Released by: Lamb Of God
Release Date: November 18, 2016
Genre: Heavy Metal
Links: https://www.facebook.com/lambofgod
Lineup:
John Campbell
Chris Adler
Randy Blythe
Mark Morton
Willie Adler
Tracklist:
1. The Duke
2. Culling
3. Still Echoes (Live from Rock am Ring)
4. 512 (Live from Bonnaroo)
5. Engage The Fear Machine (Live from Bonnaroo)
In recent years, Lamb Of God has become one of the premier metal acts around today. Following a full-length album in 2015 (Sturm Und Drang), Lamb Of God gave fans a five-song EP on November 18th, with two new songs and three live cuts.
The first song ‘The Duke’, is a song dedicated to Lamb Of God fan Wayne Ford, whom Blythe struck up a friendship with in 2012 when a friend of Ford’s gave Randy a t-shirt that said Fuck Cancer on it. After the show, Randy would meet Wayne and his wife. As Randy says, he found out during the recording of the band’s last album that Wayne had taken a turn for the worse, and contacted Ford. Which in turn led to the two striking up a friendship. Knowing Wayne was losing his fight with Leukemia, he asked Wayne if he wanted him to set up a video conference while he was laying down the vocal tracks to ‘Sturm Und Drang’.
Unfortunately shortly after Wayne would succumb to his illness. Randy said he decided to write the Lyrics to ‘The Duke’ from what he thought was Wayne’s perspective towards life and death. This is a great song and a touching tribute to a long time Lamb Of God fan. I’m sure he would be very happy to know his favorite band recorded a song about him. For most of the song, Randy uses a clean vocal style much like he did on the track ‘Overlord’ off their last album ‘Sturm Und Drang’ We personally love Randy singing clean. Haters can hate, but he has a really good voice and we hope to hear more clean singing in the future. This is a strong and powerful song. A fitting tribute to a fallen fan.
The song ‘Culling’ doesn’t have that traditional Lamb Of God “sound”, but what it does have is a great Thrash and Groove feel to it. It’s got everything you want in a metal song, killer duel guitar riffs, and solos from Mark Morton and Will Adler, and punishing bass playing from John Campbell. Chris Adler shows why he’s one of the best drummers out there, he abuses the skins with brutal blasts, beats, and a double kick attack, that gives him that signature sound we all love. And of course, Randy and his trademark style vocals are back on this track in case anyone got their undies in a twist over the previous track. Can this song be an indicator of what the next LOG album may sound like? Only time will tell.
The last three songs on the EP come from songs off of 2015’s (VII: Sturm Und Drang) and were recorded live.
‘Still Echoes’ from Rock am Ring, ‘512’ and ‘Engage The Fear’ from the Bonnaroo festival. Any LOG fan will tell you that the band’s live performance is something you feel, not just hear. It’s an experience that can’t be explained. You get a taste of this on these live recordings. However, you won’t get the full experience without seeing them live. We had the opportunity to see them live a few times over the years, the last coming this past May, and they crushed it!
In the end, the new songs on this EP are outstanding. Any die hard Lamb Of God fan would want to pick this up. We have to give credit to LOG for a band to pay tribute to a fan in this way is truly amazing, and shows what kind of people they are. The band has organized a charity campaign to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Get info at http://propeller.la/lambofgod
Written by : Pam and Mark Schaff
Ratings: 9/10
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