Lamb of God (band)

Lamb of God
Randy Blythe and Willie Adler at With Full Force in 2007
Background information
Also known as	Burn the Priest
Origin	Richmond, Virginia, United States
Genre(s)	Groove metal, metalcore
Years active	1990–present
Label(s)	Prosthetic, Epic, Roadrunner
Website	www.lamb-of-god.com
Members
Chris Adler John Campbell Mark Morton Randy Blythe Willie Adler
Former members
Abe Spear

Lamb of God is an American heavy metal band formed in 1990 in Richmond, Virginia. The band was originally known as Burn the Priest and decided to change their name shortly after the release of a self-titled debut album in 1998.^[1] Lamb of God consists of vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler, bassist John Campbell, and drummer Chris Adler and is today the leader of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.^[2]

Since its formation, Lamb of God has released five studio albums, one live album, and three DVDs. The band's cumulative sales equal almost two million in the United States. In 2007 the band received a Grammy nomination for their 2006 album Sacrament. Lamb of God has toured with the Ozzfest twice and appeared at the Download and Gigantour festivals.

History

Formation and Burn the Priest (1994–1999)

Guitarist Mark Morton performing at the With Full Force music festival in 2007.

In 1990, guitarist Mark Morton, drummer Chris Adler and bassist John Campbell started a band named Burn the Priest.^[3] The band members knew each other from the college they were all attending, Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Virginia.^[4] Morton left the band soon after its inception to receive his master's degree. Adler and Campbell replaced Morton with Abe Spear. For the next five years, the band practiced in Adler's house and around Virginia. In 1995, the band released its self-titled first demo. After the demo, Burn the Priest recorded two split albums with Agents of Satan and ZED respectively.^[5] After the band's first three demos, Burn the Priest added vocalist Randy Blythe to its line up.^[5]

In 1997, Morton returned to the band.^[5] The following year, the band released its first full-length self-titled album, Burn the Priest, through Legion Records. The album was produced by Today Is the Day guitarist and vocalist Steve Austin. Spear left the band, leaving an open position for a guitarist. Adler's brother, Willie Adler, became the band's second guitarist a year later, and a deal with Prosthetic Records was signed.^[5] After being banned from playing in certain places (some venue owners believing the band possessed an "evil" name),^[6] Burn the Priest changed their name to Lamb of God.

New American Gospel and As the Palaces Burn (2000–2003)

Vocalist Randy Blythe performing at Ozzfest 2004.

With a new name and label, the band released its second album, New American Gospel, in September 2000.^[7] Patrick Kennedy of Allmusic compared the band to Pantera, stating "The essential signatures of post-Pantera metal are in abundance on Lamb of God's inaugural album. New American Gospel provides a mighty oak upon which gritty American metal's faith is maintained, effectively bridging the '90s' insistence upon drill-sergeant technicality and the old school's determined focus on riff construction."^[7] Chris Adler commented: "This is a classic record. We had all the elements come together to make one of the heaviest, yet contagious records of our career. It was difficult to contain us—we didn't even understand at the time what we had created."^[8]

Lamb of God toured for two years before releasing its third studio album, As the Palaces Burn, on May 6, 2003. Kirk Miller of Rolling Stone gave the album three out of five stars who wrote that "unlike many of their overreaching, Slipknot-influenced contemporaries, Lamb of God deliver a meticulously crafted metal assault."^[9] The album was voted the number one album of 2003 by both Revolver Magazine and Metal Hammer. The band toured on the first Headbangers Ball tour, where they recorded a DVD including live performances and a documentary, titled Terror and Hubris. The DVD was a success, debuting at number 31 on the Billboard Top Music Videos chart.^[10][11]

Ashes of the Wake (2004–2005)

Lamb of God released Ashes of the Wake in August 2004, which debuted at number 27 on the Billboard 200, and sold over 35,000 copies in its first week.^[12][13] The album was distributed through the band's new record label, Epic Records. Johnny Loftus of Allmusic praised the album, saying "With the genre getting clogged by PVC goofs and Alice in Chains impersonators, Lamb of God balances the equation of power, rage, tradition, and craft. It kills the filler."^[14] The title track of the album featured Testament and ex–Megadeth guitarists Alex Skolnick and Chris Poland, respectively.^[14]

The band supported Ashes of the Wake with extensive touring, including a second stage slot on Ozzfest in 2004,^[15] and the 2005 Sounds of the Underground tour.^[16] The band was awarded 2nd Best Album of the Year by Revolver Magazine behind Mastodon's Leviathan, and was awarded Best Music Video for "Now You've Got Something to Die For" (2005).^[17] While on tour, the band recorded a performance and released it with the name of Killadelphia. The release was made available as a DVD and a CD.^[18] The DVD was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2007.^[19]

Sacrament (2005–2007)

Bassist John Campbell performing at With Full Force 2007

In August 2006 Lamb of God released its fifth studio album, Sacrament. The album debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200 and sold nearly 65,000 copies in its first week of sales, nearly doubling the first week sales of Ashes of the Wake.^[12] The album received generally positive reviews, with Cosmo Lee of Stylus Magazine stating, "Sacrament has the band's most memorable songs to date. Musically, there's no fat. The band plays with laser precision and songs move smoothly through riffs and transitions."^[20] Ed Thompson of IGN referred to Sacrament "one of the best metal albums of 2006",^[21] and Jon Pareles of Blender called it a "speed rush all the way through".^[22]

