Flags: Lyrics are included with the album, Contains explicit content, Enhanced CD-ROM
Rating:
Styles: Alternative Metal, Death Metal/Black Metal, Heavy Metal
Track Picks: "Ashes of the Wake," "Laid to Rest," "Now You've Got Something to Die For"
Review
Come now, let us all genuflect before Lamb of God, for to them we owe our metal souls. In the fat rat-infested, decrepit tenement called Heavy Rock Manor, the Virginia-based shock unit is one of the few groups striving to keep the power on and the hallways clear of gluttonous rap-rock/post-grunge False Marias. Yes, yes, Ashes of the Wake arrives via Epic Records, but this only will inflame the ire of the ignorant. For the rest of us, Lamb's ascendance to the majors melts a little more of the crap rock golden calf. Where previous efforts were fully automatic hot LZs, they were also slightly muddled for the very same reason. They fired in all directions. With Ashes, producer Machine has sharpened the corner of every riff and tightened the turns on classicist metal gallops. Best of all, Randy Blythe's furious yawp is more focused. Rather than simply being another scary voice shouter, Blythe becomes Lamb of God's threshold of pain conduit. "Laid to Rest" begins with his measured statements -- "If there was a single day I could live...I'd trade all the others away" -- flanked by the at-odds guitars of Willie Adler and Mark Morton. But then Blythe unleashes his demonic throat, and the guitars leap over and across one another like basilisks on a prowl for ibex kids. "Hourglass" offers more, its interlocking rhythms and breakdowns harking to the dark lands of Scandinavia. But it doesn't go all the way there. This is American metal, after all, meaning that, in the tradition of Pantera and Poison the Well, large-form grandiosity is sacrificed in favor of a muscularity derived from hardcore and hard living. The aptly named "Omerta" begins with that code's reading. "Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward." It proceeds to stalk slowly into gear, the sound of a wounded man coming after his would-be murderers. "Blood of the Scribe" refits death metal's cadence for a leaner, meaner era; the less than subtle "Now You've Got Something to Die For" offers the kids a new unifying chant, not to mention some spectacularly martial instrumental breaks. Drummer Chris Adler really shines here, with Machine ensuring his snare is a steely bullet fired by viscous double bass gunpowder. Instrumental freaks will swallow the title track whole. Guest soloists Alex Skolnick (Testament) and Chris Poland (Megadeth) each get a taste, alongside Morton and Adler -- their insane fretting sounds like a city exploding. That's what Lamb of God does for us, what it does for metal in the 21st century. With the genre getting clogged by PVC goofs and Alice in Chains impersonators, Lamb of God balances the equation of power, rage, tradition, and craft. It kills the filler. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
Chris Poland (Soloist), Plato (Author), John Angello (Engineer), Alex Skolnick (Soloist), Jeremy Miller (Assistant), Kaz Utsunomiya (A&R), Todd Parker (Producer), Al Weatherhead (Assistant), Scott Greer (Product Manager), Lamb of God (Producer), Cam DiNunzio (Assistant), Casey Martin (Assistant), Greg Waterman (Photography), Machine (Producer), Machine (Engineer), Machine (Mixing), K3n Adams (Artwork), Ted Young (Assistant), Dan Korneff (Digital Editing), John McKeefrey Dolan Ian Campbell (Bass), John McKeefrey Dolan Ian Campbell (Group Member), Willie Adler (Guitar), Willie Adler (Guitar (Rhythm)), Willie Adler (Group Member), Chris Adler (Drums), Chris Adler (Soloist), Chris Adler (Group Member), Randy Blythe (Vocals), Randy Blythe (Group Member), Mark Morton (Guitar), Mark Morton (Guitar (Rhythm)), Mark Morton (Soloist), Mark Morton (Group Member), Tony Schloff (Digital Editing)
Ashes of the Wake is Lamb of God's third full length studio
recording, released in 2004, just one year after their previous release, As the Palaces
Burn. It was rated by Guitar World as the 49th greatest Guitar Album of all
Time[1]. The album is more political than their previous
work, aimed at the war in Iraq, with songs such as "Ashes of the Wake" and
"Now You've Got Something to Die For".
A DualDisc version was released in the U.S. The DVD side contained the album in LPCM 2.0,
and AC3 5.1, as well as various video clips, including the promo videos for "Now You've Got Something To Die For" (intended to
promote the Killadelphia release) and "Laid to Rest", a short on the New England Metalfest,
a "Meet the Band", and a clip from the Terror and Hubris DVD.
The song "Omerta" is about the Italian Mafia's code of honor, "omerta" or "manhood"-
described as a code of silence, explaining the lines "Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a
coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without that law is both. For the wounded man shall say to his assailant, 'If I live,
I will kill you; If I die, you are forgiven.' Such is the rule of honor." This is a quote from The Rise and Fall of the
Cleveland Mafia: Corn Sugar and Blood by Rick Porrello.
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