Year : 2012Genre : Groove Metal
Label : Epic / Roadrunner Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.0 / 10
(score evolved from 7.0 / 10 on 2012, September 13)
Buy it now
With its 2012 LP Resolution, premiere Pantera clone Lamb of God declares that it still is the devoted follower of the T-Rex. The name of the game herein is traditional groove metal with minimal - if any - deviations from and/or additions to the well established primer formulas of the testosterone Heavy! Met'll! subgenre, and, if one tiny thing could be added that seems to draw somewhat of a promise of an identity to this ancient clone band right now, - that is more pronounced than "that" of other lambs of the large clone flock - then it is the album's much welcomed raw-meat heaviness, which utterly rejects the recent day sterile plastic sound. The robust meat-charisma sonic data of this release comes to you as the primordial benefit, and, as result of its relentless abuse, as the primordial hindrance of the stimuli, as well. Because, trust me, this LP has no novelty other to offer than the legitimacy of the new autonomous pattern - which is a splendid offering on its own merits - AND the character of the sound, which kicks your ass to hell and back. If you have expected anything else than highly traditional groove metal from this band, then you are obviously deluded, and in for a gentle awakening. Read on to find out more about this super-orthodox release, if you want.
Resolution is a risk free groove metal pill with a huge dosage of decently engineered T-Rex content, and tints and tints of brilliant variants of the exact same thing. It would be unfair and unnecessary to criticize this record for what it tries to do, as the band's intent once again is to duplicate - reinvigorate, ripof... TUKK! - that which does not need any of these operations, as the thing we are talking about, still is the groove metal of the early '90s, established by Pantera. Only (much more) neurotic. Check out this great Pantera clone with no (t that much) neurotic tendencies at all.
This new Lamb of God release, one must admit, at least exhibits the characteristic of being entertainingly and semi-convincingly angry on a comic book register, and also poses the question : what is the best age of your life to cultivate and resonate your primal rage in a fashion that you look the least laughable while at it? This is a tough question. The Lamb of God dudes are quick to address the peaking of their engineered product-(r)age herein to serve out "Y"ours with a capital reverse-"WHY??" , and, as such, this LP reaches its full potentiality in superfast fashion. The release no doubt is honest like a cartoon asskick by a cartoon electronic bull in this regard, yet I have a personal percept that the mere raw charisma of the grooving rumble oftentimes is utilized as a method to escape the need to deliver a new-, autonomous groove of reality punishment for. The best moments of the album demand immediate recognition, though. I especially like the track "Desolation", with its relentless minigun grooves and capricious shifts. I love the song, OK? But what is up with the timber of the guitars? Am I the only who thinks that they would sound better with a little bit more mid-and high frequency let through? Share your input, and please know : I do not want to give you the concern troll, nor the snob with this question. My question is honest.
I'm not too happy with the vocals on the album, but I don't have so much against them as if I had twice as much against them then I actually have. They mostly sound "just" neurotic to me, and the only instinctively perceivable emotion of the LP is the constant fucking nervous breakdown. Sure, some of you are in for that, exactly. The vocalist's Anselmo imitation became less raw and believable, in my opinion, and I'm relatively shocked to report that his delivery sounds to exhibit metalcoresque vocalfry screaming here and there. On the other hand, one can not take away from the band that they are sounding more "real" and aggressive than the latest album of them that I am familiar with, - here. The production values of this decent groove metal release are more than enough to call it a SAFE recommendation. And that is the problem with Lamb of God - Resolution, too.
Rating : 8.0 / 10
(score evolved from 7.0 / 10 on 2012, September 13)
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>Pantera clone Lamb of God
ReplyDeletestopped reading there.
Aaaaaaaand, in your very next dream session, Pantera was a sideproject of Lamb of God, wasn't it.
ReplyDeleteFans.
