Lamb of God - Wrath
While I sit around pondering about whether or not Tool will release another album this decade, Lamb of God came along with their sixth. 2006 saw them gain the most attention of their career with the brilliant “Sacrament” album, mostly due to the fact that “Redneck”, the lead single, may well be the catchiest metal song in existence. While the album suffered in terms of over-production, Lamb of God caught onto this faster than a steroid-ridden cheetah chasing Jennifer Lopez through the Sahara after a five week hunger strike. “Wrath” is the by-product of this realisation, and never has a name been more appropriate. This is LOG at their very best, precise, intricate angry metal delivered throughout with such ruthless efficiency it’s often difficult to wonder what happened after forty minutes has passed you by. Opener “The Passing” is a delicate acoustic track to gently lead you into brutality incarnate. “In Your Words” is a fantastic re-introduction to D. Randall Blythe’s voice, both demonic and soulful. His scream at the beginning lets you know that there will be no letting up on this album. One thing that the aforementioned “Sacrament” album did allow was for Randy to introduce a degree of melody into his vicious screaming. So when I say soulful, imagine a gospel choir trying their very best to sing melodically whilst being anally violated by a Satanic horse.
“Set to Fail”, the lead single off this album, is a great groove laden metal track, in the same vein as “Redneck”, but just done….well, heavier. If you can work out what the fuck Randy is screaming at the beginning of “Broken Hands”, you deserve a medal, but rest assured the track is as metal as it can possibly get before becoming Mercury, which, as we all know, will kill you. “Choke Sermon” again is an example of the technical wizardry between guitarists Mark Morton and Chris Adler, and the drummer Willie Adler. No song on this album lets up, and no song stands out more or less than the others. “Reclamation” appears at the end of the album to be a fantastic close, and when Randy finishes off screaming about watching “The whole city burn tonight”, you know that something brilliant has just finished. But it really wont let you. Because then “Contractor” comes along, and serves as a fine touch to let you remember how brutal this band is. A short lament of the evils of war and greed, it sums up the themes of the album perfectly when the line “Lay the hammer hammer down, get the job done right, jacked up and clocked in into a firefight” comes along.
Much less introspective lyrically, with the previous album dealing with drink and drug abuse, LOG are back with the political bile and righteous anger that made “Ashes Of The Wake” their best album to date. While that still remains to be seen, “Wrath” is the best thing to go into my ears in 2009, and I highly recommend this album.
[OxKing]
