As we move onto the sixth day in December the coin is tossed over to Tristan for his daily selection of year another album of the year contender. So far we have had :
- Jakub Zyteki – Wishful Lotus Proof
- Agent Fresco – Destrier
- Cain’s Offering – Stormcrow
- Tesseract – Polaris
- Unleash The Archers – Time Stands Still
6 – Lamb of God – VII : Sturm Und Drang
In order to truly understand the significance of this record we must understand it’s context. Rewinding back to last year when the future was most certainly not set in stone for the band, Lamb of God we’re going through some tumultuous times. Widely publicised singer Randy Blythe was imprisoned in the Czech Republic for a crime he was later acquitted for.
Given the option to stay in America or to return to face the music the singer opted for the latter. Deciding that the band would spend much of 2014 off, the machinations of a new album began to surface in 2015. VII : Sturm Und Drang is arguably the band’s most important material to date. The snubbed Resolution era of Lamb of God was short lived. As mentioned in my review the band would have been more than capable of coasting into the classic Lamb of God style. Instead however we were greeted with clean vocals on “Overlord” guest spots from one Chino Moreno along with Dillinger mad man Greg Puciato.
However these gimmicks hide nothing from the absolutely devastating quality of musicianship expelled from our quintet. The beautiful ode to prison that is “512” or the fast paced riffing of “Anthropoid” and of course album opener “Still Echoes” bring the band firmly into the spotlight. Now with all the ingredients needed to make a truly legendary band, fantastic quality both live and in the studio , a tragic story, fierce loyalty from fans and one of the most defiant comeback albums in the Modern Metal era Lamb of God are the paradigm of excellence and very soon will be talked about in the same breadth as Metallica. You can quote me on that.
