Wrath

Is this a missed opportunity from everybody's favorite metal lamb? Quite possibly so. It's no secret what these guys do: riffy/groovy metal goodness, somewhere between the realms of snipy Slayer-esque fret work and outright Pantera-worshipping guitar gravy. And on this, they're more fluent than ever at that their well proven vernacular, and those fingers travel all over "them guitars" with more fluidity and a tightly controlled pace than anything previous. Remember, the band are infatuated with the southern identity, and as far as that goes the basic analogy is that they now draw their guns damn quick, I reckon. Yeeha. Or, something.

The album also benefits from that balanced production that's become their trademark since the 'Ashes' record: abrasive, only conservatively gain-fed guitars with a dry and incisive drum sound - brisk snares and a hard smack on the toms. Some of the better tracks include the inspired and resolute 'Broken Hands' or the utterly catchy 'Fake Messiah', and at least the first half of this release makes for a decent ride around fluid-picking riffage land.

Now, the whole problem resides in this: although this delivers in the riff department and there's an observable enhanced maturity in overall song-writing as these are all tightly knit units with a very clear beginning and end as well as a definite identity to each track, the band have removed a most crucial dimension to their sound. That dimension was there on the previous two in particular, 'Ashes' and 'Sacrament'. The songs on those records oozed with character. They had an ominous and dark taint to them, sometimes permeated in an epic atmosphere that made them irresistible listens. They drew from the Slayer riff architecture and synthesized their own iterations without resorting to plagiarism.

The riffs had a madness to them: think the so-called "vomit riff" from 'Hourglass' or the flesh-slicing sharpness from 'Now You've Got Something to Die For', or that diabolical outro from 'Again We Rise'. Those songs had an eminence and a lift to them versus the deliberately earthbound demeanor here. This album has merely kept the infrastructure, the bare bone of the LoG formula, but stripped everything on top that made it all work. What's left is the pure groove. The songs are well put together and the composition level is certainly decent still, but they no longer carry that contagious personality and that sheer size that kept the consumer coming back for more. There was undeniably an addictive quality to 'Ashes' for its fans. The riffs were that good. The material here instead is good but hardly comes across as overwhelming in any way or abundant with creativity and experimental prowess. It's too comfortable with being a common LoG song dispenser, and there isn't much besides a steady listen - not particularly boring nor exciting - to gain from it.

I remember when Wrath first dropped in 2009, I actually kind of hated it. I thought the vocals were a huge step down from the previous albums with the introduction of weird tuneless yelling in addition to the usually great roars and shrieks and thought most of the album just kinda flew in one ear and out the other. Nowadays I only hate it because it broke my titling gimmick in this review series.

Yeah, Wrath is actually one hell of an unappreciated highlight in Lamb of God's oeuvre. I'm gonna find myself inadvertently paraphrasing MutantClannfear's review a lot because he really nails it, but to distill it down to one sentence: This is the most legitimately pissed off the band has potentially ever sounded and pretty much every song represents the most extreme edges of groove metal with fuckloads of unhinged intensity. A common criticism of groove metal in general is that the groove riffs never feel earned, like they need to be used to break up fast sections instead of just grooving the whole time because then they lose their punch. Discounting the fact that this argument kind of accidentally writes off 80% of doom metal wholesale, Lamb of God takes that criticism and smashes it against the wall by making the grooves themselves the fast parts of the album. This motherfucker rarely slows down, and pretty much every second is crammed full of riffs, more riffs, a surprising amount of melody and solos considering the band we're talking about here, and a few more riffs for good measure.

I'm probably overselling it a bit, but that's because I feel like I have to overcompensate with this album for reasons I'll get to later, but at the same time I don't think I'm wrong about anything I've said in the preceding paragraph. Tracks like "Set to Fail", "Contractor", and moments of "Dead Seeds" are absolutely fucking batshit in how fast they are (say what you will about Lamb of God, they were never a particularly "fast" band until this moment apart from a few scattered tracks). "Choke Sermon" actually sounds like a fucking Megadeth song and if you're mentally raising your hand to tell me that's insane, I'd ask you to shove that hand back up the ass it came from. I think I finally understand why people insisted on calling groove metal "half-thrash" for so many years, because it turns out that simply speeding it up by 50bpm turns it into fuckin' "Ashes in Your Mouth" and that's fucking rad. This speed also lays to rest that criticism from before, because holy shit does Lamb of God earn the breakdowns and more mid-paced groove sections this time around. This is exactly what groove metal is supposed to be, and it's good to know that Sacrament was on the right path by finally eschewing the last of the metalcore influences because they've pretty definitively proved that they know how to make straight up groove metal work here.

Wrath is also deceptively dynamic. At the time I thought it felt kind of stilted, but now, especially after listening to their discography chronologically, the bits like the acoustic intro track, the gorgeous harmonized guitar solo on "Grace", the stuttery stereo-flipping breakdown of followed by the dissonantly atmospheric outro of "Reclamation", the damn near full on extreme metal of "Everything to Nothing", the bludgeoning beatdown in "Fake Messiah", just... everything sounds like the logical conclusion of the creativity they'd been toying with on the previous album. There're a lot of different ideas here, and they all sound natural (as opposed to the focus-tested calculation of Ashes of the Wake). Even those vocals on "In Your Words" that I hated ten years ago sound like a daring experiment more than a boneheaded bad idea this time around.

