Brutal? Sure, amazing? Not really.... - Lamb of God s debut release(under the moniker Lamb of God), New American Gospel is a decent debut. Featuring a style that is much more intense, and as many like to call it, brutal than their later releases, New American Gospel is an ear shattering and noisy album.To me, their brutal and intense is largly due to their un-defined and immature style, which they would go on to refine and develope on later releases. The vocals are very high pitched with some low gutteral growls, but they nevertheless are annoying and grating to say the least. I actually hate the vocal stylings on New American Gospel. The instrumentation is nowhere near as amazing and awesome as it will become on later releases, being that it sounds too much like a regular band of that particular genre i.e..chuggy chugg guitars and double bass galore with blast beats...etc.. Sure, later Lamb of God features chuggy chug galore as well, but they throw in enough change ups and guitar tricks to satisy my palette. On later releases the guitar and drums have crafted a working relationship that invovles much change ups and start and stop theatrics that work really well. New American Gospel seems to be made up of every band member playing as heavy and hard as they can all at once, hence un-developed.The lyrics are really good and similar to later Lamb of God releases, I just cannot get over the sloppyness and under developed style that Lamb of God has on this album. I prefer Ashes of the Wake or As the Palace Burns or even their latest Sacrament to this.True, New American Gospel is very brutal, heavy and loud, but that does not make it amazing. yet this aint that brutal, if you want brutal pick up any release by Nile. Now thats, brutal...
Brutalizing the Masses - Come on folks, How can you not give this band at least 5 stars. One of the reviewers said that they did not like this type of metal music. Well, revisit Motley Crue and Poison. Sissy. I am a HUGE fan of LOG. Randy, Mark, Chris, Will and John on the Thunder. What a band.
Not their best, but still really good - After releasing their Burn the Priest album, this band couldn t get much more heavy or brutal. New American Gospel does not try to out-gun the band s previous effort. It is slower, but still VERY raw and relentless throughout. New American Gospel was the first Lamb of God cd I got (this was a big mistake). I didn t like Randy s inaudible vocals on this album at first. It took me many listens to develop a liking for this album. If you re looking to buy your first Lamb of God cd, get Ashes of the Wake. This album is very in-your-face and the entire band really wants to punish your ears on all 10 tracks. The instrumental is top notch throughout, and the lyrics are very good also- which brings me to my only gripe. Randy s inaudible vocals, though usually good, get a bit annoying on Letter to the Unborn, Subtle Arts of Murder and Persuasion and O.D.H.G.A.B.F.E. if you listen to them for too long. The assault begins with the awesome Black Label, which is one of my personal favorite Lamb of God songs. The first 30 seconds or so of this on either this cd or Killadelphia really speaks for itself. A Warning is short and very sweet. Black Dahlia is very fun to listen to, especially towards the end. Terror and Hubris in the House of Frank Pollard, aside from having a bizarre title, is very good, beginning with the guitar solos and then moving into the rest of the song, which is quite diverse fromt the rest of the cd and really stands out. Pariah is one of the most lyrically brutal songs on the cd, and really delivers. Overall, New American Gospel is a very good listen for those who are already Lamb of God fans. A lot of these songs translate very well to their live cd/dvd release, Killadelphia.
KILLING KITTENS - This CD was so good... it made me want to go out and kill a few kittens and splatter the blood all over my white car and drive around town while listening to this CD for a few hours... seriously, it is that good. It will have you screaming at the top of your lungs... I reccomend listening to this CD while you are far away from other people so that you do not disturb them with your screams of pure anger and hatred. This CD recieves a double devil horn salute.
Opened up to it, good album - At first, as I described in my As the Palaces Burn album review. I didn t like NAG because of the screaming vocals. But, like I have for other bands, I guess as I heard heavy metal more my ears and senses got more open to the different types of metal. Afterwards, I got used to the vocals and they weren t bad sounding to me anymore, not noticing any faults in how Randy sounded on this album. I do proudly say now that I like New American Gospel.