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Burn the Priest - Burn the Priest

It wouldn't hurt if they went on like this - 81%

black_slime, March 28th, 2012

Before Lamb Of God started making music, that's a bit more mature, than music on this album, their name was Burn The Priest. Although I like today's Lamb Of God more, Burn The Priest was not so bad at all, even though "it happened" 13 years ago. Some idiots, haters on batteries that is, call LoG trendy and shit, and other call LoG forgettable. So really do make up your mind please, because last time I checked something can't be both black and white at the same time. Some others say that this album is as bad as later on and so on...and really I'm fucking tired of that bullshit, so I'm going to say this once and for all. LoG, or this particular album, is not nearly as trendy as the DEFINITION OF TRENDYNESS called BUGGER FOR MY SHITLENTINE, second of all, if a band wants quality production, let them have it, these are digital times, and for a reason do bands re-record, or remaster old albums so they sound more clearer and more ear-friendly, and thirdly what kind of an argument is "their music is trendy yap yap yap"; like Slayer, Exodus, Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth weren't trendy and popular among 80's kids? As far as this album goes, you can clearly see some basics of their later work, so I'm going to talk about that and why this album succeeds and fails.

The truth is you can consider this a grindish deathish foundation for their later work. The riffage is not so "developed" ,it's rather more slugish, I'd say, and simpler than later work. But still, in consideration of this being a grindcore album(more grindcore than death metal), I'd say that they pretty much succeed, and for a debut album this is pretty pretty good. At some points riffage reminds me of Nasum or Napalm Death. So considering that while listening to this album gives you a feeling of the lack of originality...but considering the other thing, like it was late 90's and this is their first full length album.... I think that that slight feeling is forgivable, because the whole idea and atmosphere of the songs overtakes you completely,just like Brutal Truth or any other 90's grind band, thus succeeding in the whole grindcore idea. Yes some tremolos and open string riffing with some palm mutes work well in the grindcore genre. So riffage gets a solid 14% for being plain good, and making a good impression for the later on work. Vocals live up to the whole grind idea too. Screeching and some snarling fit the music background perfectly. Some say that this is better than later Randy's work, but i beg to differ. This is grindcore as you said, and later's LoG work is groove metal. Two different things, so yes if you like grind more, then screeching blazing growling snarl vocals are better. Anyways vocals are pure agony on the vocal chords, just like grind vocals should be, the change between deeper and higher pitch ensure that the songs wouldn't be monotonous. So vocals get 17% for being close to perfection in the grind genre, although I preffer deeper gutturals and pig squealing.

Lyrics are also quite "hard" to understand, being surreal and fucking insane as they are(again a bit of Napalm Death here). Some may not like, some may, but all in all everyone must agree the lyrics have a good message, they don't have to be about killing and massacres to be good. So lyrics get 15% for being OK, out of the ordinary. The other thing that amazes me is Chris's drumming, his debut, because he started playing drums at the age of 21, and at the point when this album was recorded he played drums for 5 years or so, and already he tore them apart like he was doing it his whole life. Hard thrashy fast rhythms, fast blastbeats, slow sludgey rhythm, he had it all by the time this album was recorded. All of that worked very well with John's exceptionally simplistic yet efficient bass lines. So drumming gets 20% being very very amazing doing it's part in a grindcore band, and bass lines get 15% for working well as the rhythm section keeping together the whole sound.

Like I said this is the band's foundation work, with the "New American Gospel" being that transition between groovy grindcore and the Megadeth + Blood For Blood + Pantera mixture. So in which parts does this album fail? Well for one thing, it lacks the "Wow factor", although it is pretty good, pretty moshable and headbangable, in other words enjoyable. The other thing it fails in is originality, but it's nothing VERY crucial. The thing that mostly gets on my nerves is that "The Great Southern Trendkill" feeling, and that's a big minus for this album. So judging by my feelings, this album would get 11% less for these annoying facts, but objectively it's worth it's grade and most certainly your time. So if you like crunchy, fast-slow extremely moshable songs, then this is the album for you.