I just want to take a moment here to highlight precisely how awesome "Contractor" is. This track got a lot of flak from the cliched "true metal" crowd here and such when it came out, and now that the dust has been settled for the better part of a decade, it's almost hilarious how badly everyone misjudged this track. There were all sorts of criticisms thrown at it for the opening whoop-holler and the lyrics being dumbass bro-sturbation about blowing shit up. But while everybody was busy scratching their heads and pretending not to know what it was about, they all seemed to completely overlook the fact that it was a pretty scathing condemnation of private military forces populated by maladjusted bullies who peaked in high school gleefully turning Iraqi children into paste. Blackwater even gets fucking mentioned by name I mean holy shit how do you miss the point that hard? Lamb of God has come a long way from defending the Confederate flag on As the Palaces Burn. Beyond the lyrics, "Contractor" is one of the tightest and most well written tracks they've ever penned, running in three distinct movements: the opening salvo of aggression and pretty much non-stop machine gun riffing, the exceedingly slow middle section that crushes harder than Giles Corey, and punctuated by the final act of abrupt chaos led in by one of Randy's all time best screams. Again, maybe it's just the Pantera fan in me, but "Contractor" is almost a beat-by-beat reimagining of "Strength Beyond Strength", aka The Best God Damned Song Pantera Ever Wrote. If namedropping Pantera just turned you off, I don't know what to tell you. Grow up, I guess.

As much as I obviously like Wrath, I'll freely admit it isn't perfect. "Fake Messiah" and "Broken Hands" absolutely repeat way too much and tend to drag, and they'd pretty much instantly ruin the flow of the album if they weren't separated by the astoundingly good "Grace", and "Set to Fail" is really disappointing in starting off with blast beats and a shitload of aggression before morphing into a decent b-side from Ashes of the Wake. But really these are just nitpicks. In the grand scheme of things this is a pretty fucking excellent album. Every single member (barring bassist John Campbell, who from day one has always been an almost hilariously inconsequential non-entity when it comes to their sound) is on top of their game and all but a few songs are total knockouts. I love Wrath and you should too, this is everything that "open minded" metal fans claim groove metal should be.

I want to close by scratching an itch here, and that's that you might've noticed several reviews voicing bewilderment/curiosity at this album's comparatively low score here compared to everything else they'd done (it's been balanced somewhat over time but the reviews stay forever). For those of you who weren't here ten years ago, you may have missed the total flogging that the "Contractor" single got, and almost every criticism against it was bad faith nonsense from people who had no intention of giving the thing a critical listen in the first place. I don't like to flat out accuse my compatriots of acting in bad faith, but when every single review feels it important to point out the squeal in the intro and constantly refer to that first riff as "chugging" or "mallcore" or "just fast palm muted chugging punctuated by random powerchords" which is exactly what a thrash riff is by the way then I just can't help but hop on my soapbox and yell about the flagrant misrepresentation. Hyper fast palm mutes have never in the history of metal been referred to as "chugging" until that moment, and it was entirely because Lamb of God used a shitload of chug riffs on the albums leading up to this one. So yeah, between the review-bombing and the vocal hatred on the forums, it became a weird fad to rip on that track, and when the album dropped in full, a lot of that misrepresented vitriol just kinda carried over onto Wrath itself. I get it, Lamb of God isn't for everybody, but if you're curious about this album and would rather read some reviews before listening for yourself, I feel confident in saying you should disregard everything up until like 2011 when shit finally blew over.


Originally written for Lair of the Bastard

The opening riff of 'In Your Words' is going to hit you one of two ways. Either you are going to believe that you have found the gates of Paradise/Hell (there's no accounting for taste) and are plummeting through them at the fastest speed, like, ever; or you are going to believe that Lamb of God is being led to the slaughter, from which we will eat delicious lamb chops later tonight. As per usual, my answer must be somewhere between the two, because when I bought this album I was not the same metal fan that I am now, and I basically loved it, whereas now I don't. Perhaps it's true that a meeting place like the Metal Archives has soured me somewhat towards bands like LoG, whose presentation in the mainstream metal world is of a band with a lot of skill in a rightfully lofty position, while on this kind of "true" metal forum (true gets scaremarks because it's so subjective), that skill and position is ridiculed because the band are modern, often generic, and sometimes hamfisted. What it is now my job to remember is whether I actually enjoy this music, regardless of the many views of its consumers.

As such, I need to work out which bits of LoG are tasty young lamb and which bits are chewy old mutton. This album has a lot of that swinging, rumbling kind of groove that works very nicely at higher tempos and very poorly at lower tempos. The loping chorus riff of 'Fake Messiah' is a prominent example; it crops up in 'Grace' and 'Choke Sermon' and 'Broken Hands', and so on until I've named every song on the album barring the instrumental opener and the mildly dfferent closer. I kind of like it, even if I'm not a big fan of the metalcore chug-chug-chug-big fill riff, because LoG are actually pretty good at it and create a decent momentum that is good for moshpit and bedroom alike. Then there's another part that is the scrambling, lots-of-notes riff that is supposed to be brutal because it's (kind of) fast and sounds heavy at first, but actually I could make two or three of them up on guitar now and I haven't played for a couple of years. There are bad ones of those, like the main riff to 'Grace', which is just too many notes repeated too many times, and there are better ones, like at the end of 'Contractor', which actually rages and mercifully isn't milked for the entire song. On the other hand, there is maybe one clunky, chug and thump riff per song: I guess these are there to show the technicality of the band and to display their awesome rhythm section, but this is exactly what a band with an awesome rhythm section doesn't need to do, since they can make normal riffs sound interesting if they try. These are redundant and I really dislike the sound of Chris Adler's kit, which might well be disintegrating as he records his parts on 'Wrath'.

So, the general style of rhythm playing is decidely mixed and fairly repetitive, while the guitar tone easily outdoes that of drums and bass (once again, John Campbell is rather a passenger for most of the album) with an aggressive, crunchy tone that just avoids sounding too processed. However, the performance of the lead players is also mixed. There is a more concerted effort to use solos for flavour on this album than in the past, where they did not appear in every song: here, the guitar leads feature on almost all the tracks and are melodic for the most part, bringing songs not to a higher level of intensity but to a moment of release. This release is necessary as Randy Blythe doesn't actually provide enough drama and contrast to give the album flow or emotional dynamics. He never sings clean, which is fine, though he also sings with the continued intention of giving everything to every line and pushes his power onto the listener in such a way that I've mostly stopped listening to him by the end of the fourth song. There just isn't any change up in his style, as if he worried so much about being brutal and taking his lyrics seriously that he left part of his performance behind. Only the slower closing track, which demands some changes in approach, shows a more varied side to his role.

