Too brutal for thrash, too lyrically comprehensible for death metal, too purist to resort to screamo or rapcore choruses, Virginia's Lamb of God are just commercial enough to have scored three consecutive Top 10 albums. On Resolution, the fivesome lurch into cruel claustrophobia again and again as Randy Blythe hectors angrily at enemies lying, dying or both: "The walking dead! Living a lie!" he rails in the mosh-pit tantrum "Cheated." Occasionally – the foggy instrumental "Barbarosa," or the boogie-bottomed "To the End" – they branch out slightly. But mostly, Lamb of God stick to conservative values that metalheads can respect and everyone else can continue to ignore.

Listen to "To the End":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."