Although you can always make an argument based on your own negative opinion, the listeners' ears will interpret the truth (that this album is amazing). See, any sound or rhythm that resembles that of the founding fathers (Pantera with groove in your example) will be deemed unsatisfactory to "fuddy duds" like you. Music is always evolving, each artist throwing their own stone into to the great pool of sound that is for all to use as a template and to build on. Just as you cannot compare Larry Bird to Lebron James because it is a different plane of existence, the same goes with your review buddy. But music should not be analyzed in respect to the past or future, but the present. With this mindset, you can appreciate any type of music. By the way, the best metal band PERIOD is Opeth, because they pull you into the present sound and nothing more. No comparisons, just a pure sensation! Please get on my level someone. You say fancy words but they are pure bullshit.
ReplyDelete@yo : I agree with your initial observations, I simply think that Lamb of God does not do anything that hasn't been done before, even by the forefathers. So Lamb of God does NOT evolve, imo. It recycles. If you bring up a band like Ceterum and their latest LP which I have reviewed, - the entire album is a hack on time and stuff - THEN I can take your argument about musical evolution, seriously.
ReplyDeleteI will say this : a single out of this earth drum pattern from the latest Ceterum album excites me more than this entire Lamb of God album, so I was pretty kind to this release. Lamb of God is not evolution. Lamb of God is stagnation. But stagnation is necessary, too, and I give them that they are the adept scholars of stagnation. I won't challenge you on the argument of "pure bullshit", as you seem to be the expert on the matter. Thank you for your comment.
The review is written with a nice sense of complex terminology.
ReplyDeleteCould we agree that a band's progression should be measured by its own creative period, though? I mean LoG have certainly come a long way if you compare Resolution to Burn the Priest, New American Gospel or Palaces, but to compare their progress to the subjectively fresh feel of the material presented by Ceterum is a case of apples and oranges in my opinion.
There are allusions to Pantera (especially the instrumental track) to be found on the album, but I find it hard to believe that if Dime & co would still be doing music, they'd do an album like Resolution or even something remotely close to it. LoG have always included stuff that sounds like Pantera/Eyehategod just like there has always been riffs reminiscent of At The Gates, yet nobody would ever call them the new At The Gates.
By now, you'll have figured the fanboy speakin, but my view on Ceterum - to stick to the example - would be just as distorted as yours on LoG for reasons of musical preference. Bands like the former can have progressive drum patterns all day, but they wouldn't be the first to experiment with rhythms either (90's Meshuggah to name a popular example). Metal's mindspace is too big to assign certain stylistics to particular bands - there's only the ones that might have made a sound big if you think of commercial success or popularity, but if a band claimed to have reinvented the wheel, that would nothing but foolish.
Anyways, the review was an enjoyable read, so thank you for that. I am hereby expressing my disagreement, though. i think it's good if a band manages to incorporate classic metal elements and not sound like mere copycats while doing so, but mix it with their own spirit and modern means. That should not count as stagnation.
And please don't pick on me for the lack of using stellar English grammar like you do. English = 2nd language for me.
@The_True_Turrican : Your points seem to be valid to me, and there might be need to express why I think "stagnation" - the quotation marks are new, too - is necessary. Stagnation can't really even be stagnation - that would be releasing the same goddamn LP every year :D - since, if a band rearranges similar (genre) elements into unique, autonomous patterns, then THAT is necessarily creation. Not necessarily "true progress", but creation, for sure.
ReplyDeleteI realize I have been bitchwhining way too much already about how Lamb of God sounds super-similar to me in nature to Pantera, as the Lamb of God members probably would be the first to admit that Pantera is their premier influence and inspiration. In this regard, one could NLP a new frame into the matter, and say : "look, Mr. Manfred Trenz! These Lamb of God dudettes are STILL into classic groove metal, so let's see what they can come up with." To tell you the truth, I was aware all the time that there is such an angle as well, but I was very curious of the size of the shitstorm I could get myself into if to be a little bit bigger of a douché towards Lamb of God than I was comfortable with.
Thanks for the kind notion about my English grammar, English is foreign to me, too. Excellent comment, thank you for adding it.
I find your reply to be a constructive one. it's pleasing to see you're not of the stubborn kind.
ReplyDeleteOn a more personal note, the Manfred Trenz reference totally made my day.
Cheers!
This is metal folks.. not a steely dan album.. get fucking wasted and put this shit up to 11.
ReplyDelete