The songs on 'Wrath' thus have a slight problem of sounding similar. The same kind of groove runs through a large part of the album, meaning that I become a little confused about the distinction between tracks 6-9, though they do have some differences in approach. The band may have made a slight error in running order by putting the noticeably different songs at the beginning and end of the record, so that the middle section stays at a level intensity for a long time, until the acoustics kick in for 'Reclamation'. As such, the first tracks have the greatest impact, and it is probably the four opening songs (not including the instrumental) that get my nod, along with the sprightly and catchy 'Choke Sermon' that is the most gratifying song for repeated listens. 'Choke Sermon' succeeds because it remains brisk throughout, doesn't include any needless rhythmic demonstrations and contains memorable vocal and riff hooks, plus a decent solo.

'Wrath' isn't really an album to listen to with too much attention, since the output can be samey and lack careful planning, but it is suitable for general listening, when the energetic songs and swinging grooves can be absorbed at medium focus. There are some good songs, though many could be made better by removing some generic ideas and including more detail and subtlety in the riff and vocal departments. Nothing offensive, just nothing too exciting either.

Lamb of God have the distinction of arguably being the first indisputably metal band that the seasoned metalhead will feel comfortable with habitually disliking. As one becomes familiarized with the more extreme edges of metal, they almost invariably become jaded to its more mainstream, somewhat "watered-down" forms, and a lot of times this means dissociating from the sorts of Pantera-esque groove metal bands who introduced them to the craft in the first place. Lamb of God are the perfect poster child for demonizing this particular breed of heathen metal: they lack the back catalog in a totally different genre that contrarians can cling to like they do with Pantera, nor are they the groovified evolution of a famous band that started as pure thrash. They play dumb music for brain-dead morons, some of whom include - *gasp* - people who have no interest in metal music aside from Lamb of God. Clearly we are dealing with a band who are downright harmful to the integrity of high art as a legitimate form of expression. Then again, as long as the band keep making music like this, I wholly support that endeavor.

To get something out of the way early on: I am not a huge Lamb of God fan in general, despite the fact that it's partially due to their influence on my music tastes that I'm presently listening to metal and writing any reviews on this website at all. I've been into metal for something like four or five years now and I've subsequently done a lot of spring cleaning for my pet nostalgic bands. To date, I haven't heard LOG's first two albums, but Ashes of the Wake has most certainly not aged gracefully, and while Sacrament hasn't undergone reexamination yet, I'm skeptical of its ability to pass as well based on what I remember of it. All of this is irrelevant, though, as Wrath was my favorite of the trio even back then and even if I grew out of this album the day after tomorrow, I don't think I'd be able to deny its strength, especially in light of the norms in the genre around it.

What Demolition Hammer represents to thrash metal, Wrath represents to groove metal. I don't mean to suggest that the two sound even remotely similar to one another, but I think both represent a sort of ideal in their respective genres: nonstop, unmitigated, punishing pummeling. What distinguishes this cleanly and definitively from the other two Lamb of God albums I'm familiar with is the sheer intensity on display. Ashes of the Wake functions as if Lamb of God were on cruise control, going through the motions and making sure each album met a predefined breakdown quota and each riff was in the designated key; I don't remember Sacrament faring much better. Wrath, on the other hand, is ridiculously unhinged for the genre: anything even vaguely resembling angst is apportioned to the bookends of the tracklist, and all nine songs in between are just unfiltered, legitimately-conveyed rage. It's almost like its two predecessors are simply dummy albums, displaying the vague framework the band will use for the real deal once it comes time to make it; and that real deal is this album.

The guitar tone on this album is absolutely huge, and the band make the best use of it by making sure the breakdowns this time around are downright lethal. Wrath-era Lamb of God have effectively kept the breakdowns from sounding like meandering, pointless slow sections, which was a really big problem on Ashes of the Wake. Here, the band only use them after they've earned them through a section of speed that seems almost blistering in comparison, which makes the band's process of stripping away the drums and slowing the riff down surprisingly lethal. Essentially, they have become about as heavy as breakdowns possibly can in this genre without becoming a different beast entirely. There are still a couple that aren't exactly great, which I imagine is something this band are damned to do eternally, but on the other hand you get devastating moments like the outro of "Fake Messiah" or the sheer bludgeoning single-note chug assaults used multiple times throughout the length of "Broken Hands". Minimal pseudo-southern twangs that sound like caricatures of country licks, and minimal breakdowns that sound content to just plod around and say "HURR I AM BREKDOWN". Nothing that'll remind you that you're listening to something that's generally thought of as Metal Lite. Just massive, heavy grooves.

I think a large chunk of this album's qualitative success can be attributed to the comparatively large amount of influences from death metal and thrash metal. Of course, this doesn't sound like groove metal plus Deceased or anything, but the relatively high amount of speed involved in most of the songs brings thrash metal more readily to mind than your average groove metal band, and most of the groovy riffs are brutal enough for one to say that they have "death metal influences" without raising any eyebrows. The band's flirtation with these elements pays off, and immediately so. The faster sections in songs like "Contractor" and "Everything to Nothing" don't whiz past you, they just blow you over and proceed to initiate a stampede on your body right there; when they slow things to breakdown tempos, there isn't any momentum at all lost in transitioning - the same unmistakable energy drives both, and neither has the obvious advantage. This isn't an extreme metal album, but there are plenty of thrash metal/death metal albums that don't come even close to Wrath in terms of intensity. Mind you, you've still got the goofy "atmospheric" leads that pop up over the songs from time to time, but I actually don't really feel like they're a detriment to the band's overall goals here. They fit pretty seamlessly on top of the band's more mid-paced groove metal riffs, and simply give the next breakdown or thrash/groove hybrid riff that much more power.

