Lamb Of God - Wrath

\r\nLamb of God is one of those bands that we expect them to progress constantly in their career. This is something that we have been watching through their whole sequence of albums. The biggest breakthrough though has been done since their last two albums, Ashes of the wake and Sacrament, as Lamb of God have been not only commercially, but also artistically well-recognized. Thus the whole metal community has been excited for their forthcoming sixth full length album, Wrath.
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\r\nSo, the ultimate question is: Does Wrath fulfill our high expectations from a band as great as LOG? In my opinion the answer is merely. Let me explain myself. It looks like the band this time knows that they have nothing to prove to their fans, and that’s true! The album is once again full of ultra gain, earth scattering riffs, by two of the most influential guitarists in the metal scene, at this moment (Will Adler and Mark Morton), the drumming of Chris Adler once again has laser beam accuracy, and last but not least the performance of the vocalist Randy Blythe is phenomenal.
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\r\nBut besides all these, it seems like the band tries to ease a little bit the whole massacre of the last Sacrament album especially. Wrath is a more mature album, with more melodic lines especially at the choruses, which seem to actually flatter the brutal vocals of Blythe (check the third song, Set to Fail). This time we can almost hear him singing simple, but in tune melodic lines, embodied in his brutal voice! Also in the place of the ground shaking riffs there are more open chord, whole note, kind of atmospheric, chaotic riffs that let the harmonies hint their existence.
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\r\nMelody has always been a part of LOG’s music, but is this fusion as successful as it was on the previous albums? Have they managed to balance effectively between harmony and heavy-oriented, savage riffage? Well, I’ m not quite sure about that. And for me that’s the problem. LOG has never left any questions to arise about their all-star musicianship with their honest, straight-to-your-face songs and attitude. That is also amplified by the more drain, papery-kind-of production. It’s still loud, but not as loud as it has been in the past, like having a raging pitbull busted in a dog catcher’s dip net, that can’t bite!
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\r\nThe overall result is a really inspired record with many good musical ideas as the band from Richmond of Virginia always achieves all these years. A pretty violent, but intentionally, not as violent and, because of that, generally, not as magnificent as its predecessor, since comparisons are unavoidable. And that’s why I believe that Wrath merely fulfills our expectations. I personally would consider this record as a stepping stone for something that hasn’t come yet but I’m pretty confined that will come. And that is a record that’s better than Sacrament. Until then…\r\n

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\r\nAristos "Der Meister" Tserepas\r\n

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