You may have heard the name WOVENWAR being spoken of these days. In case you haven't heard of them, perhaps the name AS I LAY DYING will give you an idea as to why you should know of these people by now. After the incarceration of former frontman Tim Lambesis, the remaining members of AS I LAY DYING formed into WOVENWAR with Shane Blay of OH, SLEEPER on vocals. With this new sophomore record of theirs, WOVENWAR claims that they are back and heavier than before. At least, that's what they proclaim.

Well call me old-fashioned, but this music lacks the endearing fury and fire that Metalcore and Deathcore from the mid-two thousands had. AS I LAY DYING was a part of a rapidly growing trend in Heavy Metal's forever-expanding identity. What grew out of the downfall of Nu-Metal was the waves of young musicians and artists who wanted to bring a sharper edge to the music while still keeping in line with the emphasis on image that carried over from the fading Nu-Metal scene.

What we get offered on "Honor Is Dead" is another hard-rock album masquerading as an edgy, dystopian, post-Metal band. These songs really don't venture too far outside of the Nickelback vomitorium of vapid music. WOVENWAR still maintain to keep some amount of credibility by being open and vulnerable with the lyrical content. Songs like "Honor Is Dead" and "Cascade" are heavy with the much more melodic sides of Metal vocals. But I still don't think that is enough to keep WOVENWAR's music in the realm of what is deemed acceptable, radio-friendly hard rock. Some of their more somber songs like "Compass" and "Silhouette" really prove that the music is not willing to come back from sounding like a mainstream Hard Rock group.

"Honor Is Dead" is left all out on a limb, without any support from either the Hard Rock party nor the Extreme Metal party. This music is pretty cheesy, even when compared to the most recent AS I LAY DYING material and goddamn, is it repetitive. Really shallow songwriting is what makes this album so joyless and bad.

I was expecting a whole lot more from this record but I am sad to report back that what I heard was not very good at all. Although the state-of-the-art production and mixing certainly gave the sound of this band a very professional edge, I kind of want to say that it actually hurt the album. The emptiness that is created by having it sound like it isn't a full band working together leaves the audience with yet another Hard Rock ego piece.

Anyone who is a fan of LINKIN PARK, A DAY TO REMEMBER and KORN should probably give this album a shot. If you like your Extreme Metal not so extreme and your idea of amazing production is a Crunkcore mix tape, than this album is for you. I couldn't recommend this to anyone else, though. I already know that I will not be revisiting "Honor Is Dead" probably ever again, at least not by choice. There is a serious lack of authentic emotion and energy on this whole record that will mark it as unmemorable as WOVENWAR's last record.