Lamb of God - Wrath
Heavy Metal
2009
The music industry is an odd commodity. Always there are bands that, despite being accessible and approachable (see King’s X and Mahogany Rush), never break though, while others that are less original or, more importantly, entertaining become popular. Such is the case with Lamb of God, who have become relevant enough to be reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, to sell their albums at mass retailers ala Target and appear on Metacritic.
Alright, so they’re not that big yet, but people have begun to take notice of them, and I’m not sure why. My best guess is that it’s because they have a sort of bad-ass image to them that the kids love, and they’re not shy about going about it. On their newest release,
Wrath, for example, after starting things off semi-calmly with “The Passing”, the music swells as per usual and everything proceeds to get all heavy. The problem is, it tries so hard to not only be heavy, but to get you to crush your skull that it becomes boring. Quick.
To put it bluntly, the album is a blur in the same way that, say, Iron Maiden’s
A Matter of Life and Death is or, more accurately, every other Lamb of God album is. It clocks in at a measly 45 minutes but it seems twenty minutes longer because everything about it is so samey. The riffs keep coming and coming, and lead vocalist Randy Blythe is never shy about belting over them, but none of it is memorable in itself. Music exists to evoke emotion from the listener, in all forms and shapes, but here the instruments sound like their only purpose is to carry the songs from point to point, like it’s impossible for metal to be anything more than chugging. The best way I know how to put it is that the album, the band, is not playing music that happens to be heavy. They are playing music only to be heavy.
If you held me at gunpoint and forced me to give some positives, I might be able to think up a few. Firstly, there isn’t a lot of material present that’s
truly terrible. The only times I was itching to turn the disc off were towards its conclusion, “Everything to Nothing” and “Choke Sermon” signaling an end in sight but still far away, their unaffecting presence probably amplified by the fact that after thirty minutes I felt like I’d heard the entire record already. Secondly, I’ll give the band credit for tightening their guitar tones a little bit and for incorporating some subtleties into their music. Still, the
Kill ‘Em All approach that they're striving for most of the time - no letups in hopes of exhausting you - is a colossal detractor because, where Metallica aimed to hook and to scream with the style, Lamb of God aims only to scream.
“Reclamation” is a perfect supporter of my argument. Where is any riff that sticks with you? Where are any vocals that you feel like singing (or grunting) afterwards to yourself, like only a metal fan would? There are parts both aggressive and soft, but at the end of the day you feel like all it’s interested in being is loud. I don’t see any other point. The lyrics are brutal, yes, but no one listens to Lamb of God for the lyrics. The instruments are always doing things, and they’re never lazy, but at the end of the day they don’t do anything more than provide foundation for the vocals.
And those said vocals? Again, they exist for the sake of existing. Just as so many music fans listen to music for the sake of having something going on in the background, Blythe’s vocals are half growly-half screamy because they allow for people to delve into something heavy for the sake of delving into something heavy. There is nothing else in the music to be found because there are no hooks. There are no instances of grandeur, when things are not formulaic and you feel like you’re listening to something new and groundbreaking. It is only an attitude, and a shallow, stale one at that.
But such is the music business.
*1/2 (out of five)
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