VII: Sturm und Drang

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VII: Sturm und Drang
Lamb of God studio album

Publication
(s)

July 24, 2015

Label (s) Epic Records , Nuclear Blast

Genre (s)

Metal , groove metal

Title (number)

10

running time

48 min 7 s

occupation
  • Guitar: Willie Adler
  • Bass : John Campbell

production

Josh Wilbur

Studio (s)

NRG Recording Studios, Los Angeles
Suburban Soul Studios, Torrance

chronology
Resolution
(2012)
VII: Sturm und Drang Legion: XX
(2018)

VII: Sturm und Drang is the eighth studio album by the American metal band Lamb of God . It was released on July 24, 2015 in North America via Epic Records and in the rest of the territories via Nuclear Blast . The album reached number one on the Canadian album charts. Song 512 was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 2016 Grammy Awards .

Emergence

After singer Randy Blythe had to answer for manslaughter in a Prague court in early 2012 and was acquitted, the musicians agreed to take a longer break. While Blythe was writing his memoirs , the other musicians were collecting ideas for a new album. As the band members met again, loudly had drummer Chris Adler , the guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler together about 50 song ideas. Morton explained in an interview that the individual band members collaborated far more on the new album than before .

Was recorded VII: Sturm und Drang in the NRG Recording Studios in Los Angeles and in the Suburban Soul Studios in Torrance . The album was produced and mixed again by Josh Wilbur, who worked as a sound engineer with Nick Rowe and Kyle McAulay during the recording . Guest vocalists include Greg Puciato ( The Dillinger Escape Plan ) on the song Torches and Chino Moreno ( Deftones ) on the song Embers . The band signed contracts with new record labels for the new album. According to Chris Adler, the band had already signed a contract with Nuclear Blast in 1997, but then decided on Prosthetic Records . The band shot music videos for songs 512 , Overlord and Embers .

content

Track list
  1. Still Echoes - 4:22
  2. Erase This - 5:08
  3. 512-4 :44
  4. Embers - 4:56
  5. Footprints - 4:24
  6. Overlord - 6:28
  7. Anthropoid - 3:38
  8. Engage the Fear Machine - 4:48
  9. Delusion Pandemic - 4:22
  10. Torches - 5:17

The album deals with the psychology and reaction of people who find themselves in extreme stressful situations. Singers Randy Blythe and Mark Morton were looking for a suitable word that sums up these situations. The subtitle Sturm und Drang finally came from Mark Morton's German mother. The Roman numeral VII was according to Mark Morton chosen because the musicians are proud of the fact to publish seven albums, which does not create any band.

In the song Still Echoes , Randy Blythe deals with his imprisonment in Prague's Pankrác prison . At the end of Blythe's cell block is a guillotine that was used by the German occupying forces to execute around 2,000 people during the Second World War . Blythe thought one night of all the victims who had their heads cut off. All of this happened not far from his cell .

“I write about things that affect me deeply. And believe me, going to prison in a foreign country and being accused of manslaughter affects me very deeply. "

- Randy Blythe

The title 512 refers to Blythe's cell number in Pankrác prison. The song Torches is about the Czech student Jan Palach , who burned himself to death in protest against the crackdown on the Prague Spring . Engage the Fear Machine is about the power of the mass media in the USA. According to Blythe these particular during the Ebola fever epidemic in 2014 for scaremongering provided. He compared the behavior of the media to the McCarthy era .

The song Overlord contains with "All the world's a stage" ( English : The whole world is a stage ) a quote from the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare . With the song Embers , guitarist Mark Morton came to terms with the loss of his newborn daughter Madalyn, who died shortly after birth eight years ago. For Morton it is a song about the hope that one can overcome despair with love.

reception

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
VII: Sturm und Drang
  DE 12 07/31/2015 (12 weeks)
  AT 12 08/07/2015 (2 weeks)
  CH 5 08/02/2015 (4 weeks)
  UK 7th 08/06/2015 (3 weeks)
  US 3 08/15/2015 (1 week)

