Better late than never.

Almost a year has passed since this album was initially released, and I can understand why one might question the logic behind this belated review. The answer is no less logical: I want Russian fans to know about one of the best American metalcore bands, as this genre is not well known (thus not very popular) in my country. I also hope that Fono will turn their attention to this great band and gladden all fans of quality extreme music. We know they’ll have a chance to do it.

«New American Gospel» is a great example of exemplary metalcore. Here you will find heavy, rhythmic, pulsating chords in the vein of Messhugah and Strapping Young Lad; beautiful melodies that are pleasing to the ear (as if taken from classic thrash bands like Slayer and Testament); slow, drawn-out, doomy riffs a-la Pantera and Crowbar; powerful hardcore vocals which are pretty much standard for his genre; and finally, a peerless rhythm section which treads upon the heels of any of the aforementioned band in terms of power and playing technique. Lamb Of God simply outdoes their rivals on all levels.

The guitar parts don’t seem overly tecnhical on first sight, but they turn out to be quite complex (which is really pleasing) and rather diverse after a closer look. Despite the fact that a large part of «New American Gospel» is occupied by thrash/crossover riffs that are typical for metalcore (for example, the central theme on the first part of «A Warning», which starts at the 0:20), you can also find groove parts, a-la Pantera and Crowbar (i.e. first theme from the last track), «percussion» riffs in the vein of Strapping Young Lad and Messhugah (»Black Label», 1:44), colorful melodies that resemble Slayer (first theme off «The Black Dahlia»), doomy sludge moments (the beginning of the sixth song) and even black metal buzz-like passages (»A Warning», 1:15)! The guitar sound is very dense and powerful, which is partly due to the fact that the guitars are playing mostly in unison, and rarely drop off from each other. The bass guitar, which is juicy and massive, is mostly just mimicking the guitar parts, but this serves to make LoG’s sound even more dense and powerful. If we take into consideration the fact that the drums are recorded in a way that rips through ear-drums with the ease of a hot razor blade through butter, we can boldly state that the sound of «New American Gospel» is a standard setting album for metalcore and all related styles. A monument should be erected in the name of drummer Chris Adler for his outstanding work on this album. His frenzied excruciations of two bass drums and toms sound like a flock of tanks storming through a corn field to annihilate the escaping listener. The drums are recorded is a manner that is so aggressive, violent and rhinocerosly powerful that I wouldn’t be surprised if Adler had to completely replace his kit after finishing the drum tracks. Surely his previous one consisted of nothing more than shards of metal and twisted plastic. The bass drum in particular has a sound so huge that you can virtually touch it! However, LoG isn’t only about deranged aggression, as the drum parts themselves are so impressive, technical and diverse (especially if you keep in mind that Lamb Of God do not play techno-death or math-core), that you can’t help but turn your full attention to the drummer’s work from time to time. There is almost everything on this CD, starting with blast-beats and ending with mechanical patterns in the vein of Meshuggah. One noticeable plus is that the drums sound not only powerfully raw, but also very natural, which is quite pleasing in an age where the use of triggers has become almost universal. The vocals of Randy Blythe (like most metal/hardcore), are usually sung in a strenuous mid-range scream/rattle (read: Max Cavalera & Co.), but they easily rise to the frequency of a black-metal wail (»The Subtle Arts Of Murder And Persuasion», ~2:00). With the same ease, Blythe proves himself able to dive into an almost uterine growl (the same song, 1:32), as he continues to his emotional assault with profoundly belched lyrics that are guaranteed to grate your neighbours’ nerves.

One of the pecularities of Lamb Of God’s song structures is their tendency to repeat themes fourfold (with few exceptions, which only reduce the amount of repeats to two); thus, their music can seem too angular, edgy, and predictable to a degree, but in this case I might actually consider it to be an advantage. The angularity and edginess of LoG’s music gives it an edge that confines the predictability to knowing when the next theme will start. Guessing what theme will be next is much more difficult, because Lamb Of God resist the temptation to revisit the same one or two themes during a song, while effectively forgetting about the rest. Rather, they employ a lot of tempo and rhythm changes to hold the listener’s interest. The transitions between themes are usually fluent and well-thought-out, and Lamb Of God are obviously able to compose music as skillfully as they play it. It’s hard to point out the stand-out tracks — all of them are good and diverse, but sixth one (»Terror And Hubris In The House Of Frank Pollard») is special for its use of Today Is The Day singer Steve Austin’s inimitable vocals (I wonder if it’s him who’s playing the solo in the beginning of the song?), which gives this track a really interesting flavor.

Lamb Of God easily wipes its collective ass with such bands as Fear Factory in their own restroom. If you feel that late Slayer is too flat, Pantera is too easy, and Strapping Young Lad is too dumb, «New American Gospel» is everything you need. However, if you are a fan of all these bands (and suchalikes), you also need to hear this album, no matter how much you are stuck on their latest efforts. Moreover, this album is so great and universal that it can be used as introductory material for extreme metal’s newest converts, or as a neck-muscles work-out for those of us who have already been «initiated». I hope sooner or later, in that empty place of our hearts which was previously occupied by Slayer, Metallica and Sepultura, that «New American Gospel» will appear as the killer of nu-metal, the rapist of our ears, and the headache of your neighbours.

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