Lamb of God is an American
heavy metal band from Richmond,
Virginia
, formed in 1994. The band was originally
known as
Burn the Priest, but changed their name
shortly after the release of their
self-titled debut album in 1998.
Lamb of God consists of vocalist
Randy
Blythe, guitarists
Mark
Morton and
Willie Adler, bassist
John Campbell, and drummer
Chris Adler and is a member of
the
New Wave of
American Heavy Metal.
Since its formation, Lamb of God has released six 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 on
Slayer's
The Unholy Alliance Tour in 2006.
They have
also played at many other major festivals around the world
including Download Festival and
Sonisphere Festival in the
UK
, Soundwave Festival and
Gigantour.
History
Formation and Burn the Priest (1994–1999)
In 1990, guitarist
Mark
Morton, drummer
Chris
Adler and bassist
John
Campbell started a band named Burn the Priest.
The band members knew
each other from the college they were all attending, Virginia
Commonwealth University
, in Richmond, Virginia
.
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. After the band's first three
demos, Burn the Priest added vocalist
Randy
Blythe to its line up.
In 1997, Morton returned to the band. Two years later, the band
released its first full-length self-titled album,
Burn the Priest, through
Legion Records.
Mikey Bronsnan of
Legion Records saved up $2,500 for the recording and then broke
them in Philadelphia
, Pennsylvania
through DIY
shows. 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. After
being banned from playing in certain places (some venue owners
believing the band possessed an "evil" name), Burn the Priest
changed their name to Lamb of God.
New American Gospel and As the Palaces Burn
(2000–2003)
With a new name and label, the band released its second album,
New American Gospel, in
September 2000. 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." 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."
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, writing that "unlike many of their overreaching,
Slipknot-influenced contemporaries,
Lamb of God deliver a meticulously crafted metal assault." 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.
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. 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." The title track of the album featured
Testament and ex–
Megadeth guitarists
Alex
Skolnick and
Chris Poland,
respectively.
The band supported
Ashes of the Wake with extensive
touring, including a second stage slot on
Ozzfest in 2004, and the 2005
Sounds of the Underground tour.
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). 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. The DVD was certified platinum by the
Recording
Industry Association of America in 2007.
Sacrament (2005–2007)
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. 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." Ed Thompson of
IGN referred to
Sacrament "one of the
best metal albums of 2006", and Jon Pareles of
Blender called it a "speed rush all
the way through".
The band appeared on major tours to support the album, including
The Unholy Alliance with
Slayer,
Mastodon,
Children of Bodom, and
Thine Eyes Bleed,
Gigantour, supporting
Megadeth; main stage at Ozzfest; 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. 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".
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." 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. The band later inked a deal with
Roadrunner on 1 May 2008 for distribution outside the United
States.
Walk with Me in Hell and Wrath (2008
onward)
Randy Blythe at 2007's With Full
Force.
On May 1, 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. They will also be touring with
Metallica as a direct support act starting in
December 2008.
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).
Their latest album is named
Wrath and was released on February 23,
2009 internationally via
Roadrunner
Records and on February 24, 2009 in America via
Epic Records. The album is dedicated to Mikey
Bronsnan, who helped them get started in Philadelphia, PA. In
November 2008, Bronsnan was killed by a drunk driver. According to
drummer Chris Adler, "Without Mikey, we'd very well might not be a
band today." 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." With
that said, "Wrath" debuted on the
Billboard 200 at number two, selling over
68,000 copies in its first week.
In support of Wrath, the band in spring of 2009 embarked on the
first leg of their
world tour,
No
Fear Energy Tour headlined by themselves with main support
from
Children of Bodom, and
rotating opening slots with
God Forbid
and
Municipal Waste. The tour
was a massive success for the band with rave reviews and large
turnouts at each show. The band played in
Europe in the summer to perform with
Metallica on the
World Magnetic Tour along with
Mastodon, while also playing
headlining shows of their own and performing at major European
festivals. For the final six dates of the tour,
Unearth's
Buz McGrath filled
in for Mark Morton, as he left early to be with his wife and his
first child.
Lamb of
God has been announced to also serve as Metallica's direct support for the North American
leg of their 2009 world tour, as
well as finishing the year off by headlining shows in Australia and New Zealand
with Shadows Fall and
DevilDriver.
Commenting
on the dispute over lineup slots at the UK Sonisphere Festival where Limp Bizkit were booked into the slot previously
given to Machine Head, Willie Adler said of Limp Bizkit "I wouldn’t
wanna open up for Limp Bizkit! They’ve been out of the scene
for so long, I mean, who cares? Who cares about Limp Bizkit? [...]
Fuck those dudes! Fuck that band, and fuck all the people who work
for that fuckin’ band!"
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 the band is often associated with such terms as the
"leaders" of the "
New
Wave of American Heavy Metal".
Burn the Priest and
early Lamb of God has been defined as a
thrash metal,
death
metal and
hardcore punk or
grindcore hybrid with a strong element of
power groove, 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.
Burn the
Priest and early Lamb of God include growling death metal
vocals and sometimes lyrics that are difficult to decipher. The
style has been considered to vary between several different genres,
including
hardcore punk,
thrash metal, and even possessing
sludge metal influences.
New American Gospel
continues in a similar style as
Burn the Priest, with
drum-heavy production of double picking and double-kick drumming.
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.
2003's
As the Palaces
Burn saw the band's compositions focusing more on what
some have called "memorable" riffs. On 2004's
Ashes of the Wake, they continued the
progression of
As the Palaces Burn with more frequent
guitar solos.
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; however, the band has also been
often reproached by the critics for the similarity of the songs
within their albums. This album is the primary representative of a
growing development in the direction of the epic. Specifically
'Sacrament' and 'As the Palaces Burn' share many elements that
could be considered musically 'darker' than opposing releases
(extensive use of minor classical scales, for example).
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 Groove Metal 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
- Studio albums
- DVDs
Members
Former members
- Abe Spear – guitar (1990–1998)
Session members
References
- Azerrad, Michael. "Wrath of God: Almost a full decade into
their harrowing journey through the metal wilderness, Richmond's
finest deliver an album of biblical proportions." Revolver Apr.
2009: pp. 52–59.
-
http://www.thrashhits.com/2008/11/lamb-god-to-release-their-wrath/
- Azerrad, Michael. "Wrath of God: Almost a full decade into
their harrowing journey through the metal wilderness, Richmond's
finest deliver an album of biblical proportions." Revolver Apr.
2009: 52-59.
-
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.Net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=112519
-
http://www.komodorock.com/interviews/interviews/slated-at-sonisphere---lamb-of-god%27s-willie-adler-kicks-out-at-limp-bizkit-2009080312013/
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