My memory might be betraying me here, but I think Lamb of God's vocals here are more intense than they've ever been on the other albums I'm familiar with. Randy Blythe's shrieks sound less dry and more vicious, but the real star of the vocal show here is his lower-register performance. His growls aren't exactly objectively great as far as vocals go or anything (they're rather noticeably strained at times), but they compensate by being as charismatic and emotional as possible. Vocals on past Lamb of God albums (or at least the ones I've heard) generally consist of dry, underwhelming pseudo-growling, but Wrath is decidedly a turn for the better. It's almost as if he was shown the instrumental performance, from its thick and pummeling guitars to its absolutely massive and crushing drum beats, and then dared to create something of equal value. It's something along the lines of an extremely drunk redneck trying to yell at you, which probably sounds awful in writing but works surprisingly well in execution. Actually, I think that might be the best way to sum up the album in general: "sounds awful in writing but works surprisingly well in execution".

If you've disowned Lamb of God based on a handful of songs, whether you will like Wrath or not hinges entirely on what exactly you dislike about them. Hate the concept of groove metal in general? Does the concept of stompy breakdowns and downtuned, slightly slower thrash metal make you want to gag? Okay, fair enough, this isn't your thing. But if you've ever felt like Lamb of God had the potential to be good deep down and merely hampered themselves with various flaws, then you need to give this a shot. This is just about every good idea the band have ever had with nearly all the undesirable aspects excised; in other words, it's the entire band's performance brought extremely close to its maximum potential. Why this seems to be the most maligned Lamb of God album is a total mystery to me - to me, this is an obvious refinement, an improvement in every regard, and one of maybe three albums groove metal can use to justify its existence as a genre. I really, really like this.

As I was reading through reviews of this album, I felt obliged to write my own. I'm going to be sincere and say that other reviews are "painfully boring" as some other reviewers referred to this album. As my review title says, this isn't the greatest album of all times, but it deserves some praise. Nothing new, "same old", as some refer, Is pretty OK with me, I mean look at Motörhead they drive the same sound, same riffs since 1975 and they're still awesome. But let's go on with the review and start off with the vocals on this album.

The vocals on this album have pretty much improved in quality. Although they don't sound so "brutal" or completely non-understandable as Varg Vikernes, I find them, objectively, pretty much OK, they add up to that grim, aggressive and tortured sound lamb of god always had, and I'm glad they stick to it. I'm also glad that the band has songs that vary from melancholic "Grace", with a kind off a tortured ring to the vocals, to "Contractor" with somewhat aggressive, hardcoreish, thrashy ring to it. Many people refer to Randy's voice as "bad" or "pussy". What exactly is "bad" or "pussy" about Randy's voice style? Is there a school for growling and screaming (Maybe there is, anything can happen nowdays)? A handbook on "How to be truly brutal"? No I don't think so. It's just hater talk and internet no-lifer music arguments. If you don't like it why bother with it? As far as the lyrics go, they're OK too, standard Lamb of God. Good messages and somewhat poetical expressions are not bad at all, and they most certainly not are "what people would like to hear, so we can sell ourselves out" kind of lyrics. They're more or less intellectual and philosophical in a rude, punkish kind of way.I don't consider them brutal, but surely they're worth paying attention to.

As far as the riffs go, they're pretty much standard, though some varieties in guitar sound occur in different songs, but I'll come to that later. I don't consider that riffs are "stolen from Pantera", because they don't have the same composition nor that certain cling to it, but surely they are widely Pantera influenced, and it is completely understandable to me that at certain points they would sound like Pantera, but when you look at it objectively, it's a completely different thing. As far as originality goes, Lamb of God sounds original enough to make me pay attention to their music. As i said before, they have some influences, but that doesn't make them "not original", though some of the riffs sound mediocre, but I don't look at it as a completely bad thing. I mean to a rookie ear all death metal sounds the same does that mean that only Death was a true and first death metal band and that anything other after Death is not true? No. Lamb of God has their own way with guitars, their own sound, and that makes them original. The riffs have a dark and grim sound somewhat melancholic harmonics too, they vary from more to less aggressive, which is OK and makes you bang your head. The breaks are OK too, nothing too slow and "painful for your ears" as deathcore, just a right combination of upbeat rhythm and slam guitar picking, enough to make you mosh or continue banging. And just to be clear, they are not metalcore because of the breakdowns(which do not even sound close to bands like As I Lay Dying, Parkway Drive etc.), by any definition possible. People need to learn the definition of some words before they use them, and at least some basic music related terms. Lamb of God is simply a technical(more or less) groove metal band with a bit more hardcore and death metal influence, and that's what this album represents. Whether you like it or not it's up to you, but don't spread around pointless hate because it's idiotic.

To sum it all up, I recommend this album(to whom it is new, of course) to all who like something gloomish, not so extremely brutal, but brutal enough to make your heart pump faster and makes you want to F*@%& the whole world up just because the music slaps your brain with it's drilling sound.

I honestly don't see why people hate this album so much. I really don't get it, it could be because they like the "old" LoG or maybe it's because they're not used to the band's different approach and sound. Sure, this is the same Lamb of God that we know and love, but there's something different about this album. There's no constant cookie monster vocals that we get from Randy Blythe, instead he alternates between "brutal cookie monster" and "Cancer Bats" vocals. Chris Adler's blast beats have gotten faster and are definitely mosh material, the snare drum has changed and it sounds like a trash can when he hits it, but on a serious note, who gives a fuck?

The guitars have always been the same, nothing different and nothing new. It's basically the same as their last album and the album before that: raw, full of grit and blazing solos with a twist of nice harmonics. The whole band have really stepped-up their game and took it to the next level in which I think is a big and good level, on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of intensity, I would say it's a solid 4.

