Lamb of God: Wrath [REVIEW]
LAMB OF GOD - WRATH
I am a huge fan of thrash metal. There is just something about it that grabs you by the throat and won’t let you go. The best metal of this sort has a “groove”: riffs to kill for keeping time with hellaciously fast blastbeats, riding cymbals, and a pounding bass. Back in the mid- to late 80s, there existed a sort of glory days of thrash. This was exemplified by the four pillars of the genre (Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth, and old Metallica) coupled with the “newcomers” Pantera. Go ahead and throw in Prong (particularly Beg to Differ) and Testament as a couple of other favorites.
Lamb of God is today’s undisputed leader of the genre and is leading a renaissance of thrash. Sure, Slayer and Metallica get the Grammys, but that is just a case of name recognition on the part of the voters. I was first turned on to LoG after hearing “Laid to Rest” from their album Ashes of the Wake, which was the first album I’d bought in a long time that simply ripped my face off. And while I was never a huge fan of the “cookie monster”-style of vocal stylings, LoG just made it work for me. Their follow-up, Sacrament, became a drop-date purchase for me, and it continued to impress.
But both albums have been eclipsed by the triumph that is Wrath.
Where do these guys get all of these wonderful riffs? Seriously, if you don’t find yourself involuntarily headbanging during the bridge of “Dead Seeds,” you have no metal in your soul. High points (as if there were low points) include “Set to Fail”, “Contractor” and “Choke Sermon”. But my personal favorite is the closer, “Reclamation”: the blues-based lick that provides the structure and, simply put, drive of this song is perfectly pieced together. It is the juggernaut of the album.
Wrath is now the front-runner for album of the year. It will be interesting to see what other bands are willing to put out this year in the face of this onslaught.
