Lamb of God

To be honest, I used to strongly dislike Lamb of God. Their brand of straightforward, 100% American metal struck me as completely unmelodic and hookless, and on top of that, they were a favorite for the bros in the gym who declared their allegiance to "heavy" metal despite listening to nothing outside of the metalcore scene. I guess they grew on me after some of my friends played them over and over again and I got a closer listen. The band's latest album, 2009's Wrath, employs stripped-down production that emphasizes the songs' aggressive attack and pushes against the grain of similar bands' glossy, pro-toolsed-to-hell recordings.

Here's "In Your Words," the second track from Wrath. Chris Adler shows off his prodigious drumming while Randy Blythe experiments with a variety of different screaming styles, all of which are pretty intimidating. The surprisingly melodic outro is the best part of the song, bringing to mind something prog-metal masters Opeth would do.

Lamb of God - "In Your Words"

While I'm at it, I might as well post the video for "Redneck," off of 2007's Sacrament. It's one of my favorite because of its ridiculous premise--the band crashes a little girl's birthday party.