Lamb Of God Are Back With A Vengence

I know that it’s only the first month of the New Year, but the bar has been set and it has been set very high. Lamb of God is back and in a huge way. Their new album Resolution was already on just about every “Most Anticipated Albums of 2012” list out there. We last heard from the Richmond, VA natives in 2009 with their album Wrath. The Virginia Commonwealth University alumnus has again delivered a product to make all other metal bands stand up and take note.

The album opens with “Straight For the Sun” and after an intake of a deep breath, the assault begins with a scream of attack by lead singer Randy Blythe. The riff is slow and churning and is like Black Sabbath on steroids. It’s dark and brooding and ends the same way it starts with that throat blistering scream from Randy. The next track “Desolation” really punches the gas to the floor and takes off into familiar territory of LOG fans. It’s intense, fast, brutal and in your face.

“Ghost Walking” will make you do a double take. Wait, did I just hear an acoustic guitar intro? A very cool, short, blues type intro is quickly plugged in and amped up with the volume cranked high. The solo in this song is blistering to the ears and fingertips both. Speaking of ears, “Guilty” will be reminiscent to fans of the earlier LOG sound of just pure intense assault on your senses. The “no intro” approach on this one is like going from 0 to 90 in a second as Randy launches this one out of the park.

Next up is one of my favorite tracks on the album, “The Undertow”. A bit on the thrash side, but still maintaining the elements that make LOG who they are. The solo is also pretty insane on this stellar track also. “Barbarossa” is a change of pace and a 1:40ish chance to catch your breath from the assault that you just went through. It’s an instrumental and sounds unlike anything else on the album. It’s short, but it solidifies the fact that these guys are great musicians not just a one trick pony.

“Invictus” quickly floors the gas pedal and gets us back into the trademark, aggressive territory with a heavy groove and a blistering solo. “Insurrection” is one of the more complex and rewarding tracks on the album and it has several layers to it. Randy’s vocal delivery is a crazy mix of spoken work, throat blistering screams and at times almost clean vocals. There is another awesome solo provided mid-way through. There’s also a killer riff that chugs along throughout the song carrying it to the melodic chorus and then picks right back up again.

The album closes with “King Me” and the guys may have saved the best for last. The intro to the song should be an indicator with how this song is about to build into an epic masterpiece. The guitars are dark and eerie when combined with the somewhat operatic vocals in the background and Randy’s clean, spoken lines. Then, the song bursts into the rawness that we expect from LOG but with a huge twist. The guys have gone way out on a limb on this track and push the envelope by including an orchestra/string section on this track. I think it works in an epic way and it will certainly be interesting to hear the fans reaction to this track that shows the guys really branching out.

So, is this a perfect album? Well, it’s not 100% perfection, but it comes pretty close. The second half of the album may not be as uniformly strong as the first half, but it certainly is far from being weak my most standards. Randy Blythe will truly astound you on here. If you have been following LOG, then you may think that you have already heard all the range that he had to offer. Well, he takes his epic screams to an even lower level of intensity that you thought was unimaginable. His almost clean delivery and spoken verse on a few tracks will definitely shock you.

The two guitar assault of Mark Morton and Willie Adler has raised the bar as well for their intensity and rawness that they deliver. Yes, there are plenty of blistering solos and insane shredding to the point that you wonder if these guys have any fingertips left. Chris Adler’s drumming is very underrated and his playing has gotten even more aggressive ob this album. I wish that John Campbell’s bass would be brought more to the forefront as it seems to get overshadowed at times by all that is going on around him.

Resolution has everything that Lamb of God fans have come to know and love over the years. The guys have certainly set the bar high for other releases coming out this year. Could the album of the year for 2012 have already been released so early into the year? Well, I think it may just have, but the next 11 months will prove interesting.

Mayhem Tour Tears Through Raleigh, NC

They’re several definitions of Mayhem in the dictionary. A state of disorder or riotous confusion, havoc. That may be the best of them to sum up this year’s successful Rockstar Mayhem Tour. It made a stop on August 3 on a blistering Tuesday afternoon. The Raleigh venue was one of, if not the, smallest venues and crowds on the tour which has pulled in some impressive numbers in this summer’s dismal touring season.

The gates officially opened at 2:15 with a steady stream of black t-shirts, piercings and tats roaring through. Ah, the summer outdoor concerts, you have to love them. You see so much that you never expected to see and that usually has nothing to do with the artists performing. The crowd is like the show before the show!

Going to a show like Mayhem requires a few things from those in attendance. Sunblock is important as the temp that day was in the upper nineties with minimal shade to be found. Another is stamina and the consumption of lots of water. Lastly and probably most important is money.....lots of money. Every band was selling merchandise and almost all were doing meet and greets. Most of them required you to buy their CD and you got an autograph and picture with them. This is a great marketing move, especially with the industry being in such a downward spiral because of downloading. The mucho dinero also comes in handy considering beer was $9, Gatorade was $6 and hotdogs were $5 each.

