I’ve been waiting for the true followup of “Stankonia” since 2001, and after hearing the “Idlewild” soundtrack, I am still waiting. On this 78 minute, 25 track behemoth of a soundtrack, only four tracks feature Outkast partners Big Boi and Andre Benjamin. Both artists have their moments on the soundtrack, but overall this album is highly erratic and pieced together without a true flow.

Big Boi satisfies listeners with tracks like “Buggface”, and “In Your Dreams”, but Boi’s biggest problem is not assimilating and fusing the hip-hop into the 1930’s sound that the movie is portraying. His portion of the album sounds very much like a modern day hip-hop record. Single “Morris Brown” uses a marching band drum beat to ride the sound, but does not deliver with the potency that usually fills Outkast records.

Meanwhile, Andre Benjamin fully buys into the hip-hop and ragtime fusion, but it meets with limited success as well. The very blues based “Idlewild Blues” is smooth and completely different from past Outkast tracks. But Benjamin tries to go through his unusual quirks (as he did on his “Love Below” portion of his last CD) and tracks like “Choronmentrophobia”, and “Greatest Show on Earth”, with Macy Gray should have probably been saved for bonus features on the “Idlewild” DVD.

One of “Idlewild’s” tracks is “Hollywood Divorce”, and it makes me think: The Outkast divorce isn’t pending; it happened a while ago. “Idlewild” is the equivalent to one spouse picking the kids up from the other spouse’s house for a weekend visit.

GRADE: C

Lamb of God - Sacrament

A year ago, I called this band “The next Slayer". After hearing the first single “Redneck”, I called them “The next Pantera”. And now, after hearing “Sacrament”, I think my first comment was probably more on the money. The band’s fifth CD (second major label release) is a punishing and brutal, but not quite classic record. The album explodes into a fury on the lead track “Walk With Me In Hell”, which guitarist Mark Morton gives us his best riffs, inspiring future guitar players everywhere. Volatile lead singer Randy Blythe growls his way through the song, as he does through most of the record. First single “Redneck” is in no way a radio friendly single, but it’s the most accessible song the band has ever done and still will definitely hear you chanting the tagline of the song “This is a muthaf---in’ invitation!” for a while to come.

But where the album loses its chance for heavy metal immortality is some of the repetition of the songs. “Foot to the Throat” and “Requiem” are headbanging tracks, but the riffs are almost the same as the last album’s “Now You’ve Got Something to Die For”. While singer Blythe lacks the range of Pantera’s Phil Anselmo on some of the tracks, his voice is highly suitable for the music, and the band remains one of the most dangerous in metal today. I also wish the band would have stayed more political, in the vein of their last record, “Ashes of the Wake”.

Even though it’s not in the same class as Slayer’s “Reign in Blood”, or Pantera’s “Vulgar Display of Power”, it is still an impressive record, and keeps Lamb of God at the forefront of the metal movement today. I have some issues with the album, but it is still one of the best rock records of this year, and I believe that the best Lamb of God has to offer is still to come.

GRADE: B+