Sure, it might not be a solid favorite, bit it's definitely something to listen to at least once in a while, there's nothing wrong with this album. Period. You can't hate it, but then again you also can't love it. To make a long story short, I'd say the "Palaces" album was better. I think LoG should stop trying to hard and to just let the music flow instead of choking the hell out of it, it's just not their best, but it also isn't their worst.

Lamb of God has a high reputation among the modern metal community being often one of the favorite bands of metalcore kids and after numerous recommendations from different people; I picked this album up for the sake of analyzing the direction of the so called "new wave of American heavy metal." Before explaining the music on this album, I would like to point out how painfully boring it was for me to go over 44:50 minutes of bullshit. Although pretty successful commercial and financially-wise, I just can't help but agree with the old cliché of "business kills good music." and here is why.

L.O.G is a mainstream band very popular these days and this album put them on top of sales and charts, However, this is not even a close indicator of success on heavy metal works. This album is not bringing anything new or innovating to the genre, far from that, They are destroying everything that was cool about metal, the songs are boring and very predictable, there is neither anger nor attitude, neither speed nor technicality as fans claim this album to be, In fact, I find this album to be insipid and forgettable at best.

To describe the music I will start with the riffs. The guitar sounds heavily influenced by Pantera (and I particularly don’t find to be this a good thing)almost rip off in some riffs, the lack of explosion and aggression mixed up with the repetitive and monotonous-lame progressions in some songs like “Grace” or “Contractor” tries too hard to sound headbanging fast and aggressive but fails miserably. Some melodies like the bridge and the solo of “Set to fail” are not completely awful bad although totally uninspired. The acoustic passages are just dull and tedious, it seems like they wrote them just for the sake of having acoustic intros because probably they think a cool album “must include an acoustic guitar somewhere” and I don’t say this because I don’t like acoustic passage myself but because they sound tired and tries too hard to sound impressive. Far from that, they are completely unnecessary fillers for weak-written songs.

Now concerning the band altogether, I have to point out that the structure of the songs are far from impressive, intro, verse, chorus, verse, breakdown. Breakdowns. This is probably what I dislike the most. In songs like “Reclamation” I find it extremely boring and pointless of what I call fillers of a song excluding the drummer that I would call at least decent. Just a few songs features a guitar solo, although they are very far from cool solos, at least they occupy a couple of seconds in the song and could be easily the closest you can get of the “enjoyable” part of this record so to speak.
The vocals are not guttural death metal-like and are not thrashing evil screams either, the singers sounds like my little sister on her period when she gets mad. It’s far from cool or scary and I personaly can’t stand his voice nor his words. The lyrics are stupid and it seems like they were written by an angry down-syndrome kid, I mean seriously, what the fuck were they thinking when they wrote this.

“Yeah motherfucker, let's take a ride
We're rolling Route Irish, someone has got to die
Trick or treat, it's IEDs,
So roll the dice as we leave,
cuz it's eight miles of pure luck
with more bang for Sam's buck
Guaran-fucking-teed, someone will bleed”

I mean: Whats his point? What the fuck was he thinking about when writing the lyrics, I am almost ashamed of reading this. Anyhow I just can’t take them seriously and fail to understand where did the spirit of the old metal. It seems like there is no longer need of balls and good songs to make a famous metal band. In my understanding they are the lowest on the food chain of heavy metal.

Lamb of God’s music has changed greatly since their Burn the Priest days, let alone since “New American Gospel”, where breakdowns were a staple then. All these albums though features Randy Blythe’s unique growls, and “Wrath” is no exception, though this album makes more use of screams compared to their other works.

The production is clean and polished, which further conceals the well-ignored bass. Although the music is mainstream-influenced, it still flows nice and smoothly, like their past albums. The drums are perfect. It is always on rhythm and most of all, it doesn’t sound garbage. The guitars are still low-tuned and still capable of good riffs and solos.

“Set to Fail” is the first song here you’ll surely like. The speed of its intro and its impact (since it’s a single) made me like it. “Grace” is melodic, yet rocking. Its solo is quite melodic for groove metal, but yes, I like it. “Dead Seeds” definitely reminded me lot of Pantera. It was quite moving and is one of the heaviest songs of the album. “Choke Sermon” is sure to start a mosh pit. It is definitely fast, loud and heavy. Good solos included. I hate “Contractor” the most. I hate it that they have to put a slow part and a disgusting breakdown in the middle of the song. Another song is “Reclamation”. Listening to it makes me nuts. It sounds out of place, and they should have put something fast and lively instead and breakdown-free too. “Fake Messiah” has an annoying ending filled with repeating riffs, making it bad.

Overall, this is a good album. I don’t think LoG haters should be allowed to review this album. It’s good metal even though it’s mainstream, but they should realize that this isn’t a near-perfect album. It has too much metalcore influences, if you ask me. I hope these guys strive more to spread the gospel of metal.

Originally written for http://mystifymsyerie.blogspot.com

I first got a swing of Lamb of God some years ago when I first heard the songs "11th Hour" and "Vigil" off "As the Palaces Burn." I bought it, and fairly enjoyed what I heard. I kept my eye on the band for a while, but I was disappointed with their next two releases. "Ashes of the Wake" saw the band take a step back in terms of songwriting not to mention the bad idea of writing lyrics about current events and jumping on the "political statement shoved down your throat" bandwagon that consumed music in 2004. It wasn't so much that I disagreed with that vehement anti-Bush, anti-Iraq War opinion it stated, but just like Green Day they displayed their opinions in a more unintelligible manner than I could respect. Not to mention, it was extremely current, which meant by the time "Wrath" was released, most of the subjects on "Ashes of the Wake" were lyrically obsolete.

