Lamb of God Wrath
by Matthew Hoffman
Staff Writer
Lamb of God is back with Wrath, a tremendously heavy effort that sees 11 songs lasting 44 up and down moments. The vocals are a bit smoother than Sacrament as well as a higher slant towards rock than metal with the guitar leads and solos.
It is already a tremendous commercial success, hitting #2 on Billboard, and moving more than 67,000 units the first week. Seeing Lamb of God up there with soft pop/country acts like the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift is remarkable to true underground metal pundits and fanatics alike. This band that had such humble beginnings has never sold out and played radio friendly metal like Mudvayne, Chevelle, Hinder, or to an extent Slipknot. They have actually got more vicious, abrasive and underground with their music.
With L.O.G’s success, the entire community of underground bands from Unearth to Amon Amarth and over to Europe’s Opeth and Hatesphere are somewhat legitimized. So congratulations are definitely in store but their new album still has to undergo the same scrutiny as any other regardless of its tremendous success.
The opening piece “The Passing” is a pretty instrumental with soft drumming and serene tones. Yes, a pretty instrumental with soft drumming and serene tones.
Then the expected finally happens as all hell breaks loose with “In Your Words” the second track as L.O.G returns to their usual form in a hurry after the slightly confusing melancholy opening cut. This track does however have a major flaw the riff line used sounds very similar to one used by Alexei Laiho in a Children of Bodom song. Thought the pace is slightly faster on the C.O.B track.
The third cut “Set to Fail” comes in hard with aggressive rocket fast drums from band spokesperson and drummer Chris Adler. This cut starts to get back to what you would expect from the Richmond, Virginia boys as you receive a slower nasty southern fried rhythm from Willie Adler, wailing guitars from Mark Morton and hellacious wicked vocals from Randall Blythe. There also is a cool guitar solo from Morton that while tight is melodic and tight.
The next track “Contractor“may be the best on the album. It starts with a Rebel Yell and then Blythe launches into his trademark vocal line. But here there are also joint vocals and nicely played odd time signature drums by Adler. Blythe damn near strangles the vocals with his southern verbiage flying through the chorus of “Guaranfuckinteeeeee,” over and over.
“Fake Messiah” is where the record starts to become rather disappointing, with a blatant anti-Christian message stronger than L.O.G ever introduced before. Sure it would be ridiculous to say that a band that was formerly known as Burn the Priest would shock, you but up until now you could be a Christian and still listen to any of their albums without too much guilt. After this sacrilegious track that becomes a bit more difficult. It stands to reason that one of these Southern boys does have some “faith,” which makes it even more disappointing that no one stood up for Christ. In this day and age of solid aggressive Christian metal bands like Haste the Day, Divinefire and Norma Jean, L.O.G sadly chose to go in the other direction.
The rest of the record is decent and high quality metal but none of the tracks jump out at you like the ones on their prior albums that were filled with huge hooks, and sweet guitar solos.
According to L.O.G drummer and overall leader Chris Adler speaking on Sirius/XM Liquid Metal (during an entire week of Lamb of God’s new album promotion), they were supposed to be taking time off and decided to write new music anyways. Chris said this was the album “they” wanted to make, void from pressure of a label.
Besides the heavy anti-Christian themes the guitar solo work and melodies are not nearly as good as their prior work on albums like Ashes of the Wake, As the Palaces Burn and Sacrament.
So to sum it up Lamb of God has gotten more sacrilegious but stayed nasty with their heavy southern grooves. To their massive existing fan base that’s all that really matters.
This album is recommended for purchase but it surely is not for the faint of heart.
Label: Epic Records
Band Members
D. Randall ‘Randy’ Blythe – Vocals
Mark ”Duane” Morton – Guitar
Willie Adler – Guitar
John Campbell – Bass
Chris Adler – Drums
Track Listing
1. The Passing
2. In Your Words
3. Set to Fail
4. Contractor
5. Fake Messiah
6. Grace
7. Broken Hands
8. Dead Seeds
9. Everything to Nothing
10. Choke Sermon
11. Reclamation
Rating 7.7/10