ROCKET REVIEW: LAMB OF GOD – “Wrath” (CD)

Lamb of God

Lamb of God’s fifth studio album entitled ‘Wrath’ was produced by Josh Wilbur and to my surprise starts off – believe it or not – with a flowery acoustic guitar piece. Three words come to my mind immediately: What… the… hell? I think someone needs to remind these guys that there are many more effective ways to start a highly anticipated heavy metal album, most notably for a band that has come to be known as one of the most ferocious since their compelling debut New American Gospel in 2000. The next track “In Your Words” is even more of a let down when you hear Chris Adler’s drum sound completely mirroring the extremely-annoying ‘turned off’ snare that Lars Ulrich employed for one of Metallica’s biggest disappoinments ever: St. Anger. Again, as a longtime fan of LOG’s, I can only sit and say to myself: What… the… HELL? And even worse than that (is that at all truly possible?), Randy Blythe’s normally all snarling, rip-your-throat out vocal approach has been replaced by someone who sounds more tame – and unless you’re a big fan of over indulged metalcore, you – like me – will not be pleased with the new incarnation of Lamb of God in 2009.

Track three’s “Set To Fail” is basically “Now You’ve Got Something to Die For” (from 2004’s classic Ashes In The Wake album), minus the great chorus. Track four is “Contractor” and is at best sloppy and over the top. As Blythe barfs out “Guaran-fucking-teed, Someone will bleed”, I can’t help but laugh out loud at the sheer pompous and overtly-bombastic delivery here that officially comes off like a nightmare bad parody of themselves. I’m afraid track five’s “Fake Messiah” is more of the same really. Here Blythe cries: “Generation failure, suspended irrelevance, slit you wide open, just to see what you’re made of.” Listen, if there’s anything that’s been slit wide open here, it’s Lamb of God. The next song “Grace” only confirms that with its uninspired riff work and whacked out like a speed junky song structure.

The next series of tunes “Broken Hands”, “Dead Seeds” and “Everything to Nothing” try desperately to get the band back on track and into the game… unfortunately, to no avail. Track ten’s “Choke Sermon” pretty much sums it all up: Lamb of God has gone and fumbled the proverbial ball at the one yard line, in terms of turning a major corner in their much respected music career. However, the final track “Reclamation”, shockingly enough, seems to be just what the doctor ordered. It’s a much more cohesive rocker, tied perfectly to the melancholy acoustic strains from Morton at the end, but a little too late to save this scattershot assembly of doom from the shit basket.

[starreview tpl=16]