Ultimate-Guitar.com recently caught up with AS I LAY DYING guitarist Nick Hipa to discuss the band's new album, Decas. An excerpt is available below:

UG: A lot of guitar players came from your hometown of San Diego including WARREN DEMARTINI and JAKE E. LEE. Did you know about these guys at all?

Hipa: "It’s actually funny that you say that right now. Warren recently has become a huge influence on me. I’ve always liked Jake E. Lee and I know those guys were friends and they actually had a history together. I kinda just missed out on RATT when I was younger ‘cause I was busy listening to more extreme metal. But I recently went to go see a Ratt show with my fiancé. She said, 'We’re gonna go' and I said, 'Alright.' I ended up going and I was blown away by his tone and his phrasing. Like his tone was so sharp and so accurate and just the way he played around in a pentatonic scale totally redeemed it for me. I just kinda got over it but I was like, 'Holy crap, he’s doing some insanely sick stuff here.' And so, yeah, Warren was a huge influence on some of the stuff that I’ve been doing lately."

UG: Where can we hear Warren’s influence?

Hipa: "On the 'Moving Forward' solo on Decas, that starts off pretty pentatonic with a little string skipping in and that’s something I got from just learning some of his solos like from 'Nobody Rides For Free'. He does some crazy things in that and I’m just like, 'Man, that’s awesome. How can I incorporate it in what I’m doing?' That’s something that I picked up from him."

UG: It’s interesting to hear you talk about giving a nod to some of those players from back in the day because your solo on 'Moving Forward' was really sick.

Hipa: "Oh, cool. Well thank you. At the same time there’s also GEORGE LYNCH, who actually influenced Warren. What I started picking up from them by being exposed to their playing a lot is just the way they make their guitar sound. There’s just this fierce attack in the playing and I loved it. When I heard it I was like, 'Man, how do I make my guitar sound that sharp? And how do you take like a normal phrase and kind of make it scream?' And that’s something I paid a lot of attention to. Like at the end of that 'Moving Forward' solo, it’s just a pretty simple melodic phrase but I threw some harmonies on there and just tried to put a little attitude on the end and I think that’s the reason why it came out like that. And yeah it is because of those older guys. I think they all come from kinda the same place. I think they were either peers or kind of competing against each other but learning from each other at the same time. Guys like MICHAEL SCHENKER, George, Warren and all of them. Whether I intentionally meant to or not, I think I grabbed a lot from those players."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Decas debuted at # 61 on the American Billboard 200 chart. Decas also entered the official German album charts at # 80 and the Canadian album charts at # 55.

With over a million units sold in the US in just less than 10 years, As I Lay Dying celebrated this milestone with the very special release, Decas, released on November 8th in North America and November 7th in Europe (except in Germany, Austria and Switzerland where it arrived three days earlier).

The Decas EP also features three brand new songs, three additional covers that pay homage to just a few of the bands that have influenced As I Lay Dying, and four remixes.