All Shall Perish – “Awaken The Dreamers”

All Shall Perish certainly live up to their name with their second release, Awaken The Dreamers. Although they changed their sound rendering it a tad more industrial, and have branched out ultimately challenging themselves as musicians, they should still keep ALL the fans they have made thus far.

Awaken The Dreamers does have songs that stay true to the ASP sound; “When Life Meant More” a fast, technical, heavy, breakdown-filled track and “Never Again” with lyrics like: “you better flush twice, cause this s*** is heavy to breakdown” are prime examples. But the disc is also filled with epic guitar solos and just purely amazing musicianship. The title track, “Awaken The Dreamers”, is filled with crazy bass sweeps and shows us that All Shall Perish have been not only practicing, but also taken it up a notch. Moreover, they have left the breakdowns that their old fans love, but now also do something else… sing! Yes, you read that right. Many fans are now saying: “What is All Shall Perish doing with singing, they can’t do that!” Well they can; the clean vocals are amazing. “Awaken The Dreamers” is the most epic song All Shall Perish have ever written and it is an amazing sound they have pulled off.

ASP show us a softer side with “For The Ones Left Behind” a one minute acoustic track. They also have a much softer song called “Memories Of A Glass Sanctuary” where the track is all clean vocals – something new for sure. “Black Gold Reign” is also a solid tune that’s very heavy, filled with breakdowns, crushing vocals, epic guitar solos and intense double kicks… but out of nowhere you hear a very 80’s yell. This album has a lot of 80’s style guitar riffs and a little power metal feel to it.

I would recommend this CD to ALL fans of bands such as The Human Abstract, Dragonforce, All That Remains, Neuraxis, and The Faceless. And if you are already an All Shall Perish advocate and have not heard the new CD… well you are in for a treat! Overall Awaken The Dreamers is an epic journey and is overall something that fans of many different styles of metal would enjoy! 9.8 Metal Claws Out of 10.  [ END ]

Track Listing:

01. When Life Meant More…
02. Black Gold Reign
03. Never…Again
04. The Ones We Left Behind
05. Awaken The Dreamers
06. Memories Of A Glass Sanctuary
07. Stabbing To Purge Dissimulation
08. Gagged, Bound, Shelved And Forgotten
09. Until The End
10. From So Far Away
11. Misery’s Introduction
12. Songs For The Damned

Run Time: 35:00
Release Date: 09.16.2008