Between Us debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200, selling over 34,000 copies on its first week on store shelves - both firsts for the band. The album features less of the band’s signature metalcore sound, instead incorporating clean vocals and thrash metal-inspired guitar riffs. So far
An Ocean Between Us has produced three singles:
"Nothing Left",
"The Sound of Truth", and
"Within Destruction".