The new millennium has brought forth a new king of metal, and that undisputed title goes to Lamb Of God. With each passing year, this band draws a larger group of screaming metal heads who are always willing to tear up a fresh mosh-pit at the drop of a bandana. They are now billed as one of the headlining acts on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival alongside metal veterans; Korn, Rob Zombie, as well as up incoming rock-gods Five Finger Death Punch. Lamb Of God is a band that feeds off of the energy of the crowd, so it only makes sense to do this in Tinley Park with 50,000 pumped-up fans. There are two outside stages that alternate with the main stage, so everyone was primed with insane amounts of enthusiasm by the time Lamb Of God took the stage and ripped into their blistering set.

Like an enormous chainsaw starting, Lamb Of God wasted no time sawing through the sultry, rain-soaked air as a sea of hands flew into the sky with a roar almost as loud as the music itself. Now that Lamb Of God is touring with their 6^th album, they have plenty of killer tunes from which to choose, making any set they play a combination of crowd favorites. Although they only played for an hour, they had no problem whatsoever with involving the entire arena’s full attention with a few of my personal favorites such as: “Black Label,” “Laid to Rest” and “Redneck.” There is definitely a heavy, rhythmic appeal to these three songs, mostly backed by the guitars and drums, which is why I like them the most. Randy Blythe has such a powerful vocal style and range that lends to his command of the crowd. The lyrics seem to be derived from the bowels of hell, but when released by Blythe in a live forum, they take on a screeching wail comparable to the ferocity of the strike of a rattlesnake.

I saw Lamb Of God a few years ago with Slayer on the Unholy Alliance tour, and was riveted by the sheer intensity this band possesses. On July 30^th, I saw that nothing had changed, except the size of the crowd.  Lamb Of God consists of Randy Blythe on lead vocals, Mark Morton on lead guitar, Willie Adler on rhythm guitar, John Campbell on bass and Chris Adler on drums. One of the things that impresses me most about these guys is the fact that they rely on nothing but their music and charismatic stage presence to get their point across to the fans. They don’t have any over-the-top pyrotechnics, elaborate stage props or unnecessary “cartoon characters” that seem to clutter or sometimes overshadow the members of the band.

There is a heavy consistency that is carried out from one song to the next without becoming redundant like some other groups do, where it seems like one continuous song. Songs like “The Passing” and “Set To Fail” have more of a diversity between them where the drums and bass guitar really come alive as the vocal intro beats into your skull. There are several songs that these guys do that really bring me back to what it was that originally drew me to this kind of music. I won’t take you on a lengthy nostalgia trip, but let me say that Lamb Of God is what thrash metal is all about. Songs like “In Your Words” and “Walk With Me In Hell” epitomize what a broken-nose mosh-pit would be formed around.  The last song in their blistering set was “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For.” I think that the true musical talent in this one lies with the guitars and the slashing vocals which really pull this one together.

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