Lamb of God - Wrath

Once Lamb of God's career skyrocketed with the undoubtedly DIVINE Sacrament, only good things could be expected in the future career of the Groove Metal gods. However, as good as following records may be, you'll always get the feeling it's just never going to top Sacrament.

The most noticeable change in the new album is Randy's vocals, he apparently had some vocal training between the two albums to stop him tearing his vocal chords and it definitely shows. In some places they sound quite surprisingly out of place, such as the chorus to 'Set to Fail', which can give a certain edge to it at times but might make some listeners think he can't keep up the blistering screams and squeals he used to do. The guitars don't have a complete turnaround and keep the Drop-D groovy feel as Sacrament had (and thrived off) but as much as their technical skill with speed and complexity still blows many bands out of the water, the riffs simply aren't as memorable and catchy as, say, Redneck from Sacrament. There are some, such as Dead Seeds, which are downright repetitive and disappointing. Moshability is definitely still a strong factor, however, and these songs live are a great experience, some of them matching the likes of Walk With Me in Hell.

The album doesn't kill Lamb of God's career by any means and fans will on the whole find this to be a very enjoyable listen, but it seems that Sacrament's extremely high standard was a little too good to stick around. Nonetheless, a worthy buy and one of the best records of 2009, from one of the best bands around at the moment.

Lamb of God - Sacrament

I'm going to start with a short rant, and short I shall keep it. I am sick and tired of 'SUPR HXC METAL FAN 4LYF' dicks saying that a band/album is shit because it is 'not heavy enough' (oh fuck off) or because it got the front cover of Kerrang magazine (do you realise how many exceptions to that there are). So yeah, Lamb of God HAVE been in Kerrang but DAMN IT THEY ARE STILL GOOD. Ok.

Lamb of God smashed their way to popularity last year with Sacrament, breaking out from being a death metal band of an aquired taste to a widely known Groove/Thrash band and winning a few Golden God awards while they were at it. At this point, I was not into any kind of heavy stuff, Maiden were my drugs and I was so much of a newfag as to think Dragonforce were actually good. Although I did have respect for this type of stuff, I just couldn't get into the whole screaming deal. But my good fellow Baxter managed to get me to try this band out after a flurry of 'ok seriously dude Lamb of God are amazing listen to Sacrament they're amazing listen to it they rule seriously listen to it dude just listen to it they're amazing'. Well I sure have no regrets now.

Riffs, pig squeals, the best drumming ever and serious hell raising effectively describes this album. It is without a doubt one of the best things I could imagine moshing to at a gig, and indeed when I did see them they made a fantastic performance out of 'Walk With Me In Hell' and 'Redneck', the two singles of the album. If the air-raid like drumming patterns don't bring you to your metaphorical knees, then undoubtedly the crazy inward screams will, not to mention the guitar solos (in particular 'Walk With Me In Hell'). My personal favourite of the album is 'More Time To Kill' which, despite being horribly underrated and ignored by many, combines kick ass lyrics and awesome rhythm with a quite frankly beautiful melodic section, then at the end combining the two to make what I believe to be the most epic piece of music that Lamb have made so far since 'Laid to Rest'. Nonetheless, songs like 'Redneck' bring out the groovey side to Lamb of God's new style, yet at the same time 'Pathetic' and 'Foot to the Throat' re-vitalise their older songs which brought them to where they are.

All in all, this IS undoubtedly one of the best metal albums, worthy of the list no doubt. It brought hope to new bands retaining the awesomeness of the last 20 years, and throwing a masterpiece of metal to the public to mosh their faces off to.