LAMB OF GOD — VII: Sturm und Drang

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LAMB OF GOD - VII: Sturm und Drang cover
3.72 | 13 ratings | 3 reviews
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Album · 2015

Filed under Groove Metal
By LAMB OF GOD

Tracklist


1. Still Echoes (4:23)
2. Erase This (5:09)
3. 512 (4:45)
4. Embers (4:57)
5. Footprints (4:25)
6. Overlord (6:29)
7. Anthropoid (3:39)
8. Engage the Fear Machine (4:49)
9. Delusion Pandemic (4:23)
10. Torches (5:18)

Total Time 48:17

Line-up/Musicians


- David Randall Blythe / vocals
- William M. Adler / rhythm guitars
- Mark Morton / lead guitar
- Christopher James Adler / drums
- John Steven Campbell / bass

Guest musicians
- Gregory John "Greg" Puciato / vocals
- Camillo Wong "Chino" Moreno / vocals

About this release

Release date: July 24th, 2015
Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Thanks to diamondblack for the addition and UMUR for the updates

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LAMB OF GOD VII: STURM UND DRANG reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

Kev Rowland
This 2015 release was a comeback album for Lamb of God, as in 2012 singer Randy Blythe was arrested by Czech police for his actions which resulted in the death of a fan after Blythe had pushed him off stage at a 2020 concert. The large legal fees incurred, plus the inactivity during court cases, meant that Lamb of God were in a precarious legal position and they actually announced a hiatus in 2014. Then in April 2015 they started teasing fans, and the album was released in July. As the title suggests, this was the seventh album as Lamb of God, although everyone apart from rhythm guitarist Willie Adler had actually played on the debut album when they were billed as Burn The Priest. The sextet were back with something to prove, to show that even after all the trials and tribulations they were still in the game, as important to the metal movement as they had ever been.

With Lamb of God one always has certain expectations: the music will be brain numbingly heavy, there will be a groove running within it, the guitars will be running off all over the place with complex runs and riffs, the rhythm section will be locked down, and Blythe will be providing rich frenetic vocals owing as much to punk as they do to aggressive metal. Those expectations are definitely met on this album, with “Still Embers” kicking things off with just one guitar and then the rest of the band kick in and they are all there, right in your face and kicking hard. The nuances and heaviness are there as always, combined with real musicality and hooks, with the result is something which at one level is designed to make your ears bleed but is also highly melodic with hooks that get inside your brain.
Kingcrimsonprog
Lamb Of God were in an interesting and dark place prior to making 2015’s VII: Sturm & Drang album; there’s been a book and a documentary released about the time and countless better writers than the likes of me have summarized it online. It permeates the album quite a lot, the atmosphere, the title, and even some of the lyrics (‘512’ and ‘Still Echoes’ for example). Its not so much a concept album about what happened to Randy or anything as formal as that, but that era certainly cast a noticeable shadow over this, their seventh full-length record as Lamb Of God.

Musically, the album takes a split approach between covering new ground and keeping it familiar. It isn’t different enough for example from their previous two albums that you could say it’s a break from the norm, but there are certainly moments on it you haven’t heard before. The band are no strangers to slow thoughtful intros or bigger scale album closers, but even at that this album contains more melody, slow parts and subtlety than some of their previous work. It also isn’t the first time they’ve had guest stars, (just ask Chris Poland, Steve Austin and Devin Townsend), but Deftones’ Chino Morino and Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato both appear on this record and deliver nifty performances than breath fresh new life into proceedings (and luckily on two of the already best tracks of the record). As you can see, its new ground but simultaneously very familiar.

‘Overlord’ is an interesting one, because it isn’t the kind of final epic closer like ‘King Me’ or ‘Reclamation’ from previous records where you’d expect more pronounced dynamics and a few less-heavy vocals. It’s a mid-album track with a lot of melody from Blythe and no orchestration or drama to justify it to the die-hard “I Only Like Brutal Music” section of the crowd. I could see a portion of the fanbase call it a bit of a sell-out… well, apart from the thrashy fast paced end of the song that is just about the best part of the whole record that is.

