Lamb Of God may be one of the biggest bands in modern metal, but they will never forget where they came from. Mark Morton (guitar), John Campbell (bass), and Chris Adler (drums) formed the first incarnation of the band, Burn The Priest, in the winter of 1994 after meeting four years earlier as students at Virginia Commonwealth University. Less than a year later, in the summer of 1995, they met vocalist Randy Blythe before adding Chris Adler’s brother, Willie Adler (guitar), prior to transitioning to Lamb Of God – and the rest is global metal history.
Lamb Of God’s style of metal can be classed as a form of groove metal with hardcore and modern aesthetic sounds, the punk music scene a big part of their influences particularly with frontman Randy Blythe. On hearing this set of cover songs that primarily sit around the punk and hardcore scene, you would be mistaken to think these bands had no influence on the Lamb Of God sound as we know it. Metal has always had a strong punk influence anyway, stalwarts like Metallica and Slayer derive most of their earlier sounds from the punk movement of the 70’s and early 80’s and still to this day those bands have had a major impact on a lot of metal floating around in 2018.
What’s interesting about Legion: XX is not the choice of bands that they picked the songs from but the actual songs themselves. Most covers tend to be from the more widely known numbers, mainstream or not but here we get to see for the most part tracks that are maybe a little more obscure but from some well known bands. Also of note is Lamb Of God’s decision to call themselves as their original name in Burn The Priest for this release, a name that stirred some controversy back in their early days and the subsequent release of which the name shares. It seemed only fitting with the punk ethos to bring the name back for these songs if not at least for it’s historical place on the band’s influences.
Looking at the artists covered, it really is a who’s who of punk, hardcore and thrash/crossover, a real selection of what made Lamb Of God. It always makes me laugh to hear people refer to Lamb Of God in the same vein as the metalcore and nu-metal scene, an opinion that’s well uninformed and musically out of touch with who Lamb Of God actually is. A few breakdowns in the music does not constitute a place in the mainstream trend, it’s simply an element that works for the band who derive that from their hardcore background (real hardcore, not the post-melodic stuff which may be where the confusion lies). From the Melvins to Bad Brains, Cro-Mags and throw in some good old Ministry into the mix and what you have is a fairly wide selection within that world.
The thrashier stuff is certainly going to pique the interest of those looking for the fast paced stuff, “Inherit The Earth” and “Kill Yourself” is definitely two of the best here and as strange as it may be to hear Lamb Of God do classic speed metal, it works flawlessly as drummer Chris Adler shows with that signature snare sound and ultra double kicks flailing along. Where it gets more interesting is when Randy’s vocals become less growly and more subdued, cleaner and dare I say, more punkier. “I Against I” originally by the Bad Brains is probably the furtherest away in terms of Lamb Of God’s sound as the catchy pop punk style is clearly obvious here but Randy makes it work by switching his vocals up. The rest of the band however turn this into one of the tightest punk songs I have ever heard and that’s usually the case when metal bands cover punk rock songs, they simply metal it up on this one.
Being a fan of some of these bands covered here, there were a few that I had anticipated hearing, “Honey Bucket” from the Melvins being one of them. It’s only a short track but boy do they pull this off really well. There’s always a hesitation to hear some familiar tracks being covered by other bands, you have a certain style and sound stuck in your head and to deviate from that only fucks with your mind and your unwillingness to accept anything outside of it. The loose garaginess of the originals may be lost here but none of the rawness and grittiness is though, granted that’s mostly been a signature thing in Lamb Of God anyway but the translation with that does work in this case.
Next to that idea though, Ministry’s more industrial electronic sound has been amped up with guitars to the front and made more rock n’ roll with the classic “Jesus Built My Hotrod“. How they managed to pull this one off is beyond me but they did and it is brilliant. The southern rock vibe during the mid-section and the constant drum beat held together by Adler makes this one a testament to the band’s ability to switch up styles seamlessly, it’s not necessarily a song that you would think Lamb Of God could or should do but damn is this fun to listen to!
I won’t go on for every song but those were the highlights for sure but to be honest, there wasn’t a song on here that wasn’t fun to listen to at some level. It’s the ultimate punk/crossover covers album in quite some time but done with some serious metal muscle, purists might see it as blasphemy but isn’t that always the case with genre specific groups? Whatever, go listen to this especially if you are a fan of both Lamb Of God and the bands covered.
Legion: XX track listing:
1. Inherit The Earth (originally performed by THE ACCUSED)
2. Honey Bucket (originally performed by MELVINS)
3. Kerosene (originally performed by BIG BLACK)
4. Kill Yourself (originally performed by S.O.D.)
5. I Against I (originally performed by BAD BRAINS)
6. Axis Rot (originally performed by SLIANG LAOS)
7. Jesus Built My Hotrod (originally performed by MINISTRY)
8. One Voice (originally performed by AGNOSTIC FRONT)
9. Dine Alone (originally performed by QUICKSAND)
10. We Gotta Know (originally performed by CRO-MAGS)
Bonus song (only on LP):
In The Meantime (originally performed by HELMET)
