Like it or not Lamb Of God have risen to become one of America's premier metal acts and are often viewed as the leaders of the current new wave of American heavy metal. While their record sales may have never managed to match up to this illustrious title, the group are definitely in an enviable position and are looked up to by many far and wide. With such factors at play you would expect this latest effort to be the bands attempt at commercial success, chockfull of blatant mainstream oriented material. Thankfully though, this is metal and Lamb Of God practically bleed molten steel on "As The Palaces Burn" - their latest ruthlessly heavy thrash-laden metalcore masterpiece.

Literally an aural firebomb, this outing doesn't just charge out of the gate, but demolishes it entirely and leaves nothing but burnt out wreckage in its wake. Empowering, intelligent and ultimately littered with battlefield trench like grooves, the group fire off salvo after salvo of explosive metal mastery. With howitzer like double kick drumming (which thankfully sounds much thicker this time out), shredding barbed riffs, and vocals that sound like an enraged drunken demon spewing end of the world rhetoric, "As The Palaces Burn" is a much needed kick in the ass for the American metal scene.

Many often lump Lamb Of God alongside fellow American stalwarts like Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall and God Forbid, and in many aspects this is a fitting classification. However, one thing that these VA based bruisers do not rely on is emotional melody. There's no hooky choruses or clean singing, nor is there need for any. Instead frontman Randy Blythe unleashes a battery of skin scorching screams and vengeful howls with little to no remorse. As a total package, Lamb Of God are one of the first bulldozers lined up to clear the ruins of the once prosperous nu-metal metropolis. And if the albums already under their belt have anything to say about it, you can bet the new citadel they construct for themselves will make hell look like an amusement park. Sure, they still have a few lingering flaws like flat production, (at least on the advance copy) and all too similar song structures, but these are easily overlooked in face of the fearsome metal present. Quite possibly the first must have true metal release of the year.