When the core was yet to come - 70%

globaldomination, September 2nd, 2008

As you may or may not know, this is the “debut” album from the ever-controversial Lamb of God. Not that Lamb of God is controversial in the child porn/zombie goat bondage/lemonade stand-burning sense. The band’s fanbase seems to be a bit on the n00b side these days, and LOG manage to generate a healthy amount of ire amongst seasoned metalheads for being accessible and popular. I’ll admit to liking the Lamb up to “Sacrament,” which lasted for about two tracks before being dropped in the trash. Their earlier work was certainly better and more extreme, and it is quite the tossup between this disc and “New American gospel” as to which is their best.

What makes BTP so endearing is an ear for sludge in the midst of the new thrash/semi death metal proceedings. Today’s LOG (heh heh, today’s log was dark brown and laced with corn kernels, as I recall) sounds very clean, a little sterile, and pretty repetitive. A warning: if you wish Lamb of God was pinned by their skulls to a concrete floor with meat skewers and hate everything they stand for and categorize their music as emo, well, you won’t like this much either. But in the good old days, they pretended they were from the deep South and threw a bit of the bayou into the mix. And by adding a pinch of Cajun spice the ‘core was defeated. BTP really sounds hungry and mean and fucking METAL. The badass cover art and pics in the booklet should be a good indication of that. They’re not going for the Hot Topic crowd. They’re going for the jugular.

The element which most adds to the extremity is the unbridled drumming of Chris Adler. While the production isn’t as drum heavy as NAG, he does a pretty fantastic job of running the show here too. You can hear that this dude is quite creative, and it is a pity that he’s been reigned in on more recent tunes. He needs to sleep with a big Jamaican dude and get his groove back. No, I have no idea what I’m talking about. Randy Blythe is as incomprehensible as ever on BTP, not that my non-souped up original version of the CD has any lyrics to read along with anyway. He sounds like he’s given up on the English language for the most part, and just growls, howls and hisses away with abandon. Every utterance sounds like it would hurt the human vocal chords something fierce, and in metal that is commendable. Blythe uses many more high-pitched screams and every once in a while his performance is downright fantastic. Good job Randy. Go back to this style, and for the love of Lucifer, please stop singing. It is not helping your street cred.

Guitar-wise, nothing to write home about. The breakdowns sound more sludge and less core – shame they couldn’t have kept that up. Less of the same riff over and over again, but also fewer guitar solos. A mix of great sections and boring ones. Even a grinding feeling here and there, but sloppiness is the order of the day. Take the good with the bad, my friends. The muddy production helps their cause, fer sure. And the bass, well, this is metal folks. Don’t cry for John Campbell. He wouldn’t cry if your contribution to an album was mixed out of existence.

There’s plenty of highlights, including the punishing “Dimera,” “Chronic Auditory Hallucination,” and “Buckeye.”

In the end, they switched a band member so that the Brothers Adler could play back-to-back 80’s style, and the whole gang decided the name Burn the Priest was immature. That may be true, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t sound more serious then than they do now.

7 immolated holy officials out of 10.

Originally posted on: www.globaldomination.se

Lamb Of God has never sucked - 92%

DaddyZeus67, May 17th, 2008

So, here's the first full-length album the post-thrash metal band Lamb Of God produced under their first moniker, Burn The Priest. Is it good work? Absolutely. Way better than the follow up album produced under Lamb Of God moniker, New American Gospel.

By the way I bought the remixed version of this record.

The vocals on this album are similar to Gospel, Randy's screaming sounds like a choking wolf and the lyrics are occasionally hard to follow with, though at least he was sober during the recordings unlike during the recordings of the follow up. There's also some very low grunts and high shrieks. Near the end of the song "Departure Hymn" Randy Blythe delivers a 17 second scream. 17 fucking seconds! Now you talk about good range delivery! And then of course, Steve Austin is doing some vocals for the end of "Resurrection #9" to offer some variety, just like in the Gospel album. But there's guest vocals in the song "Suffering Bastard" as well, performed by Michael Brosnan. Although Michael's backing vocals aren't that easy to notice unless you listen carefully.