The bulk of the album, the ‘normal’ Lamb Of God songs, are all exactly what you want from the band. You get aggressive, angry 3-4 minute songs with Thrash and Groove roots, modern sensibilities, and a technical but not showy approach, all topped off with furious barking. Its good. It Lamb Of God doing what they do. If you want more of that, get this album, don’t worry that its turned into something you don’t want, or that its become a cheesy guest-spot fest with every man and his dog clogging up the runtime making it feel disjointed or not like a proper album.

The interesting backstory, the excellent guest-spots and the few innovations do make this an album that you can tell future fans to check out when they get into the band and wonder what to look at first, and the album is a good album in and of itself… but one thing I would say is that just purely in terms of songwriting, there was nothing that jumped out at me on first listen and made me feel “well that’s going straight into a greatest hits playlist right now,” nor anything that made me say “I can’t wait to see them play THAT ONE live” and nothing that made me want to listen to it six times in a row. There was no super special song like the first time I heard ‘Contractor’ or ‘To The End’ or ‘Ruin’ where I just got blown away. Its all very good, don’t get me wrong, but even after a long while of getting into the album and letting it sit with me, I haven’t got a new favourite Lamb Of God song contender. The band are maintaining their high standard, but they aren’t necessarily improving or blowing minds this time (and to be fair it is an impossible task for a band who’ve did it so many times already).

In summary; this is a good Lamb Of God album, arguably not their very best ever, but rock solid and certainly a worthy addition to your collection that gives you what you want stylistically but with enough unique selling points to not make you feel like you’ve heard it all before.
UMUR
"VII: Sturm und Drang" is the 7th full-length studio album by US metal act Lamb of God. The album was released through Epic/Nuclear Blast Entertainment in July 2015. It´s been three and a half years since the release of "Resolution (2012)", which the band initially spend touring, but later also with other projects and ordeals.

The most talked about probably the arrest and incarceration of lead vocalist David Randall Blythe by Czech police in June 2012 on charges of committing intentional bodily harm during a 2010 concert in Prague where a 19-year-old fan climbed up onto the stage with with the singer, and was subsequently pushed off the stage, hit his head on the venue floor, and later died from his injuries. Blythe spend 38 days in jail before bail was posted, and the band could continue the tour they where on. Blythe returned to the Czech republic to face the charges in 2013, but was eventually deemed by the court to not be responsible for the death of the Czech fan. The whole ordeal was hard on Blythe though, who in a statement in January 2014 said that he was taking an extended break from Lamb of God. Until the band started working on "VII: Sturm und Drang" in late 2014, Blythe spend time working on a book.

The other major side-project was drummer Chris Adler´s work with Megadeth on their 15th full-length studio album. After the departure of Shawn Drover in late 2014, Dave Mustaine asked Adler if he wanted to play the drums on the next Megadeth album, and being a huge Megadeth fan Adler didn´t think twice about the opportunity to play on an album by his musical heroes.

Despite a few unusual and hard years for the members of the band, the music on "VII: Sturm und Drang" sounds unmistakably like Lamb of God. Blythe (successfully) experiments with the occasional (rare) use of clean vocals (especially on "Overlord"), but other than that it´s pretty much business as usual. The distinct groove created by the rhythm section of drummer Chris Adler and bassist John Steven Campbell is there and accounted for, the groove oriented riffs, and occasional more thrash oriented sections are there too, and of course the semi-growling and sometimes core tinged screaming of Randy Blythe. The music is actually a bit hard to tag as it lands somewhere between groove metal, metalcore, and thrash metal.

The material on the 10 track, 48:17 minutes long album is well written, although it´s only some tracks which stand out. I´m not sure I´d call the once that don´t stand out filler material, but they could easily have been more catchy and prospered from that. The day Lamb of God releases an album packed with only standout tracks, is the day they have created a masterpiece. That´s not exactly the case with "VII: Sturm und Drang" even though it´s a great quality release on most other parameters. The musicianship is on a high level, and the sound production is powerful, raw, and suitably organic. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

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