Launching a self-titled album after extensive discography represents a strong commitment: people hope that bearing the name of the band will be a special album and very different from any other casually released. This commitment is what we expected from Lamb of god with his album named in the same way. Did he succeed?
The album opens with a song that gives strong hope for it: "Memento Mori" It is a good powerful theme that intrigues you from the start, and you like it from start to finish. "Checkmate” , Gears and "Reality Bath"Below are themes entirely within the familiar style LOG, perhaps a problem for those who have had enough that the band seems not to innovate and come out of it for years, perhaps a virtue for those who are just what attracts them to this group. "New Colossal Hate" then it reminds us that there is another LOG that they could not leave behind: the one who steps on the accelerator and puts you to distribute blows in the moshpit; a great song with a lot of strength and speed. At a very opposite pole "Ressurection Man"Is one of the songs with more vein hardcore of the entire album; ideal for those who like to throw flying kicks and punches in the air dancing in the middle of the track.
In this part of the album the collaborations with special guests appear, and the first is “Poison Dream ” with Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed. The truth is that having such a rabid guest one expected something more violent, but the track is again one more cut from LOG that we don't like because it is linear and repetitive. In Routes instead if they understood that having as a guest Chuck billy of Testament the song had to have adrenaline and speed, and the truth is that it is a very enjoyable track and with a guitar solo that you rarely hear on a song by this band. The album closes first with “Bloodshot Eyes”Which is more melodic but is well complemented by a strong battery in the rough parts; and then lastly we have "On The Hook ” with interesting changes of rhythm and atmospheres throughout the track.
If we have to answer the initial question of whether the album lives up to being the record that bears the namesake banner of a career that was long ago, we could say yes. Of course, if we take into account that LOG It is a band that likes not to get out of its formula and repeat its style sometimes even desperately; this album is a good example to say to someone "look: this is Lamb of god“.
