7/10
Another blog in the same day? Preposterous! Yes, here I am writing a review of an album that's been out even longer than "The Industrialist". "Resolution", Lamb of God's 7th album, was released January 24th, 2012. Yeeeeah, that's a long time. I did listen to it a couple of times when it first came out, but I never got really into it, maybe (hopefully) because I didn't give it my full attention when listening to it. So I'm writing this review now partly out of a desire to want to love Lamb of God, and partly to try and bring any attention I can to the hell that Randy Blythe is going through right now. For those of you that don't know (and there's probably not very many of you who don't), Randy Blythe has been locked up in a Czech jail for a month now, despite having posted bail twice. His incarceration dates back to a 2010 show in Prague that entailed a supposed altercation between Randy and a fan, resulting in that fan sustaining head injuries causing his death. Which is all bull**** in my opinion. Anyway, here's my review of "Resolution" by Lamb of God.
01 Straight For The Sun: The first song starts off with a deep breath from Randy Blythe before launching into a truly terrifying yell, accompanied by a slow, groove metal riff. At 2 minutes and 10 seconds, you might expect this song to be an instrumental, but no, it's a full on song. The song is almost entirely the slow riff and Randy screaming a few times, which is as good a start as any to an album.
02 Desolation: This is more like it. Extremely fast, Randy's trademark growls. Man, those hammer-ons. Yeah, listening to this again now and actually pay attention to it now I can really appreciate it more. Especially the gang-yelled "Desolation!" part. They've certainly got the crowd participation part so far in this album.
03 Ghost Walking: This song was the leading single for "Resolution", and was released back in December 2011. The song starts with a 1, 2, 3, 4 count-in before swaying into a twanging guitar riff played acoustically. After the acoustics, the same riff is played, only 5,000 times heavier. Also, Randy yells. Actually, there's a lot more screaming vocals as opposed to the growls that were prevalent on the album so far. The screaming is most apparent at the beginning of the chorus, at the "You live through HELL!" part. My God, that's an amazing solo in there. I can see how this song became the first single, but I think I may prefer "Desolation" so far.
04 Guilty: Oh gosh. This song is even faster than "Desolation" was. And for some reason, the chorus sounds somewhat similar to "Ghost Walking". That's a definite downside to having all the vocals sung the same way: a lot of songs can sound the same. At least with something like "Now You Have Something To Die For" there was something about it that made it stand out. Despite being fast, "Guilty" doesn't really stand out on this album at all.
05 The Undertow: Very good start to this song, a little beginning of a riff played in just the left speaker. This song seems to be lashing out against people who look down on you. There we go. This song stands out now, because the chorus is sung in a different style: more screamy than growly. Despite the chorus being screamed, it's actually very melodic. And there's a really awesome line in it: "Your words are worth their weight in shit." Yes, this is a definite highlight.
06 The Number Six: That's a very clever title for the 6th track of the album. I'm fairly positive it was done like that on purpose, but hey, you never know! It could have been an awesome coincidence. Oh I remember this song now! It stuck out for me the first time I listened to the album. I really like the "Just a running mouth" part of the song. It's sung well, and there's awesome guitars behind it. The rather progressive-y part around the middle is a nice break from the constant fast growls, and that's another reason this song really stands out. "The Number Six" is my favorite song on the album so far.
07 Barbarosa: Okay, this one is probably an instrumental. At a minute 36 seconds, it's the shortest song on the album. And it begins with acoustic guitars. And continues with acoustic guitars the whole way through, with some slightly distorted guitars played over top.
08 Invictus: The previous instrumental leads right into this song. I'm pretty sure it started off with blast beats, but then seemed to abandon them pretty quickly. This song seems to be going the same way as "Guilty" did: nothing spectacular about it. Oh, apart from a very fast picked solo that is. Yep, pretty sure I won't remember this song in five minutes.
09 Cheated: Holy hell this one is fast. Even (most likely) Chris Adler's count in is really fast. And it would have to be fast. At only 2 minutes and 36 seconds, Randy will have a lot to say very quickly. Is this song about zombies? I definitely heard Randy say something about "the walking dead". Zombies are pretty metal. More on topic though, this song is really good. Makes up for the bit of a disappointment that was "Invictus".
10 Insurrection: Oh my God Randy is singing! Even if it was just for two lines, it was still a really nice change. And he goes back to it after a brief bit of yelling. The song also features some really melodic-sounding guitars, on both the choruses and the verses. There's some really good guitar playing on this song. Willie Adler and Mark Morton are on fine form for this one.
11 Terminally Unique: That's a very interesting title for a song. It's clever, and I like it. Now let's see if the song lives up to my expectations. Oh the chorus is very good on this song. I can't quite pick out what I like about it from the first one, but we'll see on the second. The "How FAAAAAAAR... did you think that you could run?" part is awesome. Especially that scream I attempted to transcribe here on "far". Oh no, Randy's trying to summon something by yelling "Awaken!" at it repeatedly. He's going to summon Chtulhu! I'm pretty sure Randy's voice could be enough to summon it after all.
12 To The End: All I could think when this song started was that the riff sounded somewhat similar to Queen's "Dragon Attack". Anyway, that's one really cool riff, especially with the little screaming part of it at the end. Unfortunately, the riff is the only bit that really stands out about this song. Although Randy does have a rather spectacular scream at the very end of the song.
13 Visitation: More gang-yelled vocals in this song. There's nothing quite like yelling "Decimated!" at the top of your lungs to make yourself feel pretty damn metal. But just like "To The End", there's nothing particularly special about this song.
14 King Me: Now I'd already heard that this song drew quite a bit of attention for using an orchestra or something in it. But that should make it sound unique, so I'm excited for it. Oh there's the orchestra! That's really awesome. It kicks in at about the 55 second mark. No growling vocals before 1:45 which is interesting; just Randy almost whispering. And the orchestra comes back at about 2:17. The orchestra definitely adds a lot to this song, and "King Me" is a highlight of the album.
Unfortunately, there just seems to be something about Lamb of God that doesn't appeal to me. Which is weird because I really love Machine Head and Trivium. I don't think I'll bother giving this album another listen, but I can appreciate that it's well done, and I know it's received a lot of good reviews. I shall give "Resolution" SEVEN slightly subdued but still very metal sunshines out of TEN.
Favorite song: The Number Six
#FREERANDYBLYTHE
#FREERANDYBLYTHE
#FREERANDYBLYTHE
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