Kev Rowland Here we are with Lamb of God back with their 9th (or 11th, depending on if you count what they have released as Burn The Priest) studio album, with a line-up which has been together for more than 20 years apart from the departure of founding drummer Chris Adler after his motorcycle accident. His place was taken by Art Cruz (Prong) who has been in that seat since 2019, and this is his second album with the band and there is no doubt he has settled in really well indeed. Lamb of God are one of those bands who hit a groove early in their career, and have decided the formula works well so why change it? This means that fans of LoG have a fairly good idea of what any new album is going to sound like before they even play it, and what is wrong with that? Fans of most bands are often disappointed with how they may change direction over the course of their career, while others sound just the same as they always have, and LoG are one of those.

Bass heavy, complex riffs which often contain elements of djent, they utilise complex time signatures and styles with over-the-top aggression and brutality and a frontman in Randy Blythe who has a guttural style and a powering presence which means he is always the focal point of everything that is taking place. This is music which demands to be played as loudly as the speakers will take it so the neighbours can enjoy it as well, brutal with no room whatsoever for prisoners. I once had a very strong debate with myself about attending a Metallica gig just to see LoG who were the support, but in the end, I could not bring myself to do so, but do live in hope that one day they will be back here on our shores. Covid meant they were unable to tour ‘Lamb of God’ so went back into the studio and gave us this album far more quickly than expected, so let us hope that a world tour means just that for us down here at the end of the world. Nearly 30 years on from their inception, LoG are still delivering the metallic goods.

Kingcrimsonprog 2022’s Omens is the Richmond Virginia Metal stars, Lamb Of God’s ninth full-length studio album (not counting releases under the Burn The Priest moniker). Much like their previous record, it was released on Nuclear Blast, Produced by Josh Wilbur and features Art Cruz on the drums.  

Going into the album, a lot of fans online, on podcasts and in print seemed a bit disinterested in the band, and there was a bit of talk about how the band were past their best, which I didn’t personally get, because I felt their previous album was quite good, they’ve still been good live and they are mostly beloved personalities in the metal media. Anyway, many people are going to talk about going into this with low expectations and being pleasantly surprised… I just say its good, period, just like I expected.

The musical direction and the production style is quite similar to the previous album, sort of leaning into the more groovey and accessible parts of their sound, rather than being technical or angular or abrasive like the early days. If your favourite Lamb Of God song is “ODHGABFE” or “Blood Junkie” this album might be a bit tame for your tastes, but for everyone who fell in live with the band for the likes of “Redneck” and “Set To Fail” this will be right up your street.

Highlights include the catchy “To The Grave,” the speedy “Denial Mechanism” the memorable closer “September Song” and the grower of a title track, which I initially didn’t gel with the very first time I heard it, but you can’t deny that chorus and now its become one of my favourites upon repeat listening.

Is this the single greatest achievement Lamb Of God have ever made? Of course not, but is it some kind of lesser album or boring late career filler with only a few good songs? Not at all! This is a worthy edition to the LOG cannon, solid all the way through, nothing I’d skip, nothing I’d remove from a playlist and nothing I wouldn’t want to see live. Better even than the previous record, much better than the one before that, overall another enjoyable and entertaining southern groover made for big stages. Recommended.

Kev Rowland It is unusual for a band that has been around as Lamb of God to release a self-titled album, but it is possible this is for a few different reasons. The last release by the band was not actually the previous Lamb of God release but an album of covers they released as Burn The Priest, which was the original name of the band when they were first formed and under which they released their debut album. More importantly, this is the first ever release which does not feature drummer Chris Adler, who alongside bassist John Campbell were the only founders of Burn The Priest still involved. Adler had taken some time away from Lamb of God to perform and record with Megadeth (winning a Grammy for his work on ‘Dystopia’) and is now working with neither. There are various reasons floating around the web as to why he left, but for whatever reason he is no longer involved, and his place has been taken by Art Cruz (Winds of Plague, Cruz).

