Lamb of God Album: “Sacrament [Edited]”

After taking a few albums to establish their modern update of classic thrash and death metal, Lamb of God have reached the top of their game. This album is jampacked with maturing songwriting ideas and increasing instrumental prowess. Sacrament is a little less dramatic, but much more solid, than the nearly-masterful Ashes of the Wake. The band's crowning glory is still their fearsome rhythm section, with terrifyingly precise drummer Chris Adler and the lowdown gutbucket bass of John Campbell (he's so low that maybe only Satan can fully hear him). Guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler are improving noticeably, especially with their solos and the creativity of their thrash riffs. Randy Blythe's vocals continue to be a bit of a drawback, because he sounds pretty stereotypical when he stays in his usual guttural cookie monster growl. However, Blythe is showing signs of greater excitement when he decides to stretch beyond his normal range, and he is certainly rising above the style of today's standard metal screamer. The politics of Blythe's lyrics are still muddled, though his sheer angry misanthropy and anti-establishment rants are getting pretty interesting.

Lamb of God's growth as songwriters can be heard in two extra noteworthy tracks here. "Redneck" adds a sly southern rock twist to a blistering riff, over Blythe's diatribe about a certain highly-placed (ahem) redneck; while the turgid slow burn of "Descending" offers great drama and a growing sense of dynamics. One recurring problem on Lamb of God's previous albums was that songs would become sluggish and repetitive after the initial riffs outlived their usefulness, but here that problem is mostly avoided through more creative arrangements, except in parts of "Walk With Me in Hell" (which frankly is not a good choice for album opener), and "Blacken the Cursed Sun." However, the band is becoming much better at adding occasional quiet passages and creative effects, which make their usual heaviness stand out much more strongly. Examples include the savage one-two punch of "Forgotten (Lost Angels)" and "Requiem," plus the accurately-titled piledrivers "Foot to the Throat" and "More Time to Kill." Like the greatest long-lived metal bands, Lamb of God have now transcended their category, and are in a category by themselves. This is the new standard of pure American metal. [~doomsdayer520~]

Brutal punishing metal. The singer sounds a bit like Phil from Pantera in some places, but overall a great CD. In these days where hip-hop rules pop culture, it's great to have die-hard, talented metal bands like Lamb of God to carry the torch. If you even think you like metal buy this CD to support the genre. You will not be disappointed.

Lamb of God is a dynamic band filled with talent and skill but honestly this CD just didn't really do it for me. I've been listening to Sacrament over and over again since the very day it came out and as much as I try to I can't seem to get into it. I've loved LOG since the Burn The Priest days and with each subsequent album they have furthered themselves in every aspect of the music from the double bass to the flawless riffs and Randy's vocals there has always been a great step forward or a progression if you will but aside from Randy pushing himself vocally this time around I see this CD greatly lacking in anything of substance.

I think when they chose to let the producer "Machine" in on the creative process they made a huge mistake he worked well with Randy but not that great with the rest of the band. This music is much more geared for concert goers in fact I saw LOG recently and they played some of the songs off Sacrament in Atlanta and they sounded great. Why did they sound great? They sped up the tempo and if you are any true metal fan you would know that seeing these bands live should always sound better than the CD. The problem is even though the music is great live the way it was recorded wasn't. With that being said lyrically the band changed to more personal issues which is a nice switch from the political but the music sounds generic (at some parts) and sounds very radio friendly which is not typical of Lamb of God. They added a couple of nice touches such as some southern rock influences but all in all besides "Walk with me in hell" and "Descending" the music steadily gets choppier and less fluid. This is just me but if you are a new fan don't judge this band on this record alone I beg you to go pick up "As The Palaces Burn" or "Ashes Of The Wake". If you have been a fan all along like me watch the video for "Redneck" and tell me that something has not gone horribly wrong in this band.

I have been a big metal fan for years, and I am a big fan of Lamb Of God; to me, they have taken the classic Slayer aggressive riffing formula and taken it to the next level. When I want heavy riffs, sometimes nothing scratches that itch quite like LOG. On "New American Gospel", they wrote dense, chaotic and intense metal that really hooked me....they refined that and added more progressive elements and structure on "As The Palaces Burn", and perfected their style, in my opinion,with "Ashes Of The Wake". I always look forward to a new LOG release, as each is slightly different from the last yet still firmly within the metal idiom, and heavy as hell.

"Sacrament" sees them experimenting and pushing themselves artistically; there are more atmospheric textural sections and a new reliance on full backing vocals from the band members, as well as a lot of experimentation with vocal style. Very cool, and certainly one of the best metal albums (yet again) in recent years. After listening to it quite a bit though, I have come to the conclusion that the production is a bit muddy, and nowhere near the almost perfect, crystal clear production on their last release, "Ashes Of The Wake"....I also think that occasionally their ideas don't really work as well as they have on previous releases...."Pathetic" is just OK, although the CD is worth buying just for the track "Requiem" alone, which is quite the rollercoaster ride of sick riffage. I can't wait to see what these guys do with their sound next. Keep it up...

One of the better metal albums I've heard in a while. I hadn't listened to LOG since New American Gospel/just after they released As the Palaces Burn, but this album is quite refreshing compared to other metal albums coming out today (sounds like Chris ditched the cardboard box he was using for a bass drum like in the early days lol). Pretty impressive solos, too, coming from these guys.

I was worried they would be jumping on the hardcore bandwagon after seeing them at Hellfest, and some "core-ish" breakdowns are present, but for the most part they are doing what they have always done best, straightforward AMERICAN metal.

However, I think it is quite ridiculous to refer to this band, or Randy's vocals in particular, as Cookie Monster metal. People who say this obviously are new to the metal scene and haven't heard what Cookie Monster metal really is. Lower Randy's vocal's pitch double from his lowest growl, then you have CCM. Go listen to Dying Fetus/Necrophagist (two of the most talented death metal bands IMO, especially Necrophagist) if you want to hear true CCM!!