"Sacrament" was slightly better, showing some ideas being manifested instead of an album running off raw emotion and the occasional burst of energy. It still wasn't something that reminded me of why I enjoyed this band in the first place. So when "Wrath" was announced, I was cautious but decided to pick it up anyway. I was impressed with the improvements made on this album, even though it suffered from most of the issues of its predecessor.

For one, we have a few songs off "Wrath" worthy of mention but we also have some that are more "meh" than "wow." This isn't anything new with Lamb of God, it was even present on "As the Palaces Burn" but not to the extent that it was on their previous two. Here, the songs are of better quality and even have some characteristic to them, but in the end, I couldn't remember but a handful of these songs even after three spins. Some of the riffs are even memorable, even if they aren't incredible or intricate. Chris Adler once again is my favorite man in the band, I always liked his drumming style and he gets better here.

The songs worth mentioning are few in number, but they are some of the better songs this band has done since 2003. "Set to Fail" is good, even though its ideas are limited and reminds me a bit of the Southern swing style that "Redneck" showcased three years earlier. Maybe its just me, but I detect it ever so slightly. "Contractor" is one of the more aggressive songs by Lamb of God, which I'm sure will become a concert favorite. That song there actually pulls itself over anything the last two albums could offer by becoming more than mid-tempo groove and is short enough to stay interesting. I particularly liked "Grace," which funnels in some of the hostile nature "Contractor" possessed but not to that degree. Its introduction is similiar to the album opener "The Passing" in that its more serene and calming, just the perfect lull into fake security before the riffs open up. The final track in "Reclamation" is one of the better ending tracks Lamb of God has done in a long time. I'd put on par with "Vigil," maybe even slightly higher than that one. Lamb of God always put their best songs on the bottom of their albums (which I understand these songs are usually Mark Morton's primary compositional credit) and this one does not disappoint.

The remaining songs aren't necessarily bad, as "Dead Seeds" is fairly memorable even though it basically runs out of steam by the time it ends. "Everything to Nothing" is a similiar story, but is slightly better. Overall, "Wrath" gave me a spark of interest that "As the Palaces Burn" did, but I still can't rank this album on par with that one. "As the Palaces Burn" had me enjoying its raw but charming brand of groove metal from start to finish with only a few areas where my mind wondered. "Wrath" isn't as fortunate, even though when it picks up, it gets good.

The biggest problem facing Lamb of God is that while their evolving, its a very slow evolution which means whatever negatives get thrown at them will likely be around next time. The band is learning to craft their songs into better and better outputs, but the charm of "As the Palaces Burn" is still not being reclaimed. Maybe it was the raw sound quality that album fed off of, which I personally enjoyed, and probably because Randy Blythe wasn't as
in-your-face in the mix as he has been since. His vocals are pretty fucking annoying as time moves on, and on repeat listens he's the one band member I try to ignore. Blythe has gotten better over time, adding a little variety here and there but he will never rank as one of my favorite frontmen. Whatever the case, he's the trademark voice for this band and I'm sure he'll be there for some time to come, but Blythe still gets on my nerves at times.

I can't completely throw this album under the bus. Yes, it still persists with some of the problems "Sacrament" had, but it packs more of an aggressive nature than the brooding, often watered down groove its predecessor had. I listen to it every once in a while and it is officially my second favorite Lamb of God album. Not being someone who goes ape-shit over them, this isn't saying much, but rabid fans definitely should seek this out. Its an improvement in most ways, but still not as fun as "As the Palaces Burn."

Lamb of God continues to remind me why I despise most mainstream music (In Flames still holds a place in my heart). Generic formulas and repetitive musicianship to please the masses. Wrath is nothing more than a rehash of all their previous albums. They haven't progressed since their first album and they never will. They just keep perpetuating the same music under a different name so all the br00tal kids have something new to slam dance to every few years. If you've ever heard a Lamb of God song, you've heard them all. Wrath is no different.

The album kicks off with an acoustic guitar doing something you'd hear in a melodic break or an outro. Despite being out of place in the song structure, it gets 2 points for sounding decent. Then all the tranquility is shattered by some really generic melodies and a simple 4/4 drum beat. You know, the guitar melodies where they hold contrasting notes for a few seconds each? Great. The mainstream formula/song writing/musicianship is already in play and I already know I'm going to hate this album. As the song ends, I say to myself, "Holy shit! That song was instrumental!" 2 more points. A half-assed melodic instrumental intro gets 4 points. And those are the only points this putrid shit gets. The next song kicks off with the same bullshit all their other 3 minute songs do. Annoying pseudo-thrash riffs (a half-assed attempt to sound like Pantera), fills and breakdowns at every turn (not to mention the kit sounds like a bunch of tin cans) and inaudible bass (as usual).

In retrospect, Lamb of God have a hard time utilizing and understanding competent songwriting. A breakdown is supposed to be a break in the music. You cannot have a fucking breakdown at the beginning of the song! In Your Words follows a formula of breakdown-fill-breakdown-fill for at least 2 minutes. If you think that's bad, it only gets worse: every song on Wrath has it. Perfect for the mallcore kids! It's also perfect criteria for being removed from my music library.

There's only one more piece to the puzzle: Randy fucking Blythe. Easily one of the worst vocalists in music today. He attempts to fuse growls and screams, but it comes out like someone gurgling salt water. To make matters significantly worse, he never shuts up! A common trait of -core music. Lamb of God is metalcore with thrash influences (although their thrash sound is almost nonexistent). Myth debunked! If this guy would stop barking and drowning out every instrument, they wouldn't be a total shit stain.

What does make this album slightly different from their other indistinguishable records is the 7 minute track (technically 6 due to the unnecessary silence). I was hoping for progression with this song, but my hopes were nothing more than a quixotic fantasy. It's exactly like their 3 minute songs, but double in length. What LoG should have done is split the song in half and made 2 new songs. That way people who are hoping for a step in the right direction aren't deceived. This album is truly an uninspired, auditory nightmare. What seemed like hours was only 44 minutes. I could not wait to turn this shit off.