Reviews

The German magazine Rock Hard named VII: Sturm und Drang album of the month. Thomas Kupfer described the album as a “demonstration of typical band strengths” and as an “emotional roller coaster ride through the band cosmos. Mostly demanding, sometimes sounding fragile, but never boring ”. Copper awarded nine out of ten points. According to Thomas Meyns from the online magazine Metalnews.de, “Lamb of God are pounding the now well-known mixture of more modern Thrash and Groove Metal with countless fresh ideas” and “are presenting a new album that is as self-confident as it is high-quality”, for which he received six out of seven points forgave. Robert Fröwein from the Austrian online magazine Stormbringer.at noted that the “significantly increased vocal variability, in addition to the instrumental maturity, is the second glaring point of change” that “initially required the experienced Lamb-of-God listener of the last albums to concentrate more”. The album could “mature into a classic of the thrash / groove genre”, for which he awarded four out of five points.

Chart placements

VII: Sturm und Drang reached number one on the Canadian album charts. For the band it was the second number one album in Canada after Wrath from 2009. In Australia the album reached number two. The album was also placed in the top ten in the USA and Finland (third place each), in Switzerland (fifth place) and in the United Kingdom (seventh place). In Germany the album reached number twelve.

Awards

The song 512 was nominated at the 2016 Grammy Awards in the Best Metal Performance category. However, the award went to the Swedish band Ghost .

Individual evidence

  1. a b LAMB OF GOD: 'VII: Sturm und Drang' First-Week Chart Positions Revealed. Blabbermouth.net , accessed August 4, 2015 .
  2. SLIPKNOT, LAMB OF GOD, GHOST, SEVENDUST, AUGUST BURNS RED Among GRAMMY AWARDS Nominees. Blabbermouth.net, accessed December 8, 2015 .
  3. a b LAMB OF GOD To Release 'VII: Sturm Und Drang' Album In July; New song 'Still Echoes' streaming. Blabbermouth.net, accessed May 17, 2015 .
  4. ^ A b Andrew Massie: Mark Morton: Lamb of God. The Rock Pit, accessed June 13, 2015 .
  5. a b Christa Titus: Lamb of God's 'VII' Is Less 'Schizophrenic' Than Previous Albums, Randy Blythe Says. Billboard , accessed May 21, 2015 .
  6. Tobias Kreutzer: Interview with guitarist Mark Morton on "VII: Sturm und Drang". (No longer available online.) Metal.de, archived from the original on September 5, 2015 ; Retrieved August 3, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metal.de
  7. Kory Grow: Inside Lamb of God's Prison-Themed New Single 'Still Echoes'. Rolling Stone , accessed May 18, 2015 .
  8. Kory Grow: Lamb of God on How Prison Inspired Raging New Song '512'. Rolling Stone, accessed June 12, 2015 .
  9. Tom Küppers: Let yourself be surprised . In: Metal Hammer , August 2015, page 84
  10. Thomas Kupfer: The scene police can do me . In: Rock Hard , August 2015, page 26
  11. LAMB OF GOD Guitarist Says Loss Of His Child Inspired 'Embers' Song, Video. Blabbermouth.net, accessed August 10, 2016 .
  12. ^ Discography - Lamb Of God. Media Control , accessed August 4, 2015 .
  13. Lamb of God in the Austrian charts. austriancharts.at, accessed on August 4, 2015 .
  14. Lamb of God in the Swiss hit parade. hitparade.ch, accessed on August 4, 2015 .
  15. Lamb of God in the British charts. Official Chart Company, accessed August 4, 2015 .
  16. ^ Lamb of God - Chart history (Billboard 200). Billboard , accessed December 4, 2013 .
  17. Thomas Kupfer: Lamb of God - VII: Sturm und Drang . In: Rock Hard, August 2015, page 83
  18. Thomas Meyns: Lamb Of God - VII: Sturm und Drang. (No longer available online.) Metalnews.de, archived from the original on July 18, 2015 ; Retrieved July 17, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metalnews.de
  19. ^ Robert Fröwein: Lamb Of God - VII: Sturm und Drang. Stormbringer.at, accessed on July 17, 2015 .