Lamb of God
Album: Wrath
Release Date: February 24, 2009
Label: Epic / Roadrunner Records

Track Listing
01. The Passing
02. In Your Words
03. Set to Fail
04. Contractor
05. Fake Messiah
06. Grace
07. Broken Hands
08. Dead Seeds
09. Everything to Nothing
10. Choke Sermon
11. Reclamation

Reviewer: Eric

Lamb of God has proven themselves as one of the top competitors in the metal scene. After almost 19 years the band has released top notch music, one album at a time. Instead of playing the same music that made them famous Lamb of God is changing things but it may be too much for some fans.

Clocking in at almost 45 minutes the new Lamb of God album is not for the weak of heart. Wrath is the sort of album that is going to break the band into the top ten, maybe even top five on the American Billboard Charts. That statement alone is enough to make fans happy and sad at the same time, mainly since we all know when a metal band hits it that big you know the album is going to disappoint at some time.

That is the problem I had with Wrath. At first listen I was pissed to be a Lamb of God fan. What happened to the band that used to play my hometown of Pittsburgh almost every month back in the day? Lamb of God was dead to me but then I started to hear a whole new album after the third listen. Wrath is the sort of metal album that gets better after each listen and I will tell you why.

For starters it is a different traveled road for the band. Overall Wrath has a mix between mainstream metal and Lamb of God. Wait a second, how can Wrath sound like Lamb of God when their sound just changed? Lamb of God has this unique sound that nobody has been able to mimic. The instrumentation is almost phenomenal, that alone makes a Lamb of God album so goddamn good. You know going into the album that you are going to find something that is going to blow you away. I found that when I first hated the album and now I am finding a whole album that has little flaws.

As fast and furious as the album may be you have to weigh in the main factor and that factor is Randy Blythe. Did Blythe pussy out for the better of the band, just so they would see enough green to call it a day after Wrath’s release? To a point Blythe did pussy out a little. There are more clean/not-so-metal vocals on Wrath than any other Lamb of God release. Again just like the instrumentation that isn’t a problem when you can hear what Randy Blythe is saying. These are some of the strongest lyrics I have ever heard on a Lamb of God album. Sacrament spilled the darkest secrets about the band but Wrath is just a pure hatred album that gets back to basics, almost in the likes of New American Gospel and Burn the Priest.

Final Verdict
The fifth and hopefully not last album from Lamb of God proves that good things happen over time. Wrath is certainly a great album if you don’t loose faith in it. If you give up on this album right away, almost like I did, then you are missing out on possibly one of the best releases of 2009.

Rating
9.25 out of 10

Lamb of God Official Web Site
Lamb of God on Myspace

Lamb of God - Set To Fail

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