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Lamb Of God: Wrath
13/02/09 || Euthanatos
Even being a fan of Lamb of God ever since the release of the “Ashes of the Wake” album and even with the fact that the band has continuously progressed and released better and better records, even then, I did not expect “Wrath” to be all this. And it is. It’s that and much more. I’ve listened to it about three times already, and I don’t know if it’s as good as the critically acclaimed “Sacrament”, it might be, and even more, it might be better.
Why? Well, for starters, the band sounds more metal than ever. Even I (is that a record for the amount of times the word “even” has been used in a review? I think so), a defender of the “American metal” faith can admit that Lamb of God started out in the midst of the mallcore hype. Killswitch Engage, Every Time I Die, Shadows Fall and LoG all come from the same region, and they’re all friends. The “scene” started pretty much like the Bay Area thrash scene did. Some liked it because of the direct influence of thrash in these new bands’ sound; others hated it because of the modern touch they brought along.
I, for one, never cared much for all those bands, expect for Lamb of God. They always seemed to be thrashier, the riffs were faster and Randy’s vocals didn’t feature any clean parts. Now the band has fully immersed itself in its metal roots, and progressed further their already signature sound.
Take the aforementioned vocalist, Randy Blythe; I have rarely seen an individual take the evolution of his craft so seriously. He sounds light years better than he did on Lamb of God’s first three albums, his aggressiveness is uncanny, and perfectly matches his well-constructed lyrics, something else that sets Lamb of God apart from the bunch. Special props are in order for Chris Adler’s drumming as well. Fucking ace.
And, last but not least, the song-writing is also fan-fucking-tastic. It’s just ridiculous how these guys keep pulling amazing riffs out of their collective asses. “In Your Words”, “Set To Fail”, “Fake Messiah”. Much like in “Sacrament”, there is not one song here that I don’t find entertaining, and that is ever so rare in albums these days. Even “Reclamation”, with its strange, western meets metal vibe, is a great song. If you already dug Lamb of God, this is a must-have. If you didn’t, but are open-minded, give this a try, you might just enjoy it this time around.
While the metal scene has been slow to bear its fruit this beginning of 2009, fortunately there have been some killer releases already that stand tall in competition for best works of 2009. This is certainly one of them.
The cover: Just a weird symbol with the title underneath, but it’s appealing enough.
8.5 kids looking tough at the mall out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Epic/Roadrunner
- Website: www.lamb-of-god.com
- Band
- Randy Blythe: vocals
- Mark Morton: guitars
- Willie Adler: guitars
- John Campbell: bass
- Chris Adler: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. The Passing
- 02. In Your Words
- 03. Set to Fail
- 04. Contractor
- 05. Fake Messiah
- 06. Grace
- 07. Broken Hands
- 08. Dead Seeds
- 09. Everything to Nothing
- 10. Choke Sermon
- 11. Reclamation
