Lamb of God

Hourglass (Epic/Prosthetic)

Forty-four cloven bleats melt this 3-CD Hourglass, trinity to Lamb of God’s father (The Underground Years), son (The Epic Years), and Holy Ghost (The Vault). Four femoral bursts from the Virginia quintet’s 1999 debut as Burn the Priest, plus chunks of its first Prosthetic/Metal Blade LPs, the contorting New American Gospel (2000) and As the Palaces Burn (’03), birth Randy Blythe’s vulture caw (“Pariah”) and Chris Adler’s kick-drum spindle (“Resurrection #9”), not to mention the neo-industrial grind and purge on “Lies of Autumn” and a rabid death rattle from “Suffering Bastard,” both Burn the Priest tracks. Disc two dices Lamb’s next three Epics, Ashes of the Wake (1980s-style thrasher “Now You’ve Got Something to Die For”), Sacrament (1,000-yard stare “Blacken the Cursed Sun”), and Wrath (microcosmic old/new-school compactor “Dead Seeds”), but a Vault cache of Japanese bonus tracks (New American Gospel blort “Nippon”), plus demos as raw as the group’s intestines (“In Your Words”) and eight Burn the Priest tracks, half from a lethal tour tape, crucifies. Burn the Priest box set, pray.

***.5

This article appears in June 18 • 2010.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.