It’s been well over a year since Lamb Of God’s last album “VII: Sturm Und Drang” was released and while they are still out there in support of that release, the band have now put out this short EP called “The Duke” which is titled after the new track ‘The Duke’, written in honour of the band’s late friend and fan, Wayne Ford, who was named after “The Duke” John Wayne. With 2 new songs and a couple of live tracks, we take a look at the latest offering from Lamb Of God.
The title track was released to the public recently and already unsurprisingly caused a stir amongst fans due to the fairly different nature of the song. Vocalist Randy Blythe played around with clean vocals on the “VII: Sturm und Drang” album but here it’s almost all clean which is far different to his regular vocal style of vicious growls and screams. Sure there’s still a little of that in here but for the most part he goes for a more sedated approach which actually fits the more melodic sound of the song and at the end of the day, it’s whatever fits to the song that’s most important. It’s a somewhat heavy song with a groove based riff but if any hardcore Lamb Of God fan is going to sink their teeth into this, it may take some time to get used to.
The second new track is titled “Culling” and not a lot is known about this song. It’s assumed much like “The Duke” that it was a leftover from the “VII: Sturm und Drang” sessions but here it’s steps a little closer to the usual Lamb Of God territory that they are well known for. It’s heavy, Randy does growl a lot and there’s a cool solo that’s quite a standout on the song. Chris Adler’s little drum solo towards the end is a nice little kick but overall “Culling” is nothing flashy or anything that really grabs your attention a whole lot.
The 3 tracks that fill out the EP are live tracks from Bonnaroo Festival and Rock Am Ring and are all taken from “VII: Sturm und Drang” – “Still Echoes”, “512” and “Engage The Fear Machine”. Having seen Lamb Of God numerous times over the years, the live recordings are decent of course but they in no way truly capture Lamb Of Gods live energy and power but then most live recordings rarely do anyway. “The Duke” EP is a nice little offering that may bridge the gap between albums but it doesn’t feel like a proper Lamb Of God release to be honest. However with the different elements added in the title track, it may give us a peek into the future of Lamb Of God and it could shake a few things up among the legion of fans they have gathered over the years.
TRACKLIST
The Duke
Culling
Still Echoes (live)
512 (live)
Engage The Fear Machine (live)
