Lamb of God is a groove metal or metalcore band that has been around since the late 1990's with Burn The Priest as their debut and their original band name. They changed it to Lamb of God later due to religious contoversy and have also released albums like Ashes Against the Wake, New American Gospel and Sacrament which are some fan favorites. Randy Blythe then got arrested and actually was able to teach his cellmate English I think(don't quote me on that). Before the release of their seventh album, they decided to release five tracks from the album which leaves us with half of it left we haven't listened to prior to its release. How does this album hold up? You're about to find out.

As stated before, these guys have a metalcore sound at times and this album is no exception as far as I'm concerned. In the tracks Erase This and 512 it seems to hold on to more of a melodic tone than you're probably used to by now, even though I've only known Laid To Rest prior to this album, even I can see a large difference. This album also features a couple of guest stars as well like Deftones' Chino Moreno who provides most of the melodic or clean vocals and in the track Torches we get Greg Puciato from The Dillinger Escape Plan. In the song Overlord, we also get a very Alice In Chains-esque song as some people pointed out with it mostly being mostly soft and fairly dark and eerie in tone. It does decide to pick up the pace eventually but not for long as it reverts back to the eerie melody you heard before. It may not be the best on the album but it sure is a good one and also spans for more than 6 minutes in length which in Lamb of God terms is pretty long. Aside from that however, this album never wants let its foot off the excelerator and with good reason! It honestly feels more thrash inspired this time around than groove inspired actually. You may find that hard to believe but trust me, I hear some thrash inspired riffs like the melodic riffs in Erase This or 512 which were previously mentioned. Some of the riffs have gotten heavier and some more aggresive or more melodic because of that slight twinge that I personally notice. It just adds little something special in my eyes that will probably keep me coming back to it whenever I can. I like this album and it is easy to see why this is one of the most highly rated albums of this year.

I give this album a 9.5/10. I am the Grim Reaper, signing off.