Metal Band Lamb of God Stick To The Formula That Works

Listeners might think Lamb of God is a Christian rock band judging by the name of their band, the biblical tinges in their music and the first track off their newest album "Wrath."

Bu then they would be in for an unpleasant surprise.

The lull is short-lived and the full-blast barrage of “In Your Words” begins. It’s almost as if the band wanted to get some calm guitar passages off their chest before things get heavy and the band doesn’t let up until the end.

The themes of destruction and rebirth are constant. The band even reaches for a political post-9/11 song with the closer "Reclamation" which features lyrics like "Humanity's a failed experiment, walking the path to extinction, spinning it's wheels endlessly. Grease them with oil and uranium."

Kind of a downer, but if you have listened to them before, you should know by now what to expect, which leads to me to my only criticism of the album. Fiercely technical and lean in the fretwork without sounding sterile and robotic, the band doesn’t waste any time in saying what it wants to say and nothing more, nothing less but this virtue also turns out to be the band’s greatest vice.

There’s little filler to be heard and the songs are solid enough to be memorable, but at the same time there’s little room for experimentation. If you like your heavy metal traditional and to the point, you won’t have a problem with it but those expecting the eclectic mix of styles from bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan or Mastodon will look elsewhere.

The band started in 1990 as the instrumental group Burn the Priest. They got a new name, a vocalist and the since the move they have enjoyed mainstream success on their 2004 album “Ashes of the Wake." That album yielded a critical and commercial hit with “Laid to Rest.”

Lamb of God has often seen comparisons with the local and legendary Texas metal band Pantera for their emphasis on rhythm and syncopation of the drums, guitars and bass rather than style points like many metal bands seem to be aiming for nowadays.

All in all, the highlight tracks for me are "In Your Words," "Set to Fail," and "From Everything to Nothing."