Until Lamb of God use their brains, I'll be passing on all future endeavors. I have serious respect for anyone who can listen to this let alone like it. If hell existed, this is what it would sound like.

I got motivated to listen to Wrath because of the single "Set to Fail." While it wasn't brilliant in any way, it was a nice song worth a listen, and I liked the small shift in their sound. So I headed over to Myspace for the free streaming of their new album...

My first thought: "What the hell?"
My second thought: "Oh... nevermind."

Basically, the opening track caught me off guard, and even got me excited. One of the biggest criticism for Lamb of God that I have is that their music writing tend to be really stagnant, and "The Passing" seemed as if it totally blew off that predictability. But then you hear the next track come in, and you realize your first impression was totally wrong.

Well, my first impression was not completely wrong. To me this record was more interesting than Ashes of the Wake and definitely more than the stuff I heard off of Sacrament or As the Palaces Burn. Tidbits here and there, like graceful intro for "Grace" (no pun intended, it really is graceful) and thought-provoking intro/outro of "Reclamation" provides nice dynamic contrast to their signature thunderous, clear, and mechanical riffs and detailed drumming. There are some really cool ornamentation too, like the non-western melody dancing around in the background towards the end of "Fake Messiah." With Lamb of God, you KNOW you are getting chunks of nice riffs - that's vital if you are a metal band, and LOG's got it down.

Elsewhere, the first few tracks also feature Randy Blythe actually singing (but still harshly) as opposed to throat-tearing screams, though he goes back to the same ol' from there on. The lyrics are "meh" as well. In later tracks, guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler starts to blend more primitive riffs in place of machine-gun rhythm riffs, although thankfully, they wisely steer clear of alternative/nu-metal type of riffs that Dimebag Darrell indulged in with Damageplan. The overall sound seems lighter than before too, though not necessarily "softer." That doesn't really matter after you go through a few songs though, because it starts to sound equally heavy anyway.

Sadly enough, these changes and qualities weren't enough to impress me. To be fair, it was actually a satisfying listen - everything good about this band are still served hot and plentiful, and new condiments are welcome. Hell, if I find a used copy of this in Japan (with bonus tracks), I might even end up purchasing one. But I cannot help but to feel that they still remained predictable, and individual songs were not very memorable. Some songs even sounded like you've heard a million times before ("Contractor," "Demon Seeds," "Broken Hands."). Earlier albums like Ashes of the Wake were flawed but impressive. The songs from those albums were not unforgettable individually, but their overall style of sound definitely was, because it's subtly unique. By contrast, Wrath is more consistent than their previous efforts as an album - it's not as monotonous and not as singular in its songwriting approach. But somehow it fails to make a big impact.

Don't hesitate to listen to it though if you are curious - i'ts not a life-changing experience but is not a failed album either. If I was a fan of the band, I might have given them 80% to 90% score on a merit that it's faithful to their formula and delivers stuff that fans would want and expect. But I'm not really a fan, and this album did not make me want to call myself a fan. Hence the score as set above.

It's about time Lamb of God does something different, even if it's just a little. But then again, maybe they are trapped in their own little world where they can only impress and gain praise from their existing fans, but unable to expand their audience or remain fresh and relevant. And maybe it's too late to alter that status quo.

Three years later and Lamb of God follow up on 2006's brilliant Sacrament. It's now pressure time, can Lamb of God surpass themselves or simply flop?
Chris Adler said in an interview about the upcoming album
"This album is going to surprise a lot of people." Which to LOG diehards would almost sound like an atomic bomb going off, were LOG writing an accessible radio friendly album? Would Randy really be dropping his trademark bark to croon on a song or two? Thankfully the answer to both of those questions is no, however the answer to the aformentioned question, they have neither flopped, nor surpassed themselves.

They very rarely step outside their comfort zone, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but when they do Lamb of God can be very interesting. The two biggest examples being Grace and Reclamation, the former implying some very melodious guitar work with the latter being a grueling trudge through heavy slow riffing hell. Wonderful.

Of course there are tracks that speak post-thrash pantera groove vibes. Contractor, Broken Hands and In Your Words being prime examples. Then there is a slight shift in Mark Morton and Willie Addler's guitar work, swapping from a chugging groove to thrashy Bay Area '80's riffing on tracks like Set to Fail and Everything to Nothing.

On Wrath Lamb of God in places are just as raw as they were when they recorded As the Palaces Burn, whilst keeping the intensity of Ashes of the Wake and the heavy chugging grooves that made Sacrament such a monster. Every contributor doing their job brilliantly, Chris Adler adding more credentials to being one of the great modern drummers, whilst Randy Blythe's primal bark is just as evil as ever.

Not exactly reinventing the wheel, but damn this is still pretty good.

Recommended: Set to Fail, Grace, Broken Hands and Reclamation.
Negatives: Dead Seeds and the fact the album doesnt seem as complete as Sacrament.

The main question for me when first listening to this album was: does this measure up to past Lamb of God albums? Unfortunately, I don't think that the album does quite measure up. In particular, the riffs aren't as catchy as they were on previous releases, especially Sacrament. The riffs on Wrath aren't exactly bad, they just feel somehow less inspired. But they're certainly as technical as, say, anything written by Hetfield (including on RTL and MOP), so I don't really understand the complaints that the band can't play. It's just that as far as memorability goes, there's not enough here to make this a truly outstanding album. It's merely a good album. I do have to say in Lamb of God's defense that the acoustic guitar and clean bits (The Passing, Grace, Reclamation) are all enjoyable, and are a nice step forward by the band.

The bass doesn't really come through all that much through most of the album. To double check this I skipped around the music at random on my computer, and I couldn't hear the bass in any of the places I listened at. I do remember hearing the bass a couple times when the guitars were transitioning from one riff to another, but overall it's pretty buried in the mix. The drumming is as it's always been on a Lamb of God album: I guess some will consider that a good thing, and some will consider that a bad thing.

