Gelap Pekat

Tracklist:

1. The Passing (1:58)
2. In Your Words (5:24)
3. Set to Fail (3:44)
4. Contractor (3:22)
5. Fake Messiah (4:33)
6. Grace (3:54)
7. Broken Hands (3:53)
8. Dead Seeds (3:40)
9. Everything to Nothing (3:50)
10. Choke Sermon (3:20)
11. Reclamation (7:05)
12. We Die Alone (4:39) [Japan Bonus]
13. Shoulder of Your God (5:55) [Japan Bonus]
14. Condemn the Hive (n\a) [Japan Bonus]


I present this review as an unbiased listener. As hype and hopes usually float around in the anticipation of new releases from bands such as Lamb of God (LOG), I humbly decided to give this album a go.

A lot of people feel that LOG have been losing steam as their popularity gauge has increased. I did enjoy (to some extent) their previous release "Sacrament" however not being a devoted listener of this band I will leave "Sacrament" (in direct comparison) entirely separate from this album review.

"Wrath" opens with a little 2-minute acoustic track that surprised me. It was enough to encourage my thoughts of the bands maturation and growth. Promising. As things begin to charge up in the next track I suddenly have to contain my anger of the blatant rip off of Gojira vocalist Joe Duplantier’s style. I thought that perhaps this was just only the case on this track but it’s not. There is a hybrid of Randy Blyth/Deplantier’s vocal style throughout. The more I listen to it the more it pisses me off. The Gojira vocal similarities are disgusting and insulting. I am very happy that Gojira are now better known in North America than perhaps some other poor hacks that could have been ripped off and unnoticed. Blythe certainly took a few pages from the book of Gojira when he was involved as a guest vocalist on their 2008 release "The Way of All Flesh" (and to be fair I am not choosing sides of which release is better. See Gojira review).

I have read that most people think that this album focuses on the technical and dark side of music. I wonder what this is in comparison to? As far as this reviewer is concerned, considering this album ‘technical’ is an absolute mockery of the quality technical metal by acts such as Quo Vadis, Martyr, Textures and Meshuggah (to name a few). Perhaps it would be safe to consider this ‘technical hard rock’ in contrast.

For the most part the riffs are quite plain (not technical at all) however a few of them are quite catchy and may have replay value to those who enjoy this album. This is consistent throughout. Most of the songs start off with heaps of energy only to quickly bleed out after the first minute or so, entirely losing their excitement. The height of the guitar work is noticeable in 'Choke Sermon'.

The production is excellent. It’s very crisp and precise. This is most noticeable with Chris Adler’s drumming. That’s not to say that the performance was quite what I expected. In fact, I felt a little let down. I know Chris is capable of so much more, especially when you consider all of the exposure, influences and experiences LOG have had thus far into their greatly successful career. At this point I would expect greater improvement, additional originality or at least variety.

If it had not been for the Gojira vocal similarities then perhaps I would have a more favorable outlook on this one. This will not be an album that will break the band by any means. It’s just that in the defense of great music being released, this is album cannot be ranked as highly on the list. If any you reading this are also fans of Gojira or at least are familiar with their work (which is highly likely by this point) then I urge you to please have the common courtesy of respecting others tastes in different bands before declaring that Lamb of God is the best and leaders in originality, brutality, technicality and performance. Those days have long past.