Shadows Are Security

In the first week of January 2005 As I Lay Dying went back to Big Fish Studio in Encinitas, California, where they had made Frail Words Collapse, to record its follow-up. Singer Tim Lambesis produced it with guitarist Phil Sgrosso, Steve Russell co-produced and engineered, and Andy Sneap mixed and mastered it at Backstage Recording Studios in England. The credited line-up is Lambesis on vocals, Sgrosso and Nick Hipa on guitars, Clint Norris on bass and vocals, and Jordan Mancino on drums. Before the release Lambesis said the previous album had been rushed and made on a tight budget, whereas this time the band could do what they wanted; with more technical guitar parts and much more melody, his own focus had been the arrangements. That autumn he added that they had cut back the dissonance in their sound and traced their roots to classic metal. The title, he explained, was about the false sense of security people draw from what they are taught by schools, churches and social norms, things he likened to shadows that are there one minute and gone the next. Jacob Bannon, who had designed Frail Words Collapse, returned for the artwork. Metal Blade Records released Shadows Are Security on 14 June 2005, and a limited first edition came with a bonus DVD of a show filmed at the Substage in Karlsruhe, Germany, on 28 November 2004. The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 35 and in the same week was No. 1 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart. Chris Sims directed the video for the first single, "Confined", at a disused Air Force base in Tustin, California, and it premiered on MTV2's Headbanger's Ball in June 2005; there were videos for "Through Struggle" and "The Darkest Nights" too. Metal Blade reissued the album on vinyl in 2018.