Posted: February 23rd, 2008
Contributed By: Nick

	Purchase @ Amazon.com Release Date: February 24th, 2009 via Epic
	Lamb of God is: Randy Blythe (Vocals) Mark Morton (Guitar) Willie Adler (Guitar) John Campbell (Bass) Chris Adler (Drums)

Overview: Richmond, Virginia’s Lamb of God have become known as one of the pioneers of this generation’s so-called “heavy metal resurgence”. The band released three albums (the first of the trio under their original billing Burn the Priest) before signing a major label deal with Epic Records in 2004. In August of 04, Lamb of God dropped ‘Ashes of the Wake‘, moving 35,000 copies its first week. Thanks to rigorous touring that included consecutive Ozzfest stints and co-headlining the Sounds of the Underground Tour, Lamb of God watched ‘Ashes of the Wake‘ haul more than 250,000 in sales. The quartet released its second effort for Epic in 2006’s ‘Sacrament‘ whose first week sales landed the record in Billboard’s top ten. Lamb of God were even nominated for a Grammy in the Best Metal Performance category for their track “Redneck”. Although the honors went to Slayer, Lamb of God had to be all smiles about the near gold sales of ‘Sacrament‘. Let’s not forget Lamb of God’s two DVD’s, the platinum ‘Killadelphia‘ and ‘Walk With Me In Hell‘ respectively. So, if you’re Lamb of God what’s your next move? Ah, head back to the studio of course and begin working on album number five. The group chose producer Josh Wilbur to helm the boards, having worked with Machine on their previous two records. Arriving on February 24, ‘Wrath‘ is Lamb of God’s latest opus. ‘Wrath‘ is currently streaming on the band’s MySpace page, which includes their extensive list of tour dates for the immediate future.

The Good: No title better encapsulates these eleven new Lamb of God songs better than ‘Wrath‘. The album takes the zeniths of ‘Ashes of the Wake‘ and ‘Sacrament‘, the rawness of ‘New American Gospel‘ and ‘As the Palaces Burn‘, and the brushstrokes painted by early Metallica and Pantera and uniquely ties them all together for one behemoth of a disc. Vocally, Randy Blythe breezes easily through his widest array of inflections yet. You can hear Blythe challenge himself countless times, surpassing each obstacle with bravado. His vocals are nestled pleasantly between the primitive, guttural angst of ‘As the Palaces Burn‘ and the polish of ‘Ashes of the Wake‘, belting out gruff snarls that fit the thrashier ‘Wrath‘. On songs such as “Broken Hands” and “Choke Sermon”, Blythe proves he can still crank his pipes up an octave and slay. Pepper in some chilling whispers as heard in a few tracks, most notably “Reclamation”, and you’ve got one poised singer in Blythe who coasts across the challenging landscape of ‘Wrath‘ with ease. Guitarists Willie Adler and Mark Morton unload catastrophic riffs marked by mammoth tone. Josh Wilbur throttles back on guitar production, helping to more clearly define the visceral ‘Wrath‘. Adler and Morton are super tight, which lets them implement an arsenal of southern metal licks without forfeiting the album’s original intent. The duo’s writing is more hammering and omnipotent than ever before, while songs like “In Your Words” and “Dead Seeds” continue to push their time signature boundaries. Guitar solos are well defined and help complement songs, as heard in the early-Metallica inspired solo of “Everything to Nothing”. John Campbell serves up another dose of walloping bass lines throughout ‘Wrath‘, pumping out downbeat thuds and echoing the grooves of Willie Adler and Mark Morton as well as drummer Chris Adler. Boasting more chops than a steakhouse, Chris Adler is simply a maniac on drums. However his performance on ‘Wrath‘ isn’t geared toward showboating. Instead, Adler nails every accent, every crescendo, and every time signature fluctuation with stoic grace, cranking up the BPM’s for the thrash-laden ‘Wrath‘ and making it look like child’s play. Adler focuses on more single pedal work during ‘Wrath‘ which is sure to impress, and his incorporating a slew of blast beats will have grindcore fans lusting. It’s also nice to see a metal drummer go to his splash cymbals the way Chris Adler does, which is just one of the bevy of quirks he throws into the pot to make ‘Wrath‘ a hell of a dance.

The Bad: If your Lamb of God listening experience is comprised of only their last two albums, perhaps you should rewind a few records before spinning ‘Wrath‘, which jettisons much of its predecessors’ polish and adopts a more au natural finish. While this may make old school LOGgers giddy, newer fans might not be as receptive to ‘Wrath‘ at first. At times ‘Wrath‘ starts to sound like a jack-hammer, jabbing at and exhausting your eardrums after several long listens. Other than that, ‘Wrath‘ is pure quality.

Bottomline: I know a handful of people who swear only by modern/pop rock that really, really like Lamb of God. And it’s no wonder-Lamb of God are f–king good. Oh, and so is ‘Wrath‘.

TuneLab Rating: 9 out of 10