All living organisms on the planet have a common property, they are energy converters.
While at the same time becoming the same sources of energy, participating in an eternal cycle of life.
Man is the only being who added art to this whole process.
Creating a multitude of taste changes, with pure energy taking a secondary place.
His arrogance, however, led him to consider himself at the top of an energy chain, ignoring that everything is a circle.
And perhaps this suspicion also created the myth of vampires.
Considering his blood as his most important energy charge.
Somewhat the tomato soup which is a rather summer food, because its raw material, of course, comes out in the summer.
As it seems, Lamb Of God is spending another summer in their career with their homonymous tenth album.
As pillars and founders of New Wave American Heavy metal, they remind us why America is a superpower in metal music as well.
There is a custom for bands to give their name to their first work, as did Lamb Of God, just then it was called Burn the Priest.
They used this name with their previous album “Legion: XX”, with cover songs, showing that they are looking for their beginning again.
Tomato soup…
Soup as food, many times mistakenly, is considered something like a monotonous and non-essential food.
At the same time giving the characterization to boring and repetitive patterns.
This axiom is most often wrong, as there is enough originality, along with plenty of nutritional value.
It is a staple food of our first and last years, but it should never be snubbed in between.
So is returning to the roots of a band, because this can be the beginning of another dynamic cycle.
And the cover of this album, with broken clocks and the time showing 12 and 1 minute, can have that interpretation too.
While observing the cover, you can prepare the ingredients for the tomato soup.
Ingredients
1kg of tomatoes or 250g ready-made concentrated tomato juice, one leek, one celery root, two carrots, parsley, two liters of water, salt, pepper, and ¼ chicken, 100gr. rice, 200gr. cream.
Optionally a rustic sausage about 20cm, a medium onion, 10 green olives, and any spice that everyone prefers.
Besides, everyone understands poetry, music, and taste differently.
Trying to de-symbolize the cover and take a look at the lyrics, we put the chicken to boil with water.
It is advisable to take out the foam until it is ready.
Memento Mori
The first song of the album is “Memento Mori”.
This phrase was repeated by someone to every Roman emperor during his coronation and means “to remember death”.
“This was done to remind him of his mortality, to prevent him from being unjust and arrogant.” *.
Apparently, the “emperors” of American metal, wanted to give this reminder to themselves, starting another cycle of a music career.
The song begins with mysterious and dark vocals,
The musical background of a thriller ends abruptly mashing our minds with riffs dripping hot metal, to the familiar sound of the band.
A song that prepares us for the rest of the album.
At the same time mash the ripe tomatoes. A grater is good for this since the outer peel comes out more easily.
Checkmate
And the moment the second “Checkmate” enters with another interesting introduction with bass and guitar.
A Groove metal composition with Mark Morton’s guitar keeping the rhythm, but also “tying” the whole composition.
The drums beat incessantly at the same time as you prepare to make mosh pit yourself along with the pots in the kitchen holding two carrots and leek.
But eventually, you decide to cut the leek into slices and toss it into the pan with a little oil (or some cheap frying or olive oil).
You can rub the carrots and fry them a little until they grab along with the leek or just cut them into slices and toss them in the simmering broth.
If the chicken is absent, you can put cubes or concentrated broth from the popular bird.
Gears
The next “Gears” takes us on pure heavy metal paths, mainly because of the guitar riffs.
The catchy chorus makes it ideal for concerts. The solo takes us to the ‘80s when the value of a song was measured by the dynamics of the solo.
Again, Mark Morton ties and sews into the song, keeping its quality at a very high level.
Reality Bath
Before the “Reality Bath” you can boil the rice separately and pour when it’s ready in the soup (100g of rice to 200 g – 300g of water).
The song starts with bass and after a while, it becomes a Groove metal bath. A time jump in our time and a show of modern metal.
Real inspirational and intelligent, with volume and tempo changes.
In the background, the guitar gives melodic hints, but without “softening” the track.
Josh Wilbur’s production is up for an Oscar, on the verge of genius.
If your vegetables have “grabbed”, pour them into the pot with the broth and the celery root – cut into 2cm cubes.
Follow the same procedure for mashed tomatoes or ready-made tomato juice.
Add salt, pepper, and any spice you want.
Add a little salt – if you want to add the chopped olives. Which you can throw into the blender.
You keep the parsley for the end, dropping the olives in.
New Colossal Hate
Let them boil for half an hour, listening to “New Colossal Hate”.
In the classic levels of the band, without standing out in the already amazing rest of the album.
On the verge of thrash, easy to digest and simple to perform with the riffs giving it even more value.
With drummer Art Cruz, on his debut album with Lamb Of God, really sweating behind the kit.
Resurrection Man
Putting the next “Resurrection Man” cut the sausage into thin slices and put it in the pan itself along with finely chopped onion, without oil.
We put the sausage along with the onion optionally, just to weigh the soup.
The heaviest of the album so far is the above song.
Rhythmic with a steady and slow tempo, suitable for headbanging, if you have more than 4 decades on the neck and some salts together.
Just enough to stretch out and break some osteophytes, without risking an accident.
Poison Dream
Taste a little, blowing the spoon with the hot soup if you want to add some allspice
As soon as the next “Poison Dream” comes along with Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed and Kingdom of Sorrow.
Hot riffs again stand out in an even more groove approach with the entrance of the guest singer reaching the limits of rap metal.
As a whole it keeps the listener in constant attention with an only constant riff, changing even musical genres.
The production again makes its miracle with the musical ideas of the band members.
Routes
” Routes” along with the huge Chuck Billy, it should not be a surprise that he goes to the limits of thrash.
A chance to test the limits of your neck on a track from the golden age of Bay Area thrash.
The production continues to be amazing.
If you have not boiled the rice first, add it now for about 20 minutes or until it is soft. If you have it ready, pour it into the soup along with sausages and the fried onion.
In five minutes, the soup is ready for its final phase.
Bloodshot Eyes
After the concert “Routes”, which closes the collaborations, comes “Bloodshot Eyes” with another fantastic riff oscillating in melodies and Groove, with alternations of intensity.
Ideal as a sequel to the previous song and we will not have to talk about the unique production again.
It’s time to pour the parsley into the soup. After five minutes pour into a bowl 2-3 tablespoons.
On the Hook
Let it cool for 1-2 minutes until the last “On the Hook” enters.
Ideal closure for an amazing album.
With the necessary rhythm changes, nothing is deprived of the previous ones, keeping the quality high, but also helping the exercise of the neck.
Also, another proof that the choice of the new drummer was the best move.
As a final step in the soup, put the cream in the bowl (that we put some to cool), while the rest of the cream is boiling in low heat.
As we put the cream, we constantly stir it.
When you have put all the contents, the new mixture now, slowly pour it into the pot, stirring at the same time.
After 5 minutes it is ready and you can turn off the fire.
Lamb Of God proves that after 5 years of absence from the discography with new material, they hold up the flag of American metal.
They perfectly combine musical seasons even before the band’s creation with the present, while maintaining the same freshness in their sound.
The soup is also eaten lukewarm but accompanied by the hot riffs of the Americans.
Special mention should be made of the album’s producer Josh Wilbur, who really did magic.
They themselves proved, that as time goes on, a correct set always matures the sound.
Without even having to sell out to a wider audience, mostly ignorant of this music.