Album Reviews : Lamb of God – Resolution

The metal world received some huge news to kick off the first month of 2012, some of it being really shocking or exciting to the fans. There was the sad announcement that Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma, and then Motorhead released their own signature brand of vodka (which is currently only available in Sweden). But in between all of that, Lamb of God’s singer Randy Blythe excited the world by announcing his run for president of the United States in 2012. With “Fuck the dumb shit, let’s get real here” being his heroic slogan, and announcements of some crazy promo stunts, Randy seems more focused than ever on his presidential candidacies. But that isn’t the only huge recent event for Lamb of God this year, as in January they also released their 7^th studio album, “Resolution”.

There are a few different things to expect in Lamb of God’s new album. Each member has challenged their musical abilities to create one of their toughest albums yet, with a few twists and turns. One of the main differences would be noticeable to most guitarists/bassists; some of the songs are tuned down to Drop C# instead of the usual Drop D, which to me was a fairly big risk, but it worked well.
Opening up the album is one of Randy Blythe’s ferocious, unique sounding yells to a somewhat doomy, slammy intro song called “Straight for the Sun”, which is tuned even lower than the rest of the album and is down to Drop C. If you’ve heard their song Redneck, you’d notice the second track “Desolation” has a Redneck-vibe to it. It’s mainly the flow of the song that gives the song the Redneck vibe, but it is most noticeable in the chorus. Either way, Straight for the Sun and Desolation were a monstrous way to start the album and kept me interested in listening to the rest.

I have two favourite tracks from the album, and one of them is the first single “Ghost Walking”. The acoustic riff to start the song followed by the rest of the band is a real kick in the face, and the southern, groovy influence shown on the song instrumentally is incredible. A big reminder of Pantera to me, only tuned lower. My other favourite song on the album called “The Number Six”, and no, the title isn’t a reference to where the song is placed on the album. Being one of the few songs tuned back up to the usual Drop D, the song sounds a lot more like stuff off their Sacrament album, with a chorus to never forget, and whilst being heavy, also shows a softer, darker side.

With a “1, 2, 1 2 fuck you” count to open the song, track 9 “Cheated” is one of the couple of tracks showing the twists and turns I was talking about near the start of this review, mixing their own sound with a high amount of punk rock influence. One of the other things on the able that you probably wouldn’t expect to hear if you’re a Lamb of God fan, is the epic, orchestral, blackened ending to the album; the near 7 minute track named “King Me”. The band took their own sound, and combined it with symphony and an opera singer to back their music up. In their words, they were “trying to sound as black metal as possible without actually being black metal”, and I thought it was very interesting.

In my opinion, Lamb of God seems to improve all the time, and that is definitely shown on Resolution. The main thing they have proven musically is that they’re not a band to do the same thing they previously done, as they stuck to their signature sound and experimented with it, throwing in other influences into their sound. Personally, I think its Lamb of God’s best album, and I don’t see why any new listeners or people who have liked their previous albums would dislike it.

9/10

Band: Lamb of God
Album: Resolution
Year: 2012
Genre: New Wave of American Heavy Metal
Origin: Richmond, Virginia, USA.
Label: Roadrunner Records

Track listing:
1. Straight for the Sun
2. Desolation
3. Ghost Walking (reviewers choice)
4. Guilty
5. The Undertow
6. The Number Six (reviewers choice)
7. Barbaraosa
8. Invictus
9. Cheated
10. Insurrection
11. Terminally Unique
12. To The End
13. Visitation
14. King Me