I've never been a huge fan of the lyrics of Lamb of God, and this album hasn't changed that for me. It's not that the lyrics are completely horrible, they just don't really keep me that interested in what's being said. As far as the vocals go, they do indeed sound somewhat like Phil Anselmo. That's just the way things are with Lamb of God. If that's a turn-off for you, then you probably aren't a Lamb of God fan to begin with. The main problem I had with the vocals on this album is actually that there was at times too much variety in too short a time. Sometimes Randy went from talk/singing to a deep growl to a scream, all within a short time span. There was also the tendency to start a line with one vocal delivery, and finish with a completely different vocal delivery. Sometimes that can work, I guess, but it doesn't seem to work when he tried it on this record. However, I do generally like Randy's deeper growls, and I do give him credit for trying some new things in the vocal department.

A couple times while listening to the record I was strongly reminded of another band's music. This happened the first time at the beginning of the second song, when the riff sounds similar to a riff on the Kreator album Hordes of Chaos. The same riff also sounds like the opening riff on the second song of the As I Lay Dying album An Ocean Between Us (which album also, coincidentally, started with a short instrumental). The second time I was reminded of another band's music was during the song Choke Sermon (at about the 1:42 mark), where they play a riff that sounds like it's from the Megadeth song Set the World Afire. The second similarity in particular makes sense, as Megadeth has been described as one of the main influences for Lamb of God (something that was said on the Walk With Me In Hell DVD).

In the end, as I already said, this album doesn't quite meet the high expectations I had after Sacrament. It's by no means a bad album, and the band is showing growth by incorporating some new elements into the music. I just think it's a small step backwards in some other respects. But if you're into metalcore, or are a Lamb of God fan--I know, not likely on this site--then there's no reason not to get this album.

Far from anything remotely catchy or attention grabbing, the three minute songs here will bore you before they’re even half way through. I’m not disappointed because this album sucks, but because it’s no joking matter anymore. While I could use this stuff when I’m in the need of a good laugh, I would still prefer if it never came into existence.

The riffs present here either consist of random bends and pinch harmonics on the 6th string, or basic melodies copied from some melodic death band. Some moments in here are so bland and ridiculous that even a bunch of 14 year olds won’t do something like it while jamming with their newly formed amateurish band. Coming to the variety, I’d say Adam Sandler’s movies vary way more than the songs on this album. You just won’t be able to figure out the difference, thanks to a vocal performance almost admirably narrow and one dimensional. How one is able to sound exactly the same in every song is a talent in its own way.

There is absolutely nothing new about this release, it is typical Lamb of God, with its signature trash can drumming, uncreative riffs and flat tyre bass. The only little thing that surprised me was the fact that one song here was 7 minutes long. Usually, one would introduce some complex progressions and transitions in a track as long as this, but not LOG. The song is just silent for the first 20 seconds and then starts with some chord picking. After that, we are again back to typical LOG, just another 3 minute song dragged for five-six minutes. And oh, the last 20 seconds are totally silent as well, so technically, the song is not more than six minutes long.

Hardly three or four songs have solos, which shows how limited their musical abilities are. They are all based on the same formula of three crappy riffs and two groovy fills, as far as the guitar goes. You know which one I think is the best? It’s the opening track, The Passing. Why? Because it doesn’t have any vocals, the melodies are not bad, there are no lame attempts to sound ‘out of the box’ by the drummer and at 2 minutes long it’s the only track which doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

I loathe this band’s and its fans’ dyslexic approach to music and they are a skid mark in the face of true metal. The only thing they can do successfully is delude people and ruin the genre’s name. Utterly devoid, bankrupt & bereft of any artistry whatsoever, they go on playing rakishly and are surprisingly able to create countless more boneheads who are ready follow them on the path of buffoonery and downright stupidity. The mere pungent whiff of their despicable success makes me nauseous; if only there was someone to halt this pestilence.

Lamb of God releases their fifth album today and Wrath is the successor to the hugely successful Sacrament. I thought that last album was alright and had a couple of genuinely kick ass songs so I approached this new album with a fair amount of anticipation.

Wrath starts off with a typical slow melodic instrumental intro before the first proper song In Your Words kicks off with an opening riff that is reminiscent of the first song on the new Kreator. Not the same riff at all but just reminded me of it. Then as I was sitting through the opening song I realized something. There were no metal core breakdowns happening and the song was melodic and even had a slowed down part without sounding like the band had gone to Gothenburg. In fact the feel of this album is decidedly old school. The production is warm and not the plastic over produced sound that the band has been peddling, the drums seem trigger free and even when the inevitable breakdowns happen they are not as mired in cliché as they used to be. Pantera still seems to be the main influence though and Blythe still sounds a lot like Anselmo but coming from me, that’s not really a complaint.

Most of the songs on this album sound like an extension of Walk with Me in Hell and Redneck from the last album but with a much more old school feel. Contractor’s thrash reminds me of Exhorder but the slowed down part is all Pantera and Anselmo, Fake Messiah also has some good thrash vibes and is a pretty good song while Dead Seeds is some more Pantera worship.The best song on the album is the opener In Your Words with its thrash groove going head to head with a slowed down melodic section.

While this is definitely the best album by the band that I’ve heard there still isn’t a lot to recommend here. Sure, the songs are alright but the band is very heavily indebted to Pantera and like with Sacrament these songs are not going to hold up too well. I got this feeling that I’d heard all of these songs before and halfway through the album it just becomes background music except for when I went, “hey, this sounds like Pantera, that sounds like Exhorder and was that an Exodus part there?”

The album starts off well but ultimately promises a lot more than it ends up delivering. I’m sure the fanboys will love this and they should because this is the band’s best album yet. Unfortunately, that’s still not saying a lot.

Originally written for http://www.kvltsite.com