Guitar sound on this album is good. I like the way they manage to keep up the groove while playing lots of heaviness as well. The grooves are well planned and sound good each time. Many of these riffs are actually enjoyable and you can easily mosh to them. There's also a pretty nice solo kinda in the intro of "Dimera" and proper soloing in the final track, "Ruiner" which regardless of its title does NOT ruin this album, haha!

However, what impressed me the most on this record is the drums. Chris Adler's drum beats are easily more extreme than in any of the later LoG albums and not only that but his drumming is partially better and more technical than in his later work. Chris is doing lots of impressive fills and drum beats here, and man he's good at using the double bass! He always creates some cool stuff in his beats with the double bass. And like I already said, his drumming is more extreme here than in any other Lamb Of God album. There's even a blast beat in the song "Resurrection #9". Just listening to this album makes you feel that Chris Adler is pretty surely one of the best groove metal drummers around.

What comes to the difference between original recording and the remixed & remastered one, it's not very much that they changed though the difference is still very notable. The only differences are in the production, the drums on original had that same annoying tin can sound as New American Gospel would have but in the remix that problem has been fixed plus some drum fills (like on "Bloodletting") are more audible in the remaster. Also the guitars & bass sound thicker and stronger in the remix so all in all the remix sounds just heavier and clearer than the original. Another notable production difference can be found in "Suffering Bastard", on the original version that spoken part somewhere in the middle towards the end (Transgression mythologized, indiscretions immortalized) is almost indecipherable because of the low volume but in the remaster that problem has been fixed as well.

One huge difference between the releases would have to be the song "Duane". The final song "Ruiner" was actually hidden in the same track with "Duane" and in the remix they were separated. But here's the big deal...when on this website it says the track is like 15 minutes or some, it's not a mistake there! In the original one these 2 were both really put in one 15 and half minute long track! But both "Duane" and "Ruiner" are just a couple 2 minute tracks...how do you get 15 minutes from that? Steve Austin (the original producer) had a simple answer to that; once "Duane" ends there is over 10 minutes of complete silence and then "Ruiner" appears to the ending. Way to try and keep the final track hidden! We'll never know the truth but I think this was one of the major reasons Epic Records decided to remix & remaster this album. These 2 tracks are way better off this way.

All in all this album offers some very enjoyable headbanger music and it's also a nice mix of different styles. The guitar riffing and majority of the drum beats make this to be mainly a post-thrash album, but the low growls, intense drumming and heaviness this album includes make this a death metal album as well. And the short song lengths, short titles, lack of solos and the amount of songs even make this to be somewhat grindcore sounding. This self-titled Burn The Priest album offers clearly more variety and enjoyability than the follow up, New American Gospel and therefore if you have to choose between New American Gospel and this album in a CD store, pick this.

I recommend this album to all of those who are interested to find out what kind of a band Lamb Of God used to be. And to all other grind/death/post-thrash fans out there, you might wanna check this out.

Lamb of God Has Always Sucked - 34%

DawnoftheShred, October 26th, 2007

Before modern metal favorites Lamb of God were putting out useless, trendy shit under that moniker, they were called Burn the Priest. The primary difference? Only the name, as this album sucks just as much as anything (read: everything) they would put out later in their career. As usual, this is one for fans only, but I’ll try and point out some of the discrepancies here.

Okay to be honest, I was surprised to find that this actually doesn’t quite suck as much as future Lamb of God material would. Don’t get your hopes too high; it sucks nonetheless, just a bit less than say, Ashes of the Wake. Firstly, vocalist Randy Blythe, whom I loathe, does not sound nearly as bad as he would later. For Burn the Priest, the listener will find that he utilizes a higher-ranged, screechy sort of rasp, more fitting for a deathgrind band than a –core one. Not fantastic, but it definitely beats out the throaty roar he would come to adopt. Secondly, the guitars sound much better. The riffs are still all chugga-chugga thunder and no lightning, but the guitars don’t appear to be tuned as low nor is the tone inappropriately modern. There really aren’t that many breakdowns either, replaced by riffs that call to mind, dare I say it, grindcore. Thirdly, drummer Chris Adler doesn’t suck. Though I hate how he focuses on groove-tempos over faster ones, his double-pedal work is agile and he always puts on a good performance. Too bad no one else follows his example; this might have been a lot better with guitar solos (I think I heard one near the end, maybe) and interesting bass lines to listen to between the sludgy hardcore passages.

