LAMB OF GOD – RESOLUTION
Released 23rd January 2012 (Roadrunner Records)

Words: Gaz Martinez

So it’s 2012, Randy Blythe announces that he would run for US president and plan to get shot in the backside immediately after his inauguration. Until that time however, he will most likely spend this year at least on the road promoting Lamb of God’s new album Resolution. If the opening track Straight for the Sun is anything to go by, Mr Blythe and co have definitely spent their time creating decent music, instead of drawing up foreign policy.

Almost immediately, Desolation treats our ears to heavy slabs of classic Lamb of God, Chris Adler loves the bell of his ride more than ever, John Campbell’s bass tone sounds like a tree dragged through a steel mill, the guitars have that characteristic, almost muddy tone. It’s all lovely stuff!

One thing that keeps Lamb of God’s music consistent throughout the entirety of Resolution is their insistence on the groove in every song they craft, an aspect of music often overlooked in the face of technicality. It’s as if the riffs are much more than mere sounds coming from the guitars of Mark and Willie, they are extensions of their minds, even the oddly acoustic intro to Ghost Walking is laden with groove that just feels so natural, it never sounds forced.

As with most Lamb of God albums, most of my criticisms are aimed at Randy Blythe, not lyrically and maybe unfairly so, but the lack of melodic vocals will always result in limitations to what the band can do musically, in that respect, the melody mainly stemming from guitar solos and leady passages, which Mark and Willie are more than content to provide us with, with blinding solos particularly in The Undertow and Insurrection. Fortunately it’s all a sound that Lamb of God have crafted with every album, and one that one may suggest that they have perfected.

In the unlikely event that Randy is ever sworn into the oval office, and Lamb of God ceases to exist as the hairy five piece spend their time swearing at other world leaders and throwing beer cans at them, then Resolution would be an overall, fine piece of music to gate crash the next G8 summit and wreck everything in sight to.