AWWWWW YEEAAAAHHHH here we go!!!
Disclaimer: OK, technically, I’ve listened to all the pre-release singles as they came out a bunch of times and the whole album many times before writing this. … because I frickin love Lamb of God.
However, this post is me sitting and listening to the whole album back to back a bit more seriously in the order of the tracklist.
Tracklist + Thoughts
- Into Oblivion: Epic start, goes into a mosh inducing riff. RANDY’S BACK! His intro sends chills up my spine. Oh yeah, this is what we’ve all been waiting for! There’s a switch up with the stereo guitar bits and Randy building up to the chorus again. We get back to the sick outro with the last breakdown. Awesome!
- Parasocial Christ: Getting straight into it. NICE. This song was a pre-release and it still rocks out HARD. Mark’s guitars are still just as sharp and groovy with Randy sounding as good as ever. Fun mosh gallops. This would be so much fun to experience live. OMG that mid-song breakdown gallop. They are the best at this. More of it in the outro. Gosh I love those heavy gallops.
- Sepsis: Dark start by John (bass) with a growl, and then blows up for a second. Fun dynamic contrast. There’s a lot happening here. Slow, fast, slow, fast, slow, etc. Fade out at the end. Not many of those nowadays haha
- The Killing Floor: Sounds like their quintessential riff+vocals with some great drumscapes from Art throughout. Great screams. This one would go over well at a concert. There’s a break around the 2:05 mark and it would get the pit prepped for another full out mosh. Feels like it would be fun. An extra breakdown chug-fest around 3:40 and yeah, some solid head banging.
- El Vacío: One of the quiet verses with contrasting choruses. Simple riff repeating through the verses. Not a band song, but probably won’t make it to my playlist. It’s good when listening to the whole album, but probably a downer when you’re in the middle of a playlist.
- St. Catherine’s Wheel: After the guitar intro and then Randy sounds like he’s up on a podium.. Makes sense considering the title is named after THE torture wheel haha It’s most likely a socio-political comment, right? It’s got some good screams and switches and it’s pretty fun overall.
- Blunt Force Blues: OH YEAH here we go. A good chant style chorus with some good ole Morton riffage. There’s a build up starting around 2:30, and then we get a “GO” oh yeaaahhhh great head banging breakdown riff with some skips in between. That’s the stuff. Also, the drums on this one is sick.
- Bully: Wow nice job rhyming grift with nepotist. This one has a lot of angry growling in familiar LoG fashion. A song about karma. Nice.
- A Thousand Years: Almost thought it was Sepsis 2.0 but apparently not. Great riff to kick it off. Sort of blends in with the rest of their sound with this one. Good to have when the whole LoG discography is shuffled. Doesn’t stand out much in a playlist though.
- Devise / Destroy: As good as the song is, it’s a bit more of their succeeding formula without standing out as much as some of the others. I actually like the drums (Art) the most on this one. It’s got some presence on this one.
I guess it’s been a while since their last Omens (2022) album came out. I love that album, it has some solid bangers.
New logo new LoG.
Asked why LAMB OF GOD decided to change the band logo on the “Into Oblivion” cover for the first time in 27 years, Randy said: “Well, our logo, to be perfectly honest, needed changing. It’s the papyrus font [that we used for the old LAMB OF GOD logo]. And had we known 20-however many years ago that we would wind up looking like a falafel restaurant menu, we wouldn’t have used that. But that was before papyrus font was ubiquitous.”
From Blabbermouth
Frankly, they’re probably the only best brand using Papyrus, and now they’ve finally moved away. Sure their old logo has a lot of brand equity, but their new logo is much better. I’m jealous of the creative team that did the rebrand.
Anyways, this album is definitely top tier. Some good dynamics, vocals, guitars, and drums (sorry, I couldn’t hear the bass much).
I really enjoyed listening to the whole album front to back. Worth buying the CD.
I loved 2, 7, 1, 6, 3 in that order.
I really wanna see them live sometime.
Edit to add: I’M GOING TO THEIR CONCERT IN OCTOBER!!! WITH TRIVIUM!!!!