August 31, 2004 - Ashes Of The Wake

Eight days after my last release and just 15 months since "As The Palaces Burn", Lamb Of God released their fourth album "Ashes Of The Wake" on August 31st, 2004. This was actually Lamb Of God's major label debut, but they are still playing the same style of groovy, super heavy metal. Let's check out the latest!

The album kicks off with it's lead single "Laid To Rest" and it has one hell of a main riff by Mark Morton that is just so damn cool! It stops, it starts, it grooves, it's all over the place, and yet somehow it's also super catchy! It's a wicked and quite heavy main riff that drives this song and when Randy Blythe comes in overtop things sound even heavier and more awesome! As always, Blythe can easily hit both extremes with some mostly super low and heavy screaming, but also sometimes some ear-piercingly high screams, and he just fits this heavy mood perfectly! Things roll right into a similarly awesome chorus and after a couple vicious headbanging rounds everything stops so Randy alone sings "see who gives a fuck!", then the music nicely slams back in! Blythe holds one super long, super high scream that is pretty insane and the music is pretty wicked as well with Chris Adler playing some pretty sweet drums towards the end. Words could never do proper justice to how catchy, yet still super heavy this song is; what a phenomenal way to start off the album! Up next is "Hourglass" and Morton dives right into another stop-and-start, pretty sweet main riff and John Campbell's super heavy bass keeps things chugging heavily in the background. Randy sounds heavy and wicked as usual and Morton and Adler both use stop-and-start techniques that keep you on the edge of your seat! After a couple pretty sweet rounds Morton syncs up with Willie Adler for a harmonized new riff that sounds pretty sweet as well and Chris is playing some really unique and cool drums throughout the song, but especially towards the end. This one didn't reach out and grab you quite like the last one, but it was still an excellent song. Track 3 is the other single "Now You've Got Something To Die For" and Morton jumps right into a fast-paced, super groovy main riff that is just so catchy and cool! Adler's drum fills are pretty wicked as well and Blythe sounds as epic and scary as ever shouting out the chorus (which is just the name of the song, but he makes it sound so heavy!) If the main drag of this song wasn't great enough, how they end it is a piece of metal brilliance. Morton sets the stage with a sweet new guitar riff as Blythe nicely screams a new verse to match and this verse ends with everything else stopping so we hear just Randy screaming and he holds his final "Foooooooor" for a loooooong time just as they slam into one hell of a slow and heavy breakdown! Randy's super long and amazing scream overtop this super slow, chugging guitars and bass sounds so fucking good! It's one of my favourite breakdowns by these guys and an absolutely amazing way to end this single! (Might be one of the best singles I can think of!) The next track is "The Faded Line" and Morton is just exploding with amazing lead guitar riffs as things are driven by yet another heavy, groovy and super cool riff. Chris plays some unique and super cool drums on this one and I just love how they keep you guessing with lots of cool stop-and-start stuff. Words are certainly falling short as I could describe this song in similar ways to the others on this album, but it really is a super cool, unique and super heavy song! After three and a half pretty sweet minutes things completely shift gears for the final minute as they nicely segue into a panicked new riff. There's some epic rhythm guitar by Willie that makes things sound like some sort of doomsday alarm is going off and this is a pretty unique and awesome way to close out this song! Every song so far is pretty freaking good! Track 5 is "Omerta" and it opens with a spoken word speech by Randy about the rule of honor that is certainly interesting and after his final words the rest of the band nicely comes in with a slower but heavy and chugging main riff that is pretty cool. Morton does a great job with the slow guitar as things sound really epic and Blythe sounds so fucking good overtop not just in his standard low scream, but he hits some crazy high notes on this song are really impressive, and scary heavy! After almost three minutes thr pace picks up with some faster drums and rhythm guitar, then Chris starts playing a fantastic new drum beat, Morton enters with some great faster guitar and Blythe sounds great as usual overtop! I love this new part and they somehow smoothly segue right back to the slow main riff to close things out. These guys just don't know how to let up, and that couldn't be more true than in the next song "Blood Of The Scribe" where they dive right into possibly their fastest main riff yet! Morton is such an amazing guitarist as he manages to incorporate his groovy style even