Band:	Lamb Of God
Album:	Omens
Style:	Groove thrash metal
Release date:	October 2022

01. Nevermore
02. Vanishing
03. To The Grave
04. Ditch
05. Omens
06. Gomorrah
07. Ill Designs
08. Grayscale
09. Denial Mechanism
10. September Song

The omens were not good for post-Chris Adler Lamb Of God after 2020’s mediocre self-titled release. Thankfully, these Omens are better than expected.

At the time of its release, I felt Lamb Of God was very much a ‘going through the motions’ record, with too few moments that were memorable and too many moments that reminded me of better songs from previous albums by the band. Still, this record was the first since 2015’s impressive VII: Sturm Und Drang, so while Lamb Of God was a misstep, and one that raised concerns over the future of this band following its first ever line-up change in the form of Chris Adler’s replacement with Art Cruz on drums, there remained every possibility that it would be a one-off and that its successor would herald a return to form. Well, Omens is a clear step up from the self-titled record at the very least, even if it’s still not in competition with the band’s best albums.

I genuinely didn’t find there to be a single song of note on Lamb Of God, which means that by the end of its first song, Omens has already shown itself to be a step up. Between some gnarly mid-tempo riffs and a pleasantly decent clean vocal bit from Randy Blythe, “Nevemore” kicks off Omens in a more measured and brooding manner than I can remember any of their previous albums doing, but it has purpose and character to it. The next few songs inject a bit more pace into proceedings, culminating with the ferocious opening to “Ditch”, one of the standout moments from across the album. These songs lurk very much in a region between the real great fast songs from Lamb Of God (“In Your Words”, “Hourglass”) and the pale imitations from Lamb Of God; without being overly excited by any of them, I can at least look forward to their appearances on album playthroughs.

I feel that’s a sentiment that can sum up the album as a whole; if I compare it to records such as Ashes Of The Wake, Wrath and VII: Sturm Und Drang, the frequency and extent of the excitement I get from it is clearly not on the same level. At the same time, it is at least fairly consistently likeable, albeit less so in the second half. There is something to be said about the closing pair of tracks, however. At one end, you have “Denial Mechanism”, the shortest song here and a lively, punky effort; on the other side, “September Song” is comfortably the longest effort on Omens, and represents one of the rare occasions in which Lamb Of God try to dabble with some softer sounds and expansive songwriting. After a subdued clean opening, it seemingly reverts to type, only to mix things up with keyboards, chants and a grandstand climax later on. It show that Lamb Of God can venture beyond the basic sound that dominates so much of their recorded material, and find some success when doing so, as “September Song” is clearly the highlight of Omens for me.

So, there’s greater range and stronger material this time around; it’s firmly a step in the right direction. Nevertheless, it’s a step, but not a jump; I’m not blown away or overly excited by anything here, bar perhaps the closing song, and it does have the usual Lamb Of God issue in terms of feeling samey well before it’s over. Basically, Omens is good enough for me to retain interest in checking out any future Lamb Of God records, but it’s not quite good enough for me to want to spend more time with it.