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Lamb Of God - Sacrament
Epic Records - August 22nd, 2006
By Brandon Strader
Lamb of God is another band that has become so large that they've basically collapsed in on themself like a neutron star. As The Palaces Burn was an incredible album that basically marked the peak and best material of the band. Ashes Of The Wake had catchier songs with slightly better production and annoying liberal political lyrics laced throughout the album concept. If the fanbase wasn't too divided for Ashes Of The Wake, they definitely will be for Sacrament. There will always be those devoutly faithful to the band, of course, every band has the luxury of such fans... The album starts of well enough with "Walk With Me In Hell" with its swirl of notes in the opening lead with an echo on the guitar. It almost plays like an orchestration with the guitars and keyboards weaving in and out of major and minor chords. Finally the growls break in and it sounds like Blythe is actually growling in key for certain lines, which is pretty cool. The verse is heavy as heck, and the chorus is bombastic and great. Lamb of God put a few hardcore breakdowns into the song and put a guitar lead and some vocals on top and hope nobody will notice! I kid, the breakdowns are harsh and I assume would really punish the audience in a live setting.
The production is really good, the performances are very tight, and even the vocals have gone up a notch in skill from their previous efforts. The songwriting is definitely evolving, and the band doesn't have that raw charm they had on As The Palaces Burn, but the new direction is pretty fresh and a bit catchier, which may be why some fans are dissapointed. Blythe's war cries on "Again We Rise" are about as brutal as they come, and it's really cool to notice that he still has the same vocal style and tone as he did on previous records, yet is experimenting more with his voice. We redneck folks are somewhat satisfied with the tribute to us entitled "Redneck" featured on this album. It's not something I would really want to see played live at my birthday party, but it is a good song nonetheless. Blythe does a kind of heavy metal vocal style for the verses on this song, which is a really cool new dynamic the band is playing on. The major unfortunate factor behind the whole album is that they are really building off of the one low powerchord too often for the majority of their verses. Sometimes they'll break out into an actual powerchord progression but a lot of the time it's just plain low powerchord tremolos sometimes with a faster guitar lead or solo above it.
The mix and mastering job is fantastic, and the overall sound quality is really good, but the songwriting is nowhere near as good as As The Palaces Burn. On that album you could hear a song once and immediately tell that it was a hit, and it stuck in your head for a long time. The songs on Sacrament really seem way too similar, and there is not enough diversity throughout the album to really make it anything exceptionally good. It's great that they've converted who knows how many people into metalheads by releasing such popular albums in the past with good promotion and advertising, but at this point they really aren't pushing the envelope at all, and really stand as more of a "gateway drug" into metal than something unique.
6.3/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Lamb of God Website
Official Epic Records Website
Epic Records - August 22nd, 2006
By Brandon Strader
Lamb of God is another band that has become so large that they've basically collapsed in on themself like a neutron star. As The Palaces Burn was an incredible album that basically marked the peak and best material of the band. Ashes Of The Wake had catchier songs with slightly better production and annoying liberal political lyrics laced throughout the album concept. If the fanbase wasn't too divided for Ashes Of The Wake, they definitely will be for Sacrament. There will always be those devoutly faithful to the band, of course, every band has the luxury of such fans... The album starts of well enough with "Walk With Me In Hell" with its swirl of notes in the opening lead with an echo on the guitar. It almost plays like an orchestration with the guitars and keyboards weaving in and out of major and minor chords. Finally the growls break in and it sounds like Blythe is actually growling in key for certain lines, which is pretty cool. The verse is heavy as heck, and the chorus is bombastic and great. Lamb of God put a few hardcore breakdowns into the song and put a guitar lead and some vocals on top and hope nobody will notice! I kid, the breakdowns are harsh and I assume would really punish the audience in a live setting.
The production is really good, the performances are very tight, and even the vocals have gone up a notch in skill from their previous efforts. The songwriting is definitely evolving, and the band doesn't have that raw charm they had on As The Palaces Burn, but the new direction is pretty fresh and a bit catchier, which may be why some fans are dissapointed. Blythe's war cries on "Again We Rise" are about as brutal as they come, and it's really cool to notice that he still has the same vocal style and tone as he did on previous records, yet is experimenting more with his voice. We redneck folks are somewhat satisfied with the tribute to us entitled "Redneck" featured on this album. It's not something I would really want to see played live at my birthday party, but it is a good song nonetheless. Blythe does a kind of heavy metal vocal style for the verses on this song, which is a really cool new dynamic the band is playing on. The major unfortunate factor behind the whole album is that they are really building off of the one low powerchord too often for the majority of their verses. Sometimes they'll break out into an actual powerchord progression but a lot of the time it's just plain low powerchord tremolos sometimes with a faster guitar lead or solo above it.
The mix and mastering job is fantastic, and the overall sound quality is really good, but the songwriting is nowhere near as good as As The Palaces Burn. On that album you could hear a song once and immediately tell that it was a hit, and it stuck in your head for a long time. The songs on Sacrament really seem way too similar, and there is not enough diversity throughout the album to really make it anything exceptionally good. It's great that they've converted who knows how many people into metalheads by releasing such popular albums in the past with good promotion and advertising, but at this point they really aren't pushing the envelope at all, and really stand as more of a "gateway drug" into metal than something unique.
6.3/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Lamb of God Website
Official Epic Records Website