Though they are both musically and lyrically repetitive, the songs on here generally fall into one of two categories. There are the shorter, faster tracks and conversely the longer, slightly slower ones. Both tempo types contain passages of the other, but generally stick to their roots. Most of the songs fall into the first category, but there aren’t really any standouts from either camp. I remember liking the intro to “Dimera,” but that’s about it.

So though this is hardly what I’d call “good,” I insist that it is better than the brunt of LoG’s work. For those straddling the line between loving and hating this band, this might tip your scales in favor of the former. Anybody with an established stance for or against these guys already knows whether they’d like it or not.


Best Track: “Lame,” if only for being so self-descriptive

Relentless. - 89%

Audiopond, June 29th, 2007

The best way I can describe this album is relentless - from track 1 (Bloodletting) all the way to track 14 (Ruiner) Burn the Priest(Lamb of God) does not give up.

This is an incredible performance by Chris Adler - even more astonishing at this point he had only been playing drums for a few years.

I would have to say that this is probably my favorite David Randall Blythe performance. He takes his thrashy, raspy vocals, and adds a black metal and death metal flavor that has yet to be reckoned with. It is unfortunate that the vocals are so distorted to make out the lyrics, as David has some amazing songwriting abilities, but the overall musicianship of the entire band definitely makes up for it.

The only reason why this album didn't get a 90+ from me is because of the repetition. Although I love the non-stop almost 45 minutes of relentless brutality, it is not very well rounded at all. Lyrically it may be but the music is a little more important. It could all be smashed into one track and some people would never know the difference.

Burn the Priest is a stepping stone, that has paved the way for the groove metal genre. The musicianship is amazing for a first time record. Comparing this album to the rest it obviously shows the Burn the Priest knew exactly where they wanted to go with their music.

Not quite what they are now - 50%

invaded, March 15th, 2007

Burn the Priest, which is basically the prequel to Lamb of God has some pretty cool riffs and musicianship, but the quality of this material is simply not up to par with, for example, New American Gospel or the latest offering Sacrament.

The main elements are there, the tight and complex drum patterns, the harsh vocals, the weird guitar riffs and the overall brutality. However the songs get a little repetitive and the album itself gets a little boring.

My main beef with this record is that there are just too many breakdowns and slow tempos. I do not consider Lamb of God to be a metalcore act, rather a fusion of Bay area thrash with death metal leanings. But this record is metalcore, syncopated riffs fused with breakdowns in odd timings and a few eccentricities along the way. The songwriting is just not as top notch as it is today.

Chris Adler shines on this record, as does Randy Blythe as usual. Adler is constantly pushing the songs into a better direction, however there is only so much he can do. Blythe's vocals are very similar to the ones he did on NAG, he is barely decipherable and uses a good mix of the high pitch squeals with the guttural death metal growls. The guitar riffs are cool, yet aren't as unique and atonal as some of the later stuff they've put out. I believe this has much to do with the fact that Willie Adler was not in the band yet, seeing as he is is one of the band's main songwriters now. The band however is supremely tight, pulling off some stops and starts out of nowhere without ever skipping a beat. This record is dark and technical, but is just missing that little something extra.

The production here is not fantastic either, and that probably doesn't help the record out. If you listen carefully there is always a bit of a buzz in the overall soundscape, meaning that some things are peaking or that it has simply been badly mixed.

As for the songs now, "Bloodletting" is super heavy and super tight, and since the band still play this one live sometimes, it can possibly be seen as the best track on Burn the Priest. Resurrection #9 is also pretty good, except for once again some pretty breakdown heavy songwriting. These are my two favorite tracks, however the rest of the songs are not particularly bad, they simply aren't very memorable.