It may have been five years since the last LoG release, but in many ways, this is a direct continuation and sonically there is not much difference in the drum styles. The band feel happier with the album itself due to a change in approach in that they undertook pre-production then toured with Slayer before coming back to the songs which allowed them to hear them in a different light. Hard-hitting groove metal is the order of the way, with Randy Blythe bringing his best punk attack to it over the top. His vocal approach does provide cut through, as the band provide a solid backdrop for him to spit his venom against. As with the last album this is also highly melodic, although the nuances do not appear to be as prevalent, which may be due to having a new drummer as opposed to having one who has been in the band for quarter of a century. This is solid as opposed to exceptional, and it will be interesting to see what happens with the next one. I just hope we don’t have to wait another five years as I do not think it is possible for these guys to release a bad album, and I am intrigued to see where they go from here.

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.

siLLy puPPy L:AMB OF GOD has been cranking out the quality groove metal since its inception as Burn The Priest in 1994 with a series of high octane albums ever since however this Virginia band led by the screaming maniac Randy Blythe but hasn’t exactly been the most prolific in its output with only nine releases ( eight under the LAMB OF GOD moniker ) in the 26 years of its existence. Five years after “VII: Sturm und Drang” comes the band’s followup simply titled LAMB OF GOD. It baffles me as to why bands choose to use eponymous titles this late in their career especially if they haven’t reinvented their sound and taken it to new unthinkable worlds.

One thing is pretty much a given for LAMB OF GOD and that is that what you expect in terms of fast paced groove metal with rampaging riffs, half speed bass and drums and Blythe’s gut busting vocal utterances, will always be delivered in abundance. While the band has done a fairly decent job of adding new sounds to their albums and integrating them well into their classic groove metal stomps that dominated “As The Palaces Burn,” LAMB OF GOD seems to have hit a brick wall in the creative department as this eponymous release that came out in the era of Covid-19 is pretty much business as usual without any real developments or deviations from the band’s already established sound.

With ten tracks that add up to almost 45 minutes and a bonus track on the limited digipak boxset as well as the Japanese edition, LAMB OF GOD seems to be resting on its laurels and in the year 2020 with its usual predicative blend of groove metal, thrash furor and metalcore breakdowns. LAMB OF GOD has always maintained a consistency of quality and bad tunes is certainly not the issue at hand with this self-titled release but rather a ho hum been there done that before with one track after another sounding cut out of the same cookie cutter songwriting process and a bad case of playing it safe which obviously paid off since the album debuted at number 15 on the Billboard album charts and sold 30 thousand units in its first week of release. Some metalheads prefer safe and predictable over innovation and progression. Personally i’m not one of those.

This album debuts newbie drummer Art Cruz who replaces long time drummer Chris Adler but his drumming style has been tailor made to fit the band’s established sound and he offers absolutely no signs of individuality. There are a couple guest vocal appearances. “Poison Dream” features Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed and “Routes” allows Testament singer Chuck Billy to let loose. Noticeable absent from this self-titled release are any extras that add different layers of atmospheres or subplots in the musical motifs. This is a back to basics groove metal type of album and while that’s not a bad thing per se, it’s certainly not anything that’s taking metal into any new territories. As a LAMB OF GOD fan i’m always a sucker for those chunky groove metal hooks in tandem with Blythe’s unique style of vocal grunts that are teased out into melodic screams.

For those who love diversity in songwriting this may not be the album for you. The tracks all bleed together with only a few such as “Resurrection Man” offering some sort of unique atmospheric counterpoint otherwise it’s a chugging fest in the vein of early LAMB OF GOD bombast. This is a decent album that won’t disappoint those with low expectations as LAMB OF GOD ticks off all the elements that make them LAMB OF GOD however for my tastes i find this to be a very generic album in relation to the interesting albums such as “Sacrament,” “Wrath,” “Resolution” and “VII: Sturm und Drang.” In the end this is an album that will end up in my collection as a fan but will remain one of the least revisited except all inclusive marathon sessions. I expected more after a five year break but c’est la vie.

