### Lamb Of God: New American gospel

#### 03/06/09 || Daemonomania

This album is like the favorite toy you outgrew. The fast food you once ate every day but now can’t stomach. Or the “escort” whose services you enjoyed exclusively, but whose fake funbags are now floppy and distended from misuse.

Anyway, I used to love me some “New American gospel” to pieces. My metal mania was just sprouting into full-on obsession, and NAG was the soundtrack. I wore the hooded sweatshirt that said “Pure American Metal” on the back all the damn time. These days I’ve grown too corpulent to wear it at all. The wife sometimes throws it on to feel a bit more tough should we go out to a vaguely metal establishment. I suppose that sweatshirt is a metaphor. Fucken deep.

Therefore I found it surprising that no one has covered the first and probably most badass of outputs from New Wave of American Heavy Metal superstars Lamb of God. Not too surprising though, since the band has fallen out of favor (if it ever was in favor) among the metal elite. Their sound is certainly more accessible and streamlined now coughSuckrementcough, and I even think they were more straight-ahead when they were called Burn the Priest. NAG is instead a caterwauling, violent, and interesting take on the semi-thrash Lambo have since trademarked.

So what makes NAG different from “As the palaces burn” or “Ashes of the wake”? The vocals, for one thing. Blythe screams, howls, and growls his guts out, and even with the lyric sheet in front of you there’s absolutely no way to follow what he’s hissing about. And the subject matter is more personal and misanthropic than political, so all of you right-wing whiners can shut da fuck up.

Second difference: the drumming. This here collection of tunes is how Mr. Chris Adler got a reputation as a beast behind the kit. Duder’s got creativity, chops, and a production job which allows him to overwhelm everyone else. Yep, Mark Morton, John Campbell and Willie Adler (who once predicted my future) do their best to keep the riffs and basslines coming. But more often than not it is a two-man show.

To conclude…is “Gospel” the dreaded metalcore? I’d say not. Will you like it? Give tracks like the Steve Austin-guested and twisting “Terror and hubris in the house of Frank Pollard” a try, or the Meshuggah-esque and groovy “The subtle arts of murder and persuasion” a go, or even the junkie-hating “Pariah” a shot. Then let me know. Out of nostalgia I’ll hand the LOGs a 7 out of 10. However, this is a disc that rarely gets any spins from my big, bad, brutal, and too chunky to wear a small-sweatshirt self anymore.

- Information
- Released: 2000
- Label: Prosthetic/Metal Blade
- Website: www.lambofgod.com
- Band
- Randy Blythe: vocals
- Mark Morton: guitars
- Chris Adler: drums
- John Campbell: bass
- Willie Adler: guitars

- Tracklist
- 01. Black Label
- 02. A Warning
- 03. In The Absence of The Sacred
- 04. Letter To The Unborn
- 05. The Black Dahlia
- 06. Terror And Hubris In The House of Frank Pollard
- 07. The Subtle Arts of Murder And Persuasion
- 08. Pariah
- 09. Confessional
- 10. O.D.H.G.A.B.F.E.