LAMB OF GOD
*VII: Strum Und Drang*
(Epic/Nuclear Blast)
There’s nothing like a stint in a Czech prison while awaiting trial for manslaughter to motivate a heavy metal song writer. Just ask singer Randy Blythe. Before he was found not liable for the accidental death of a fan at a 2010 concert (the trial ended in 2013), Blythe paid a bail ransom to escape his nightmare imprisonment. Since then, the band has released a documentary (“As The Palaces Burn”) about the ordeal, and Blythe just released a memoir (“Dark Days”) detailing the experience.
But the new wave thrash outfit’s seventh studio album is really what metalheads have been waiting for, especially to hear how Blythe would incorporate the topic. Track “512,” Blythe’s cell number, reveals his attempt to tap into primal, animalistic instincts to survive while imprisoned: “My hands are painted red,” he laments, and “I can’t recognize myself, I think I’m someone else.” “Still Echoes” highlights the haunting history of the prison that still housed a guillotine the Nazis allegedly used in executions: “A thousand heads cut clean across their necks right down the hall from me/The Reich’s relentless blade, thirsty and shining red, still echoes of their screams,” Blythe realizes.
The overt references to his experience end with those two blistering songs--replete with buzzsaw guitars and Chris Adler’s transcendent drumming. Lyrically, “Erase This” is directed toward negative people who drag others down, and “Footprints” rails against tourists who care not for the negative effects they have on nature, especially on Blythe’s beloved Virginia Beach coast.
Other standout tracks include “Embers,” which features Chino Moreno of the Deftones providing soaring backing vocals to counteract Blythe’s growling approach, and “Torches,” a slower-paced song featuring Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato on screamo backing vocals.
7/10
- Jason Scales
