Lamb Of God - Sacrament Review [3]
Posted by Matt Shoemaker on 09.06.2006
Lamb Of God keeps expanding and toying with their sound. How does this new release help to add on to the growth started by Ashes Of The Wake?
The Band
Vocals: Randy Blythe
Drums: Chris Adler
Guitar: Mark Norton
Guitar: Will Adler
Bass: John Campbell
The History
In 1998, a 5 piece metal band from Virginia put out a self titled album. The title was Burn The Priest. Two years later, another album was put out by the band, this time under a new moniker. Lamb Of God released the hugely successful album, New American Gospel. The band spent another two years touring heavily to promote the album, then went back in the studio with producer Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad to work on their next album, As The Palaces Burn. No more than a year afterwards, the band released their next album, Ashes Of The Wake. In 2005, the band released a DVD of their tour through Philadelphia, aptly named Killadelphia.The band also released an audio version of the DVD later that year.
The Album
Sacrament was released on August 22, 2006, through Epic Records. The album seems like a farther step from the sounds on New American Gospel and As The Palaces Burn. While those albums were very fast and heavy, with unbelievably harsh lyrics, this album takes that idea a step further. Sacrament, like Ashes Of The Wake, takes the shredding riffs, heavy vocals, and blinding speed, and adds a rhythm and melody not heard as much on the first two releases.
The songs focus more on lyrics than they did in the past. Blythe’s vocals can still scare just about anyone when they need to, but a lot of the chorus and pre chorus vocals are lighter, with (presumably) one of the guitarists echoing Blythe, giving it more of a anthem like, empowering feel to it. On songs like Redneck, Again We Rise, and Requiem, just to name a few, the vocals seem to have a drive behind them that probably could not be achieved through just Blythe.
The music, overall, isn’t much different throughout the album. After listening through the album, you notice the same riff played over a few times. However, this does not change the album too much, as even if the guitar riff is the same in a few songs, the music around it is enough to keep your mind off it long enough to not notice it had come and gone. The drums are even better on this album than they have been on any album in the past. Faster feet, even faster hands, and some really impressive fills constitute most of the drum section of this album. While a lot of it, again, is typical Lamb of God drumming, the speed and creativity of some new fills really make up for that.
Like I said before, the sound on this album is not what you would normally expect to hear from Lamb of God. Walk With Me In Hell is a great example of that. The beginning starts off sounding eerily similar to Iron Maiden before reverting back to their normal pulse pounding rhythm. Redneck is another example of the sound change on this album. It’s been said that this song sounds like some kind of hybrid between White Zombie and Megadeth. While this is true, it sure as hell doesn't change how in-your-face and agressive this song is.
The 411: Overall, the band remained the same. The ferocity is still there. The anger is still there. The aggression is still there. The drive is still there. The only difference is, it's masked behind a new sound that might take a little getting used to. This is a terrific album, as it highlights features of the band that many people probably would have never guessed were there.
