Live Review: Lamb of God at Aragon Ballroom • Chicago
Lamb Of God
Aragon Ballroom
Chicago
March 25, 2026
It only took three songs for frontman Randy Blythe to express an overt and timely political message during Lamb Of God’s all-ages headlining show at the Aragon on March 25: “No more war for oil, motherfuckers,” Blythe spat out as an introduction to “Blood Junkie.”
Otherwise, he let the lyrics and music do the talking for the 90-minute set. And it seems that “Blood Junkie,” from the band’s 2003 landmark album “As The Palaces Burn,” was before its time in both songwriting and lyrical content: “A shallow little jackal of a man/posing as a hawk, conniving opportunist/lease the blade, the gun, the bomb/in the name of justice/a violent panacea for what ails the nation.” It sounds familiar because it was a reaction to the country’s involvement in war in the early 2000s. Without that context, it sounds absolutely prophetic for what’s happening now in the Middle East.
Blythe and the boys from Richmond, Virginia, have been stalwart doomsday preachers of American thrash metal for decades now, and they are still relevant and raging, as evidenced by the release of their 10th studio album, Into Oblivion, on March 13, 2026, and the subsequent headlining tour currently happening to support the release. The consistent high-quality thrash and groove metal output from album to album is the band’s strength, and it seems they could do this forever. The ferocity, the riffage, and the topics haven’t changed with this new release either, much to the delight of the denizens of the night’s constant circle-pit.
The band played three tracks from the new album: “Into Oblivion,” the title track, which debuted early in the set, with “Parasocial Christ” and “Sepsis” scattered among the classics and must-plays from the band’s deep catalogue. “Parasocial Christ” seemed especially topical in its skewering of the cult of personality that emerges from constant social media usage: “You need to walk away, but your self-worth is tied up in someone else,” Blythe warned.
The new tracks were well received, but the standards of a Lamb Of God concert got the crowd singing and pit churning with the most ferocity. During “512,” about Blythe’s nightmare stint in a Czech prison, the crowd screamed along to the lyrics “My hands are painted red / I don’t recognize myself / I think I’m someone else / My hands are painted red.”
“Omerta,” a song dedicated to ICE casualties Renee Good and Alex Pretti one night earlier at the show in Minneapolis, seamlessly grooved into “11th Hour” in back-to-back songs. And “Sepsis,” a new track, echoed the thrashing vibe of the much older “Redneck” as those two songs closed out the show.
This verse of the closer “Redneck,” sung by many in the crowd, cemented one of the band’s most important lyrical themes over the years–disgust over so much hypocrisy in society: “So goddamn easy to write this / You make it spill on the page / So drunk on yourself, self-righteous / A laughing stock of your own fucking stage.”
Blythe could not have imagined 2026 back when the band recorded “Redneck” 20 years ago, but it sure sounded pertinent on this tour.
– Jason Scales
Category: Featured, Live Reviews
