Last week, metalcore outfit As I Lay Dying returned with "My Own Grave," their first new song and video in six years, and more significantly, the group's first offering since frontman Tim Lambesis did time for attempting to hire an undercover cop (posing as a hitman) to murder his wife. Lambesis' reunion with longtime AILD members Nick Hipa, Phil Sgrosso, Josh Gilbert and Jordan Mancino has garnered significant controversy, for obvious reasons. Now, As I Lay Dying — who have a show booked for June 16th show at the SOMA Sidestage in San Diego, California — have shared a 30-plus-minute video of all five band members discussing the reasons behind their reunion and the group's return.
According to the band, As I Lay Dying's re-formation resulted from a long, multi-year process of getting to know each other again and finding forgiveness. "It took all of those years, him facing punishment, the consequences for his actions," guitarist Nick Hipa says. "Living in the ruin that he made for himself and also acknowledging that it would never end. What he did was very public and it would never be forgotten and it shouldn't. But that's part of what he has to endure for the rest of his life. But when I saw who he was and who he had genuinely become, I let go of that, and I wanted to let go of it."
"Because I had never handled it ... I let that pain and that hurt and that hopelessness ... I let it become my life force in the form of hatred. And I used that as my strength for all those years but it devastated me on the inside."
For his part, Lambesis expresses an understanding that some people may never be able for forgive him for his past actions, but says that he is "genuinely confident in the person I've become I've just got to be myself over a long period of time." "You know, in, like, two years from now, maybe there's a portion of people that say, 'You know what? OK, I've seen it consistently over time,'" he says. "And there's definitely going to be a portion of people that are like, 'It doesn't matter.' It could be 20 years from now, I'm not ever going to give these guys a chance. And that's fine, I have to accept that."
Watch the full video above.