The band appeared on major tours to support the album, including The Unholy Alliance with Slayer, Mastodon, Children of Bodom, and Thine Eyes Bleed,^[23] Gigantour, supporting Megadeth;^[24] main stage at Ozzfest;^[15] an appearance at the Download Festival, and an exclusive co-headlining tour with Killswitch Engage, Soilwork, and Devil Driver where Killswitch Engage and Lamb of God shared headlining spots alternately each show.^[25] Lamb of God was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 2007 Grammy Awards for "Redneck", but lost out to Slayer's "Eyes of the Insane".^[26]

In December 2007, the band re-released the album as Sacrament: Deluxe Producer Edition. The release contained all of the original songs from Sacrament on the first disc, and the second disc was a CD-ROM featuring all of the vocal, bass, guitar, and drum tracks in 192kbit/s MP3 format, enabling the buyer to produce their own interpretation of the songs. Blythe stated, "you sometimes have to do something special to get kids to even buy an album these days rather than download it."^[27] The band is taking a break to write new material throughout 2008 and prepare a new record for release, slated for 2009. The band is negotiating for a new record label to distribute records outside the United States. Chris Adler stated Epic Records in the United States "couldn't be more perfect", but wants a different label for international releases.^[28] The band later inked a deal with Roadrunner on 1st May 2008 for distribution outside the United States.

Walk with Me in Hell and Wrath (2008–present)

Randy Blythe at With Full Force 2007

On May 1st, Lamb of God announced via MySpace their new DVD, Walk with Me in Hell, would be released on July 1, 2008. The DVD is a double-disc and has nearly five hours of footage, containing the feature documentary Walk with Me in Hell and multiple live performance extras from the Sacrament World Tour. At the end of the Walk with Me in Hell documentary the members stated that they are excited more than ever to write new material.

In August, 2008, it was announced that the band had commenced work on the follow-up to Sacrament, and that its release was scheduled for February, 2009. Josh Wilbur was also named as the producer for the record.^[29] They will also be touring with Metallica as a direct support act starting in December 2008.^[30]

The recording process of the new record was made available to view online live through the band's website, with two webcams installed in the studio (specifically in the drum room and mixing room).^[31]

The new record will be called Wrath ^[32] and will be released on February 24 2009 in the USA via Epic Records and on 23 February 2009 via Roadrunner Records. Drummer Chris Adler was quoted saying "This album is going to surprise a lot of people. Typically bands that get to where we are in our career begin to slack off, smell the roses and regurgitate. We chose a different path. No one wants to hear another band member hyping a new record. ‘Wrath’ needs no hype. We have topped ourselves and on February 24 you will feel it."^[33]

Musical style

Lamb of God was formed as an instrumental band, Burn the Priest, and included vocals after Randy Blythe joined the band as a vocalist. After they reached the success with the release of 2004's Ashes of the Wake^[1][34] the band is often associated with such terms as the "leaders" of the "New Wave of American Heavy Metal"^[2] and "pure American metal"^[34].

Burn the Priest and early Lamb of God has been defined as a thrash metal, death metal and hardcore punk^[34] or grindcore^[35] hybrid with a strong element of power groove,^[36][37] which often connects Lamb of God with the influential metal band Pantera. Another connection between Pantera and Lamb of God is the fact that both were and are highly influential metal bands from the Southern United States, Texas and Virginia, respectively. Along with Mastodon, from Georgia, Lamb of God could currently be helping to strengthen a young tradition of great southern metal that was first pioneered by Pantera.^{[7][14][34][37][38][39][40][41]} Burn the Priest and early Lamb of God include typical death metal vocals^[34] with only a few words that can actually be deciphered.^[36] The style has been considered to vary between several different genres, including hardcore punk, thrash metal, and even possessing sludge metal influences.^[34]

Guitarist Mark Morton performing at Ozzfest 2004 without his beard.

New American Gospel continues in a similar style as Burn the Priest, with drum-heavy production of double picking and double-kick drumming.^[7] Here, the band has been considered by Allmusic to be effectively bridging the 1990s' tendency towards technicality and early metal's focus on riff construction and plays a brand of heavy metal described as not unlike Meshuggah without some of their mathematical components.^[7][38]

2003's As the Palaces Burn saw the band's compositions focusing more on what some have called "memorable" riffs.^[39] On 2004's Ashes of the Wake, they continued the progression of As the Palaces Burn with more frequent guitar solos.^[14]

Sacrament, released in 2006, was described by critics as more technical, especially considering the vocal performance. Again, the band experimented with more melody and guitar solos;^[37] however, the band has also been often reproached by the critics for the similarity of the songs within their albums.^[41][42]

Due to the variety of influences, stylistic elements and changes throughout the band's career the press has chosen several genres and terms to describe Lamb of God's music. Lamb of God has been labeled as a metalcore^[42][43] and groove metal^[43] band. Campbell, on the Walk With Me in Hell DVD, says that Lamb of God is "a punk band that plays heavy metal", while Chris Adler refers to Sacrament as a speed metal album.

Discography

For a more comprehensive list, see Lamb of God discography

• Burn the Priest (1999)
• New American Gospel (2000)
• As the Palaces Burn (2003)
• Ashes of the Wake (2004)
• Killadelphia (2005)
• Sacrament (2006)
• Wrath (2009)

Members

• Randy Blythe – vocals (1995–present)
• Mark Morton – lead and rhythm guitar (1990–present)
• Willie Adler – lead and rhythm guitar (1998–present)
• John Campbell – bass guitar (1990–present)
• Chris Adler – drums (1990–present)

Former members

• Abe Spear – guitar (1990–1998)

References

External links

• Official website