Kingcrimsonprog Walk With Me In Hell is a fantastic DVD for fans of Lamb Of God, full of honest and informative interviews, storming live performances and footage from all around the world.

The DVD features four and a half hours of content; including The main feature, the 117 minute documentary `Walk With Me In Hell ,' as well as six entire live songs from various tours that were featured in the documentary. The Second disc features the fantastic 77 minute `Making of The Sacrament,' documentary,' and an entire 40 minute Set from Download and lastly the music video for Redneck.

The main documentary is brilliant, following the band from just having finished recording their fantastic Sacrament album and embarking on a world tour full of interesting encounters, mishaps and mild adventures. Interviews unravel a tale of ups and downs, of bad luck and of increasing success and really give you an idea of what life is like for a touring metal band. From adjusting to foreign food, being cut of from your family and living in a cramped bus with band and crew members for months on end to photo shoots merch signing sessions and radio interview obligations.

The band are both really candid and entertaining, giving honest impressions of situations and not being afraid to look bad, while also cracking many jokes or playing a few childish pranks that never fail to raise a few laughs. Where some band DVDs may over emphasize the comedy aspects, Walk With Me In Hell is very tasteful and has the balance just right. The whole documentary is full of Lamb of God music, both recorded versions playing over footage of busses or set ups, and snippets of excellently shot concert footage that can last up to a minute or two.

Redneck, Again We Rise, Walk With Me in Hell, Now You've Got Something To Die For, Blacken The Cursed Sun, and Pathetic can be seen in full from these various performances featured in the documentary, a nice way to augment Killadelphia without repeating it.

`Making of The Sacrament,' documentary is of the same very high standard, and features a lot of the decision making processes, actual song writing and much footage of practicing and perfecting songs that would eventually make up the album. The band also talk a lot about their place in the world of metal, their music and how each album differs from the last, very interesting stuff for a fan to watch.

The Download set is a real highlight here, the excellent audio and visual quality and extremely energetic performance by the band make for an amazing show. The track list is: Laid To Rest, Again We Rise, Walk With Me in Hell, Pathetic, Now You've Got Something To Die For, Blacken The Cursed Sun, Redneck, and Black Label.

Overall this DVD is highly recommended to fans of the band, featuring tones of content, really interesting documentaries and very well shot, edited and performed live material focusing heavily on The Sacrament album so as not to just repeat the band's previous two DVDs.

Kingcrimsonprog Killadelphia is a fantastic DVD that captures Lamb Of God in 2005 just as they were really breaking into the big time, with a mixture of documentary segments and a sixteen track concert that has a total playtime of almost two hours.

The concert is of very high quality, the band deliver music from New American Gospel in a clear and professional way and give tracks from Ashes of the Wake an energy and rawness that improves them similarly. The band are brilliant performers and know how to command an audiences attention, when to play up to the crowd and also crucially when not to, in order to preserve the spirit of the written songs.

Randy is the type of singer who you may expect might not be able to pull it off live, given the intensity, speed and complexity of what he delivers on record; but in reality his live performances are astounding, if anything better than on record.

Performance is only one quality on which a live concert stands or falls, and thankfully a very strong performance is not the only thing which Killadelphia has to offer, the sound is terrific, with a very clear drum and vocal sound, heavy guitar tones and a good clear mix which gives each instrument a fair chance to shine without sacrificing much in the way of heaviness.

Furthermore, the camera work, direction and editing, in addition to the lighting and stage show are excellent bringing a real excitement to the video without having to resort to cheesy wipes or frequent quick cuts like other concert DVDs sometimes do, but which only ever give the illusion of energy.

On top of all this, the track list is excellent with tracks from each of the band's early albums together and performed to the highest quality. Then as if the concert wasn't interesting enough (and there is an option to play only the concert, plus a CD copy of the concert for added value) you get a really candid and informative set of documentary segments which are of the same tone as those on the band's Walk With Me in Hell DVD, and include the infamous fist fight which fans always seem to love.

Overall, Killadelphia is a brilliant DVD, honestly one of the best metal DVDs on the market and an absolute must buy for Lamb Of God fans.