Signing to a major label hasn't mellowed the band any, either. _Ashes of the Wake_ more than holds its own to the likes of _As the Palaces Burn_; Machine's production job providing an added bottom-end kick that had perhaps been lacking from the band's prior output. The sheer pummeling aggression of songs like "Remorse Is for the Dead" and the climactic "Break You" almost makes it hard to believe that Lamb of God could have ascended the dizzy heights that they have thus far, but at the same time it's heartening to see that no amount of commercial applause has thus far been able to stunt the band's brutal momentum. And while I'd flinch at labeling this outfit, as some have in the past, "the world's most dangerous band", when it comes to the question of the most dangerous band to have infiltrated the mainstream conscience in recent years, I'd say most goddamn definitely.