Lamb Of God's Lamb Of God: self-titled, hook-powered thunder-crunch

American metal titans Lamb Of God get all fired-up and definitive

Lamb Of God - Lamb Of God
(Image: © Nuclear Blast)

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

After their first significant lineup change in more than two decades, Lamb Of God have good reason to hit ‘Reset’ for their eighth full-length record. 

Knowingly self-titled, Lamb Of God provides a dazzling showcase for new drummer Art Cruz, who has slipped into the role with seamless ease, and you can feel the renewed energy coursing through the entire band during the bug-eyed New Colossal Hate, recent single Checkmate and the hook-powered thunder-crunch of Poison Dream (featuring Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta). 

There are subtle evolutionary tricks being pulled here too. Randy Blythe’s sparing but effective use of clean vocals drags hulking opener Memento Mori in and out of woozy, gothic metal territory, while Routes (featuring Testament’s Chuck Billy) is all mutant metal-punk tempo shifts, Blythe in full-bore psycho mode.

Delivering the goods with considerably more venom than you might expect at this stage in the game, Lamb Of God remain hard to b(l)eat

Dom Lawson
Writer

Dom Lawson has been writing for Metal Hammer and Prog for over 14 years and is extremely fond of heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee and snooker. He also contributes to The Guardian, Classic Rock, Bravewords and Blabbermouth and has previously written for Kerrang! magazine in the mid-2000s.