Album Review- Lamb of God "Resolution"

Pretty much since 2006’s “Sacrament”, the Virginia based metal juggernauts Lamb of God have the most anticipated metal album of the year. For most of their career, the band has delivered punishing albums with stunning precision and one would have to think that is this were the old days of the music industry, this would be the metal band playing arenas, ala Pantera in the mid-90’s.

With their seventh album, “Resolution”, Lamb of God doesn’t quite reinvent the wheel here, but delivers another headbeating 14 songs. Starting with the blood curdling screams of the opener “Straight for the Sun” to the usual groove metal of the first single “Ghost Walking”, Randy Blythe start in a familiar comfort zone to lure fans in. But where the album gets interesting is after the first single, where cuts like “The Undertow”, “Barbarosa” and “The Number Six” doesn’t really show us anything new, but brings intensity and the fiercest vocals from Blythe in several albums.

After going for some shine on “Sacrament” and on certain parts of their 2009 album “Wrath”, LOG muddy up the guitar work in a good way, giving the overall sound a bit more edge than the past few efforts. Of course there are a few tracks that seem subpar, such as the been there, done that already “Cheated” (but you gotta give them props for using the Sex Pistols’ infamous last line in concert “don’t you get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”) and the cleaning singing in parts of “Insurrection” sound more Phil Anselmo-ish than Blythe’s.

I think that the material on “Resolution” doesn’t show any new tricks in the playbook, but with a band like Lamb of God, I can let that slide. The album shows a brut force that was missing on “Wrath” and is more in the vein of their classic 2004 album “Ashes of the Wake”. And to be honest, an above average Lamb of God record will contend for Album of the Year and is still better than 99 percent of metal bands out there.