What hurts As I Lay Dying here is, quite bluntly, a lack of memorable riffs. On the surface the impact is savage, at times even compelling. Tim Lambesis has a snarl to rival an ornery Rottweiler, and there are several bands who could only dream of the sort of rhythm section that powers the über-tight groove on tracks like "Nothing Left" and "Forsaken". Yet for all the obvious sincerity and effort behind the twelve tracks that make up _An Ocean Between Us_, precious little sticks in the memory when all's said and done. The delivery may be ferocious, and brutality virtually omnipresent, but if you manage to remember three tracks after a run through the record, you'd be well advised to send off your MENSA application straight away.