"So here it is. The infamous all-American metal album that kicstarted Lamb of God into being one of the most recognized assaults in modern metal. This is a decent album, but a decent album for any other band than Lamb of God.
The crushing techincal brutallity is stripped down completely on 'New American Gospel.' You hear none of the captivating groove, or maddening fretwork that this band has come to be known for. All the riffage is your basic power chord attack, closely relating this album to the term nu-metal in some instances. Every song on this album is easy for a basic guitarist to sit and pick up. Structurally, the songs are simple accompanied by poor production. This is clearly, the mighty Lamb of God before they realized their full potential, and while not holding a mere candle to their later efforts, this album doesn't even stand sturdily on its own merits. There are many albums out there much better than this one. This release is by no means awful, but simply does not prove to be anything other than just another metal album.
A shaky release, I would suggest this album only after you bought Lamb of God's later material."
One of the best thrash/metalcore releases of all time.
Atub | Baltimore, MD | 11/21/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Lamb of God establishes that they are on top of the American metal scene with this album. They have an amazing thrash technicality with hardcore sound. This is a must-have for any metal collection. I would also strongly recommend LoG's follow up, As The Palces Burn.
I, for one, love Randy Blythe's vocals, and I hope that no true metalhead who reads a review describing them as "Rah, Rah, Rah, Blah, Blah screaming mess" will take it seriously. If you want clean vocals, you can listen to the new Panic! CD. I heard it's peachy."
Worth it if you love the band.
Eugene Smolenskiy | Brooklyn, NY USA | 04/18/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The album is awesome and the facelift is great. The only gripe I have is the double-kick bass drums still sound weak on this re-mixing, but I'm not a recording engineer so I don't know if it would even be possible to make them sounding without actually re-recording the drum tracks."
Strictly for huge fans
Jonah Lee-archer | Launceston, TAS, Australia | 02/26/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"if your love of lamb of god was created when you bought Ashes Of The Wake, you may find this album somewhat disappointing. the production was not brilliant, Machine hadn't had a say in it, but the quality of the songs is far away their best work.
it'll cut slices off your ears and serve them to you in a light metal sauce, and wash it down with coarse lumps of brilliance. randy is flying at his best here, with writings of his life and the early days of Lamb Of God/Burn The Priest, Black Label telling the tale of sitting around a fume-emitting kerosene heater drinking Black Label and writing metal songs in a freezing sharehouse in Richmond, Virginia.