into super fast riffs like this one and words don't do proper justice; this could be the solo for another band, but it's just another main riff for Lamb of God! Campbell's bass is groovy and awesome, Willie's rhythm guitar is pretty freaking good, Chris's drums are just fantastic throughout, and Morton and Blythe are both at the absolute top of their game with a plethora of awesome guitar and some phonemenal, super low screams. If all that wasn't enough, the last 45 seconds or so they completely shift to a new riff with Morton playing a phenomenal new riff and Randy screaming super high at all the perfect moments! Another fantastic finish to another fantastic song! Track 7 is "One Gun" and Morton of course leads the way with another epic and sweet guitar riff, Chris plays another fantastic drum beat in the background and Randy is holding an incredibly long and super high scream right out the gate! I don't think these guys even understand how to take their foot off the gas and words continue to do no justice as my head is banging along to some more superb metal. I could say that everything sounds phenomenal and it would be correct, but it still doesn't properly tell the awesome tale, you just gotta listen to the groovy awesomeness! The next track is "Break You" and they dive right into a fast-paced and of course pretty sweet main riff with Morton once again leading the way with some more unique  heavy and groovy guitar. The rest of the band provides a great stop-and-start rhythm section and as usual things sound pretty damn good. Randy sounds particularly great in the chorus where he starts with some high shrieks and finishes with some super low growls, showing off his epic range. He also sounds great in the close-out nicely screaming "son of a bitch I'm going to break you!" The tremendous songs just keep on coming, and track 9 is no exception with "What I've Become" as there is no time to breathe before launching into another furious main riff with some great speedy and thrash-y guitar by Morton. After a couple typically solid rounds Morton and Adler sync up for a pretty sweet harmonized guitar solo! They are both shredding it pretty nicely and certainly spices things up! This song is definitely still really good, but the fact that I think this is possibly the weakest song on the album just shows the extremely high bar these guys set every song! Up next is the title track "Ashes Of The Wake" and it has no vocals! It features a couple guest guitar solos from the guitarists of Megadeth and Testament, but the only voice we hear on this one is that of a soldier who served in Afghanistan. Morton is keeping the pace with a pretty awesome main guitar riff as we hear this soldier explain how they accidentally killed several civilians, but "it's OK. Don't worry about it. Because this is a new type of war, this is an eradication." After that line things shift to a faster new riff that is pretty sweet as you'd expect and it sets the stage for the first of many guitar solos on this near six-minute song, this one by Morton. His solo is definitely my favourite with some great parts and it's immediately followed by the Megadeth solo, which is not bad, but it's nothing too amazing either. The next solo is the Testament one and it's much better with some nice shredding bits to it! After This they shift gears back to the  slower opening riff and it's Morton's turn again and once again he delivers with some amazing shredding! He is so fucking good! After a couple rounds of jamming the main riff it's time for the song's fifth and final guitar solo and Morton delivers some more absolutely amazing guitar, then we hear the same soldier speaking before being deployed, saying he's "not going to kill civilians for the United States Marine Corp" before the song fades out and right into the final track on the album "Remorse Is For The Dead". Morton starts us off with a light guitar riff that is way slower and quieter than anything else on the album, but it's a nice little cool down after five solos in the last song and the rhythm section behind him is cool with some epic drums standing out. This lasts for about 1:20, then they kick into a typical main riff, which means everything sounds pretty freaking sweet! Randy is hitting some awesome high notes, some great low ones as well and of course the guitars are groovy and heavy. The end of the song has a cool distorted vocal effect so Randy sounds progressively creepier as things finally fade out and the awesomeness unfortunately comes to a close.

That is the end of "Ashes Of The Wake" and I thought it was an absolutely phenomenal album by Lamb of God! Every single song on this album is an absolute headbanger and a few of them are just downright incredible! There is so much amazing music on this album that Lamb of God have somehow found an even higher gear above their fantastic album from just a year ago "As The Palaces Burn". This has to be the peak now right?! This one is gonna be pretty fucking hard to top!