Lamb of God
Resolution
Release Date: Jan 24, 2012
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative Metal, Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Speed/Thrash Metal
Record label: Epic
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Album Review: Resolution by Lamb of God
Very Good, Based on 12 Critics
Based on rating 5/5
Too brutal for thrash, too lyrically comprehensible for death metal, too purist to resort to screamo or rapcore choruses, Virginia's Lamb of God are just commercial enough to have scored three consecutive Top 10 albums. On Resolution, the fivesome lurch into cruel claustrophobia again and again as Randy Blythe hectors angrily at enemies lying, dying or both: "The walking dead! Living a lie!" he rails in the mosh-pit tantrum "Cheated." Occasionally – the foggy instrumental "Barbarosa," or the boogie-bottomed "To the End" – they branch out slightly. But mostly, Lamb of God stick to conservative values that metalheads can respect and everyone else can continue to ignore.
Based on rating 8/10
During the past decade, Lamb of God has become one of the most prolific American metal bands in the world. If not for the realities of time and a flagging music industry, Lamb of God would likely compete with the Big Four (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax) in terms of popularity. Those two factors are the only things preventing the Virginia-based group from being included with the most famous bands in all of American metal.
Based on rating 4.0/5
Review Summary: Sludgy, raw, and incredibly forceful – Lamb of God is back.For those who found Lamb of God’s direction on 2009’s Wrath to be a bit underwhelming, the burning wreckage in the background of the cover might as well be a stack of those records. With the metal quintet’s latest offering, they eradicate any hints of the heavy-but-repetitive Wrath by replacing that sound with something just as intense but markedly more satisfying. Whereas its predecessor was a transparent effort to prove they are still “metal” down to their very core, Resolution actually puts some tangible backing into that claim whilst providing some much needed variation to a formula that was approaching worn-out status.
Based on rating 7/10
On their seventh outing, Resolution, Lamb of God prove once again that the right ratio of barnstorming riffs and relentless intensity is all you need to make a solid album. Where Lamb of God -- among the last real practitioners of the dying art of groove metal -- really succeed here is in the simplicity of their approach, shying away from modern studio trickery in favor of a rawer sound that doesn't make any attempts to smooth the edges off of anything. With a little ring of the snare drum here and there and some extra-crunchy guitar tones, the album has a natural feeling that sets these veteran players apart from the ultra-polished sounds some of the younger bands go for.
Based on rating 3/5
Richmond, Virginia's Lamb of God specialize in that brutal sort of thrashy groove metal popularized by Pantera in the early 90s. It lurches forward on lickety-split double-bass-drum work, throat-shredding vocals and a barrage of fast/slow chugging guitar riffs that break off into fleeting bursts of squeals and solos. Resolution is as aggressive as ever, no mean feat for a band sevens albums in, and rife with memorable riffs (Desolation, The Undertow, Barbarosa).
Based on rating 3/5
Southern metal, groove metal, call it what you want – but since Pantera hung up their cowboy hats, Virginia's Lamb of God are its prime exponents. And like Pantera, the five-piece have performed a remarkable sleight of hand: their riff-heavy barrages, which should by rights be residing in some sweaty underground club, have been transferred to arenas with little thought to compromise or commercialism. But while the production, particularly by modern metal standards, is pleasingly raw, something more than Resolutions's occasional smattering of melody to break up the bombast would be welcome.
Based on rating C+
The ever-sturdy Virginia metal ensemble known as Lamb Of God can boldly boast many things: a mastery of the craft, longtime dedication to fans and country, a line-up with immense staying power, not to mention sheer brutality on any given stage or speaker. Where 2009’s Wrath took on production value akin to late-era nu-metal, Resolution feels more organic. There are no concepts, no gimmicks, no frills: just straightforward metal, period.
Based on rating 3.9/10
If you heard Resolution before knowing anything about the band who made it, you'd be forgiven for mistaking Lamb of God's latest as the high-production, major-label debut of an energetic, upstart crew. At 14 songs and 57 minutes, Resolution feels like the sort of unedited, exhaustively long collection a label might get behind to see if at least one of the songs lands with a wide audience. Such signs are everywhere on Resolution: Each of the choruses in these rigid Pantera-cum-Slayer recasts are aggressively emphasized, with thickets of backing vocals and rhythms and structures that slow or shift so as to beg you to swallow the hook.
Opinion: Excellent
Three years after the release of their critically acclaimed and commercially successful Wrath, New Wave of American Heavy Metal leaders Lamb of God return with their seventh album, Resolution. Once again working with Wrath producer Josh Wilbur, the Richmond, VA five-piece have gone a little further out of their comfort zone with Resolution. The record is their most musically ambitious to date, while still maintaining the unrelenting, thrash-influenced Southern heavy metal they do best.
Opinion: Excellent
With 2009’s Wrath, Lamb Of God made a point of moving away from the more polished sounds of their mega-selling predecessor, 2006’s Sacrament. In doing so, the Virginian quintet set out to prove that they were still a metal band through and through, and while the record achieved this, it didn’t offer much in the way of variety or innovation. With Resolution, the band not only further stake their claim as belonging among the genre’s heavy hitters, but they have delivered perhaps their quintessential album, encompassing elements recognizable from every stage of their career while also proving that there are dimensions to their sound as yet unexplored.
Opinion: Very Good
An eminently listenable heavy metal album from the Richmond titans. Raziq Rauf 2012 So far, the 21st century has been a period of diminishing returns in the metal world – but one band from the New Wave of American Heavy Metal has really stood out: Lamb of God. But while the Richmond, Virginia titans’ previous long-player, 2009’s Wrath, was as relentlessly bone-crushingly heavy as we’d come to expect, the scintillating invention and inspired riffs they’d become famous for across three major label releases wasn’t as pronounced.
Opinion: Very Good
Randy Blythe's 13-second scream teeing off these Virginia romper-stompers' fifth body slam isn't Roger Daltrey on "Won't Get Fooled Again," but consider it a premonition of the singer's last month in a Prague prison on manslaughter charges. "I am the one who's left to take the fall," he roars on the equally ear-scything "The Undertow," but better that than "You dug your own grave" on new-metal tinged "The Number Six." The Richmond quintet's usual uniformity of sound, production, and performance strikes many like a concrete dam, and Resolution takes 10-15 minutes too long to resolve, but there's no arguing with a rabid dog called "Cheated." .
'Resolution'
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