The band’s schedules on the two secondary stages, the Silver Stage and the Jagermeister Stage, were staggered. One band would play their set on one stage and within minutes of finishing, another started playing on the other stage. Get the picture? Each band’s set was roughly thirty minutes in length but an intense thirty-minute set. All killer with no filler!

3 Inches Of Blood kicked off the day with a loud set that got alot of the hungry head bangers going but just wetted their appetites for more. In This Moment’s set saw lead singer Maria Brink go out into the crowd to the soundboard for their final song, “Daddy’s Falling Angel”, to get a circle pit going around the board. The fans were game and started a huge dust storm that looked like cattle being herded to their slaughter as their circled her.

Shadow’s Fall had a great crowd for their set which included a great cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Bark at The Moon” that got the crowd singing along. Lead singer Brian Fair pulled a little guy on stage, maybe 7 or 8, who could barely see over the barricade but had been head banging their entire set. He let this little rocker watch the last song from the side of the stage. Talk about a Mayhem memory!

Norma Jean and Chimaira, who had just played a club date the night before with In This Moment in Charlotte, NC, got some of the best crowd reactions with their ear splitting sets. There was lots of crowd surfing going on. Hatebreed closed out the Jager stage showing that after sixteen years of doing what they love, they still have what it takes to teach some of the younger bands how to rock out properly. These guys are an excellent example of true hardcore and always believing in what they are doing.

The band’s kept a tight schedule and right at 6:30, as shown in the program, Five Finger Death Punch took to the main stage. Vocalist Ivan Moody has assembled a tight unit of guys who, although were not friends to begin with when formed, have grown into a vital band in today’s scene. Ivan is great with the crowd too. At one point asking who in the audience had bought their new CD and then asking who had illegally downloaded it. Well, a question like that made some shy away from answering but there were quite a few who admitted to it. Ivan said that, even though it took fifteen cents out of his pocket for every copy downloaded illegally, the main thing was that it brought them out to the show. Their cover of Bad Company classic song “Bad Company” got a great response from the crowd.

Richmond, Virginia’s Lamb of God took the stage next. They are celebrating their fifteen years of slaying audiences this year. These guys are another example of never straying from your beliefs and compromising. Their aggressive forty minutes set had very little banter with the crowd and they simply gave the audience what they came for, the music. A set of all substance and very little style. Don’t get me wrong, these guys don’t depend on props or a fancy stage to make their point. They have a great light show but no fancy distractions to take away from the fact that they are here to thrash your faces off. These guys weren’t nominated at Revolver’s 2010 Golden Gods awards for Best Live Band because they sit on barstool and sing.

Next up was Rob Zombie, who definitely puts on a show. Almost the complete opposite of Lamb of God, Rob is over the top with his stage show. You know for a fact that two of his influences growing up were KISS and Alice Cooper when you see his show. There were flames and robots and smoke everywhere and that was before Rob even came out on stage! His set mixed in a few White Zombie songs along with his solo material. “Dragula” and “Never Gonna Stop” had the crowd on their feet. He paid tribute to his idol Alice by doing a cover of “School’s Out” which was awesome. His guitarist John 5 has been playing dates on a broken foot and teased him about it. He asked him if he wanted to play something softer that would hurt as much and he went into “Sweet Dreams” which he covered when he played with Marilyn Manson. Rob said that he was going to play a classic to get the older people in the grass seats up and played a hyped up version of his White Zombie classic “Thunderkiss ‘65” that went over great with the crowd.

At most venues on the tour, after Rob leaves so does most of the crowd. It almost seems as if he should have headlined. For those who left early, they missed a great performance by Korn. After some ups and downs the last few years, it seems as if they have returned more to what got them established back in 1994. That heavier, kind of edgy sound that you remember Korn having back then and less electronic. They played a few new songs from their latest CD and went old school with the rest of their set list. Their show was also full of pyro and a great overall stage show. Lead singer Jonathan Davis seems to have the boys back on track and their set at mayhem showed that they haven’t lost a thing.

So, after almost twelve hours of being in the blistering sun, the day had come to an end. Well, except for fighting all the traffic out. This year’s Mayhem Tour has been operating with ticket sales averaging a little over 20% above last year’s tour, which is good news for all of us metal fans. I cannot wait to see what tour producers Kevin Lyman and John Reese will have in store for us next year. I hope the smaller turnout doesn’t discourage them from coming to Raleigh, NC again. For those who were there, it was an awesome day full of rip your face off metal and for those who missed out, maybe next year! Horns high metal heads!