Artist: Lamb of God
Title: Live in Richmond, VA
Genre: Groove Metal / Thrash Metal
Release Date: 26th March 2021
Label: Nuclear Blast
Album Review
The fact that 2020 didn’t go as most of us had hoped is clear to everyone by now. For over a year (and it feels like an eternity), there have been no more live concerts worldwide. For this reason, artists have to come up with something to get their music to the fans. One of the first to get creative quickly was Berlin-based KADAVAR, which streamed an intimate concert directly from their rehearsal room in March 2020 (a few days after their last concert, which took place in Luxembourg and was thus also one of the last big concerts in the Grand Duchy). Many bands followed. In autumn 2020, groove titans LAMB OF GOD streamed their self-titled eighth album, released in the summer - and this livestream has now also been burned onto sound recordings, somewhat confusingly titled ‘Live In Richmond, VA’. But actually, you should know that this is a concert without a physically present audience.
Behind the only slightly modified cover-artwork of the self-titled album ‘Lamb Of God’ is, as to be expected, their self-titled album in the order of the tracks live in full length. Fittingly, three older songs are also played live, ‘Contractor’ from ‘Wrath’, ‘Ruin’ from the older ‘As The Palaces Burn’, ‘The Death of Us’ which is the title soundtrack of the movie “Bill & Ted Face the Music” and ‘512’ from ‘VII - Sturm und Drang’. And at the end there are also new songs - ‘Ghost Shaped People’ and ‘Hyperthermic / Accelerate’, which are included on the album version in America. There is hardly anything to say about the last album at this point, except that it is a strong piece of metal (which you can read here on our website). The songs are played properly, technically it’s a high-quality recording and LAMB OF GOD don’t constantly do unnecessary announcements to an imaginary audience. Here and there, there is a “Thank you for joining us...”, which is absolutely okay, because there were spectators present via live stream.
You don’t need to expect big deviations from the album and guest contributions are completely taken over by Randy Blythe. Partly there are dissonant sounding guitar riffs, which offer a disturbing atmosphere as usual. As to be expected, however, the feeling of a live concert does not necessarily come across. Whether you have to own the album, everyone should know for themselves. The two “new” studio tracks are still interesting here, because not everyone knows them, but to put a whole album on the market, of which there is already an album and no real atmosphere arises, is quite a pity. Okay, because of the pandemic it is difficult for artists to keep the fans happy, but here they could have saved the CD and the vinyls (or maybe just released a limited number of them for the collectors out there) and only release the livestream on DVD. This would have made a bit more sense, as it would be easier to see how the pandemic paralyses the whole world.
‘Live in Richmond, VA’ is a re-release of their self-titled album with bonus tracks. The live recordings presented here unfortunately cannot be compared to a live album. Technically the album is well produced and also the song selection, which contains mainly the previous album are good. To release a livestream also as a physical version can be done. Whether you need it in different versions is debatable. But it is a good way to support LAMB OF GOD with the purchase.
Tracklist
01. Memento Mori (Live)
02. Checkmate (Live)
03. Gears (Live)
04. Reality Bath (Live)
05. New Colossal Hate (Live)
06. Resurrection Man (Live)
07. Poison Dream (Live)
08. Routes (Live)
09. Bloodshot Eyes (Live)
10. On The Hook (Live)
11. Contractor (Live)
12. Ruin (Live)
13. The Death of Us (Live)
14. 512 (Live)
15. Ghost Shaped People (Live)
16. Hyperthermic / Accelerate (Live)
Line-up
Randall Blythe – Vocals
Mark Morton – Guitar
Willie Adler – Guitar
John Campbell – Bass
Art Cruz – Drums
Website
www.lamb-of-god.com
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
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