Review by SilentScream213 for Lamb of God - As the Palaces Burn (2003)

I always viewed Lamb of God as a sort of “2000’s Pantera.” Not only were they in the same Groove Metal gang, but they also were one of the biggest Metal bands of their respective decade, and shaped the trajectory of popular Metal as a whole in their early career. Yeah, and they also had the same southern tough guy attitude.

After really rough start as “Burn the Priest” for a few years and a completely unremarkable debut (another mirror to Pantera’s long-forgotten beginnings?) Lamb of God released a quite remarkable and game changing sophomore release in “As the Palace Burns.” This album is one of the founding albums of the modern Groove Metal style (not sure if it’s the very first, but it’s certainly the most popular and impactful).

By 2003, Groove Metal on its own had started to become stale and quite hated by the Metal community. Many fans had to watch their favorite artists stop playing good music to release Groove Metal slop in the late 90’s because that’s what was trendy. It was a dumbed-down version of what ruled the 80’s, featuring a lot of boring, simple riffs and repetitive, mid-tempo rhythms. On the flip side, Groove Metal was seeing IMMENSE success when merged with other genres like Nu Metal, Alt Metal, Metalcore, etc.

And so, Lamb of God very successfully joined and lead this new wave. They merged Groove with Metalcore to adopt a more modern sound accessible to more than just pure Metalheads. They injected a fiery dose of Thrash into their veins for energy, aggression, and riffage that was absent in most of the blander Groove Metal. And lastly, a seasoning of Melodic Metalcore to ensure guitar leads that were catchy enough to make the otherwise harsh and heavy songs memorable and slightly accessible.

And they had a winning formula. Even purists tend to like Lamb of God. And you can add me to the mix too, because this album has made me a Lamb of God fan. It’s not the most incredible album, but for what it is, the band pulls off everything they set out to do very well. All of the genres played, some of which I’m not the biggest fan, are played to a high degree of competency. I can’t help but enjoy it. This is a band I wasn’t really expecting to like that much, but came away from this album more and more impressed each time I listened to it. Simply enjoyable.