If you are a big fan of Lamb of God, this may be something interesting for you to pick up, but really, this pales in comparison to their other records.

decent, yet repetitve - 78%

Stonedsour2097, March 11th, 2007

Burn The Priest, the preface of metalcore pioneers Lamb Of God. I had to say my expectations of this CD weren't exactly high. Lamb Of God can be an impressive set of musicians at times, yet they seem to be very bland and lacking any real drive or passion. Like hey were all really good at playing our instruments but lets not put any emotion into this record, make a few hits, and bam, stardom.

This release was made in 1994 and was supposed to be Lamb Of God, stripped down to there bare roots. I put it in for a spin and I immediatly started grooving. I mean lets face it, these guys are catchy love em or hate em. The first track Dimera is kind of a constant attack, similar to a typical suffocation worship breakdown, yet it has its still tastefull. I the track gives you this feeling of the instruments stabbing you in the ear numerous times. I just started to get into the first track when before I knew it, it was over. Literally I didn't even notice the transition into the next track because it sounded...the same, just slower. I literally thought it was a breakdown in the same song.

This is my main beef with this album. The guys perform well, but unless you pay extra special attention you wont even notice the fact that there are 14 tracks here. It sounds more like 6, as if the first three songs are the same, the next three songs are the same, so on and so on. There are some standout's including the aformentioned Bloodletting, Dimera, even if it's a total copy of Bloodletting, it still has it's own feel to it. Chronic Auditory Hallucination has some killer vocals on it, Randy's best spot on the album. It end's with the song Ruiner which is easily my favorite track. Some spoken word parts, with some killer bass lines, and finally some growls!

The vocals on here are impressive, Randy really does push himself on this, which is nice seeing as how in LOG he sounds like he's not even trying. Most of his stuff on here is higher pitched which can get a little annoying, but it also seems to me like he's pronouncing the words more than on Palaces or PAG. The bass is very present here to, you can allways hear the clicky sound in the back of the strings poping, even if he's not really playing any notes in some parts, thats right I caught you. The guitars kind of suck for the most part. They are sticking to basic riffs, and not a solo in sight.

In my opinoin this album is a decent buy, I would pay for it again. If you hate LOG to begin with, avoid this completely, expect just a raw version of there music now, with better vocals and bass. If your a sort-of fan, give this a try, and if you love these guys, buy this, it's a good history lesson.

The Best from One of the Worst - 67%

X_Imperium_X, February 9th, 2006

I picked this up a year ago or so, while experimenting with some metalcore and groove type metal (think Pantera, Machine Head, etc.), on a recommendation. If you have any inclination towards metalcore or Lamb of God, it is exactly what you might expect it to be. If not, don't get your hopes up.

Now, the metalcore band Lamb of God, carries some (comparatively) slower paced guitar work, decent drums and sometimes average, sometimes annoying vocals. Well, this work is just like that – except faster.

The guitars are decidedly thrashier and less groove-oriented, which is refreshing, and in my own personal opinion, a welcomed change from their latter, slower pace. They are not melodic, not particularly skilled, but they get the job done. They don’t necessarily hinder the cd, but they definitely don’t carry it either - this is a drum-driven record.

The drums are definitely the best part of the cd (except a surprising vocal performance). Chris Adler pumps up the bass pedals to something much faster than what you may be used to from a metalcore band. He doesn’t do anything any self-respecting black metal drummer couldn't do, but they show more skill and speed than anything that Lamb of God currently offers.

Randy Blythe's screams are another high point. Going for a more high pitched wail over his half clean/half growl that he employs currently. I was honestly surprised with the intensity shown throughout many of the songs. Now, overall the vocals are pretty average too, with small brillant moments. I just wasn't expecting this much. The bass is mediocre and not noticeable.

As for the record, it opens straight into shrieking lyrics from Blythe and continues pushing that tempo throughout the cd. It is fast, hard, and somewhat entertaining – in short, what I wish Lamb of God would be now. If they had continued in this direction, and honed their skills in the guitars, we could have a legitimate American death/thrash metal band. But they didn’t, and we don't.

In summation, this cd is worth buying only if you are desperate for some speedier metalcore/borderline death, or a die-hard Lamb of God fan who wants to see earlier work.

Tracks worth noting: Dimera, Goatfish, Buckeye, Departure Hymn