Resolution (Vinyl) [Import]

Lamb of God's new album will not surprise either fans of the band or people just getting into them. They seem to be a band who've found what kind of music they want to play, and are perfectly content right now to keep doing that. Some people might rush to judgment and call their formula stale, or claim they aren't growing. Sometimes when I hear that about Lamb of God or any other metal band I wonder what people want; are all metal bands supposed to "grow" and "progress" so much on every album that they eventually reach a point where their sound is unrecognizable to their own fans? I say this because, while some bands do lose their creativity after one or two brilliant albums, a certain few have the ability to stay mostly within a particular genre and continually produce songs that sound fresh, energetic, new, driven, etc. They become something better than predictable; they become dependable. Overkill comes to mind, or Pantera when they were around, or certain extreme bands like Napalm Death. I don't identify myself as a major Lamb of God fan since I'm only familiar with two of their previous releases, so I can't give a full-scale account of their history. I just know that today they're generally lumped in with other successful modern metal acts like Five Finger Death Punch, DevilDriver, Killswitch Engage, Hatebreed, Chimaira, and a few others. Having heard some of the music of all those bands, I have to say that listening to Lamb of God in comparison to the other forerunners of today's metal puts them squarely in the lead in my opinion. They sound the most confident and skilled in their particular niche, and unapologetic in their dedication to a sound they're determined to have, regardless of where the trends are headed. Lamb of God is a good band to have around representing heavy music, as they seem bound to produce albums of solid, thrash-based, groove-fueled metal.

As for individual songs, none of the tracks is noticeably weaker than the rest, and each offers a variety of groove and speed. Randy Blythe's vocals are an acquired taste, one of those elements you're either going to love or hate, but as a fan of extreme metal, I think he has much less of a generic scream/roar than any of the modern bands mentioned above, with the exception of Dez from DevilDriver. The album's opening track, Straight for the Sun, is cool, starting things off with a slow, doomy riff, and the song itself is actually a slow crawl leading into the up-tempo second track, Desolation. The next couple songs, Ghost Walking and Guilty, are both impressive, with a good mix of strong riffs and different speeds. Guilty and Cheated are the two fastest on the album, but neither is about just pure speed. The tenth song, Insurrection, is probably my early favorite, as it seems to have more of a dynamic build-up than the rest, more of an epic quality. The album closer, King Me is a bit different, with some operatic background singing and orchestral instrumentation, but it doesn't come across as overly ambitious or pretentious, especially placed at the very end. Every song on Resolution, including King Me, boasts great riffs that do sometimes remind me of Dime, and sometimes of Killswitch, but the songs still sound like Lamb of God. I wouldn't call them particularly original, but some bands are just good at writing metal songs, and I think this is one of them. They haven't changed much, but they aren't one of those bands that sounds tired, hashing out more of the same old thing to earn a paycheck. Resolution will absolutely please their hardcore fans, but anyone into metal in general like me will probably hear a little something extra in Lamb of God than other current bands they're mentioned alongside. This new release is a solid delivery of aggression and power, offering one good song after another. In fact, as far as metal goes, you might say it's very dependable.

I'm not going to breakdown the entire album track by track, but my initial thoughts were "Wow, this is awesome!!" It has many of the elements you love about LOG. There are some nice breakdowns, some more interesting vocals. Randy and Chris have both improved most noticeably in my opinion, but I'm a drummer so I gravitate toward the drums initially. Also, I have only listened to the cd critically once and two other times casually. I like a lot of the riffs, though some of their really 'classic' hooks that made some of their past albums so great aren't quite there. The album overall is strong though, and has for the most part a constant driving groove. There are some nice rhythmic patterns played as a group that have a great feel. Sometimes in the past I have felt that some of their songs were too 'rigid' in groove. I'm not looking for funk, but it's nice when even thrash metal can find a pocket and break out of that ultra-straight feel. There is a bit of a monotonous undertone to the album that you walk away with though. They did try some breakdowns and experimental vocals, but it seems like they just want to dip their toes in the water with anything that can be seen as a departure from their genre. I usually judge albums based on how much they reside in the brain afterward, how quickly addicted I get to them, and if they stand the test of time. Take Primus' Sailing the Seas of Cheese. Still listening to it. Tool's Aenima. Still in rotation. I may go away from them, but eventually they end up in rotation and overtime at least personally become 'classic' to me. This is a solid album, though I think most fans would agree that we were hoping for something bigger, some great departure that took LOG to some next level beyond in a great way without doing a disservice to their roots. That time will have to wait. I didn't immediately take to Wrath either though, but it grew on me more and more and eventually I had to stop listening to it for fear that I'd play it to death for myself.

This album is Lamb of God, almost exactly what you would expect. If you are already a LoG fan, this album is a must have, though if you do not like previous LoG albums, I doubt this album will change your views.

Musically, Resolution is clearly distinct from previous albums, and finds a sweet spot between raw recordings and overproduction. There are a few guitar solos (surprisingly) and a beautiful symphonic closing. Randy has incredible vocals as always. In short, this is Lamb of God doing exactly what they do best.