Sacrament

Sacrament review

A bright representative of the style

It is possible to refer previous albums of American band Lamb Of God to a so called new wave of American heavy metal. The band has a number of bright individual peculiarities, against a background of numerous representatives of this very style, that place Lamb Of God over the leading positions. Groovy death metal riffs, excellent performance technique and original drum parts in one mix with powerful growl has earned a good reputation for the band. Their previous album Ashes Of The Wake, which was released in 2004, has gained rather high estimates from critics and chart positions. The 2004 was a break through for Lamb Of God, after a few successful tours their renown has notably grown up, though the band was already known by that time. The last Lamb Of God’s album Sacrament was released in September and this is another step forward in qualitative level. The musicians have raised the creativity bar up to a new higher level, which is worth striving for many of core metal bands.

Sacrament is the most atmospheric album from Lamb Of God

The forth album of Lamb Of God is the band’s development both in performing mastery and in ability to draw the new in creative works. The atmosphere is the album’s most distinctive and, if you please, vital feature. This is exactly what was meant by development. A listener’s mood making wasn’t a priority on the previous albums. They were rather focusing on the more traditional attributes of metal and had a raw and heavier sound. Full of artificial and instrumental ambiance and atmosphere, their fourth has a feel most unlike any other Lamb Of God album, though their main principles like heavy guitars and rhythm section are all here too. It’s plainly evident on songs such as album opener Walk With Me In Hell, a slower depressive track with a lead guitar riff providing a melancholic tone in the background. Blacken The Cursed Sun, another mid-paced metal journey, features great ominous harmonies with electronic ambience backing the instrumentation, which creates a cosmic void feel. But don’t consider the album to have a gloomy doom metal influences, it is absolutely contrary. There are enough of speed tempo tracks.

Lamb Of God is trying to achieve the uniqueness

What makes Sacrament a truly worthwhile experience is how guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler have finally realized their potential. The album is full of original riffs where the licks, melodies and other splendid guitar shreds hold a listener’s attention through all the songs, and the number of solos here can be compared with the whole amount of such in their past three albums. Those who like listening to the accurate guitar works will love this above all other Lamb Of God albums. Sacrament effectively retains the faithful Lamb Of God fans while attracting some of extreme metal’s more scrupulous listeners. The melodic finds and album’s dark atmosphere is definitely prevails over the harsh brutal riffs which served as the basis for Ashes Of The Wake and As The Palaces Burn, but the power of the music is still very much in full; it simply appears in different ways. It seems that Lamb Of God has got some kind of trait, which leads the band to the unique, thoughtful style. Casting aside many of dictated standards Lamb Of God has truly broken the unsophisticated trend of American New metal and are trying to say something new.