Lamb Of God
Resolution
01. Straight To The Sun
02. Desolation
03. Ghost Walking
04. Guilty
05. The Undertow
06. The Number Six
07. Barbarosa
08. Invictus
09. Cheated
10. Insurrection
11. Terminally Unique
12. To The End
13. Visitation
14. King Me
[01/24/11]
[Roadrunner Records]
Longevity in bands is a strange beast — some bands make the best of it and some have some pretty well documented struggles with it. Take for instance prog legends Rush, that are set to release their 19th album later this year to what looks likely to be a rapturous reception after the way their recent single was received, but it’s bands like Metallica that are the most fascinating. Despite having a recent output that ranges solely from the above average (Death Magnetic) to the frankly dreadful (St. Anger), they’re still the biggest metal band around and essentially sustaining their lucrative lifestyle off the back of achievements made at least 20 years ago. You could argue that Metallica fans simply suffer from ‘battered wife syndrome’ or that they made such an impact with early material that it doesn’t matter, either way it’s an interesting insight into the way popularity and quality interlinks.
It would be hard to argue against the idea that Lamb Of God are, by far, one of the most important metal bands of the 21st century, maybe even the Metallica of our generation. Taking as much inspiration from Pantera as they do Slayer, you only have to listen to the quality of an album like Ashes Of The Wake to understand why they were able to put one of the final nails in the coffin of the declining nu-metal trend and become of the main proponents for the ‘New Wave Of American Heavy Metal’ psuedo-genre. But the attention span of us consumers is a fickle one, so after six studio albums that showed a fairly paced and natural progression, you’d be forgiven for asking ‘what are Lamb Of God doing that’s still relevant and why should I care?’
Swallow the Sun
Ministry
Eluveitie
Anthrax
Erra
Intact
