Californian metal-core combo As I Lay Dying hope to send love ‘n’ understanding - not trashcans - into the moshpit.

Interview by Steve Tauschke | steve@staff.truepunk.com | with As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis.

You’d be excused for expecting some backstage tension by bringing together a Christian band and a satanic-metal outfit whose distaste for Catholics is well documented. But when San Diego’s faithful fivesome As I Lay Dying found themselves sharing a band room with ungodly Polish black metallers Behemoth, the results surprised everyone.

“Originally we were a little bit intimidated because Behemoth is very outspoken about how much they hate Christians,” says singer Tim Lambesis, “but I would consider those guys friends of ours. Their view of us as Christians is much different to that of Christians in, say, Florida who are maybe more forceful. It was an eye-opening experience for us and them to meet and sit down and talk.”

And talk they did.

“As Christians we believe in the bible and we believe very strongly and our faith is very important to us,” states Lambesis. “Behemoth describe Christians as very judgmental and I can relate to why they would be so hated because judging other people is not something we’re supposed to be doing. If you really follow the teachings of Jesus it’s all about love and forgiveness.”

That fateful tour, set to be repeated when both As I Lay Dying and Behemoth perform together again on this summer Sounds of the Underground tour, formed part of the opening package for metal headliners Six Feet Under and marked AILD’s first foray into uncharted metal waters.

“Previous to that we’d always gone out by ourselves or with hardcore bands,” says Lambesis. “But we didn’t really care. Now we’ve been on the Taste of Chaos tour and we’re about to go to Canada. So far it hasn’t all been metal and hardcore bands so we’re playing to a whole lot of new fans. It’s fairly diverse but it’s been great for us being the heaviest band on the tour because we stand out. Even if people don’t like heavy music they remember who were are and we’re really making an impression.

Lambesis formed As I Lay Dying in 2000 with drummer Jordan Mancino, debuting with Beneath the Encasing of Ashes the following year. At the time, San Diego’s music scene was enjoying the last wave of the mid-90s pop-punk explosion.

“It had a very big punk scene,” nods the frontman, “and as far as the underground was concerned hardcore was much more popular than metal so we were kind of the outcasts, that’s why most of the early shows we played were at hardcore shows rather than metal shows. As we became more successful the metal scene in general became bigger. The local scene has metal bands trying to sound a little bit like us but we didn’t start it, we just brought life to a scene that was basically dead when we first began playing.”

The clash of genres also brought conflict back when territorial metal and hardcore camps displayed little mutual admiration for one another. Lambesis recalls the odd stoush.

“When we first started playing, the hardcore kids and the metal crowd would end up fighting at the shows because they have their different styles of moshing or dancing or whatever,” he says. “They’d fight over things that are pretty insignificant. When we first started touring we went to Florida and it was one of the first times we played there and because we’d originally come out of the hardcore scene, that’s where we grew up and so a lot of our music fans are fans of hardcore and when they came to the show there were some metal heads who were very much used to a metal mosh.

“I don’t know which side it came from but someone picked up a big metal trashcan and threw it into the middle of the pit and knocked over a couple of people and a big fight started. Three years ago I remember being on tour and every other night of the tour there would be a fight. It doesn’t happen any more and we’re grateful for that. The last few years they’ve learnt to understand each other and they realise that they both just love music and want to have a good time.”

As I Lay Dying pinched their moniker from the title of the 1930 novel by American author William Faulkner, who in turn derived the phrase from Homer’s The Odyssey. Indeed, the book’s stream-of-consciousness narrative is a long way from AILD’s precision metal-core that has via the spray of critics’ ink and saliva been favorably likened to the classic “Gothenburg sound” characterized by the Swedish city’s loudest musical exports, In Flames and At the Gates.

“At the root of the Swedish metal sound are the classic metal melodies of bands like Iron Maiden,” explains Lambesis. “They were one of the first metal bands to introduce a strong sense of guitar melody. I think we’re also influenced by Swedish bands but more so by Iron Maiden and the hardcore sound.”

Certainly, the quintet’s latest album 2005’s Shadows Are Security, juxtaposes both hardcore and Scandanavian death metal leanings in addition to a notable absence of spiritual soapbox diatribes. Lambesis, who also doubles as AILD’s in-house producer, anticipates the band - drummer Mancino, guitarists Phil Sgrosso and Nick Hippa and bassist Clint Norris - will re-issue their independently released and now out-of-print debut album this year on the Metal Blade label, setting the stage for yet another rigorous spell on the road.

“It’s hard on relationships and people that we love we hardly ever get to see,” Lambesis says of the punishing schedules. “Physically, I don’t feel worn out so much but we miss people back home.”