Lamb Of God

Wrath

[4/5]

If there’s been one criticism of Lamb Of God’s otherwise indisputable discography, it’s that the band have developed such a trademark, genre-defining sound, recent recordings have blended into one another to create one big, molten mass of wicked riffs and Randy Blythe-delivered grunts. But on the metal innovators’ latest release, Wrath, LOG maintain all those essential elements and more, yet still venture into uncharted territory: From the moment the album opens in epic fashion with “The Passing,” complete with rich, clean guitars reminiscent of Metallica’s “Battery,” you sense you’re in for a wild ride into parts unknown, and the record doesn’t disappoint. Wrath plays like a compendium of hybridized influences-on the sonically unforgiving “Contractor” and “Broken Hands,” precision death-metal passages give way to brutal hardcore breakdowns suitable for a Madball album, and “Set To Fail” assures us that groove metal is alive and well in the post-Pantera world-while Blythe’s vocals grow in sophistication with each subsequent release. Other highlights include “Fake Messiah,” a bleak, pummeling culmination point, and “Reclamation,” which uses shreddy acoustics and the sound of crashing waves to bring Wrath to a memorable close. If you thought LOG would vacate their throne, think again. (EPIC) Brendan Manley



ROCKS LIKE:

Metallica’s Master Of Puppets

Pantera’s Vulgar Display Of Power

Slayer’s Seasons In The Abyss



IN-STORE SESSION WITH GUITARIST MARK MORTON



Lamb Of God recently toured with Metallica, which must’ve been a trip. How was that?

I don’t get too starstruck, but it’s definitely not lost on me when James Hetfield walks into your dressing room and pats you on the back and says, “Hey, what’s up dude?” It’s like, holy shit… Between the Napster thing and Some Kind Of Monster, I think people have the wrong impression of who they are. They’re a really, really good group of guys.



As your own past documentaries have shown, strife is no stranger to your band. How is everyone getting along?

Better than ever… There’s a certain amount of stress that the business puts on all of us, and sometimes there’s no one to take that out on except each other, but this band started with a group of friends getting together to drink some beers and play some riffs, and that’s still really what [LOG are]. Across the board we’re in a better place personally; lifestyle-wise, I think we’re all healthier than we’ve ever been.



Your band have always had ferocious riffs, yet on Wrath there’s also plenty of clean guitar. How did that come about?

I felt like we’d never quite realized or allowed our ability to manifest itself on a record in terms of using clean guitars and melodic guitars. We’re a band that certainly don’t have a songbird singer, so I think there’s a lot of room for us to employ melody with the guitars… It sounds dark; it sounds sick. It’s really musical, but it’s still scary and heavy, too.



The last track, “Reclamation,” is a great example of that vibe. The clean guitars in the outro are insane.

That’s actually a live recording of Willie [Adler, guitar] and I with a microphone playing acoustic guitars, sitting on the deck of this great studio [in rural Virginia] where we tracked the guitars, way out on the bay. Those waves you hear are right over our shoulders. If you turn it way up, you can hear Randy [Blythe, vocals] smoking a cigarette and coughing. You don’t get no more live than that.



So, after 15 years and five albums, what’s left for Lamb Of God to achieve?

We spent so long as this underground, underdog, cult-following band, and then it changed to where we’re at the forefront of heavy metal right now. We’re kind of graduating almost to this “veterans” classification, and are working our way to becoming the elder statesmen in this scene. It’s a very fortunate thing-there are so many great bands coming up… To still be here, and to be able to say that this new material is as good or better than anything we’ve done, is just an awesome, awesome place to be. [BM]