{"id":84,"date":"2014-03-01T01:45:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-01T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.modernfix.com.php72-4.lan3-1.websitetestlink.com\/?p=84"},"modified":"2014-03-01T01:45:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-01T09:45:00","slug":"interview-lamb-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/interviews-2\/interview-lamb-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Lamb of God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(originally appearing in Modern Fix Magazine issue #54)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Interview<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

-interview by Bushman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamb of God out-pitted Slayer.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Those that fly the horns regularly might not believe such a statement, but at a recent stop at the Sports Arena in San Diego, CA, Randy Blythe and company did something most metal fans wouldn\u2019t think possible. They created a pit larger and got more reaction out of the packed arena floor than one of the most respected metal bands in history.

No, it\u2019s not a competition, but when one has seen Slayer multiple times, one knows few can even come close to the intensity of a Slayer show. So when this hard working band called Lamb of God blew the place apart, it was noteworthy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

This was no freak accident. The band has been carving a deep mark through metal since their inception as Burn the Priest and self-titled 1998 album. When drummer Chris Adler recruited his brother Willie to replace a departing guitarist, the core of Lamb of God was born. Through the next three albums, the band continued to hone their assault of punishing metal, holding true to their roots while pushing their sound to find its own definition. 2004\u2019s \u201cAshes of the Wake\u201d was a milestone in metal showcasing the Adler brother\u2019s expert command of complex time structures wrapped in severely aggressive metal riffage. Bigger tours, bigger albums sales and a DVD made infamous by a drunken brawl between singer Randall Blythe and guitarist Mark Morton elevated the band beyond packing clubs to becoming regular fixtures on the metal arena tour circuit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late 2006 saw the release of \u201cSacrament\u201d, the newest and most \u2018accessible\u2019 Lamb of God album to date. Purists might find some complaint in the bands first single \u201cRedneck\u201d as showing a little too much Pantera, but for those who were paying attention, Dime Bag influences are not that hard to spot on previous Lamb of God albums. The newer songs are a bit leaner, and stripped down, but still bleed with head-banging intensity and guitar chops that land the two six-stringers on numerous guitar magazine covers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the NWOAHM (New Wave of American Heavy Metal), their peers that get mentioned in the same breath are Shadows Fall, Unearth, Killswitch Engage and God Forbid. For all apparent measurements, it\u2019s these five bands that kicked the shit out of nu-metal and saved the new crop of American metal heads from having bands like Disturbed and Godsmack \u2018representing\u2019 what our shores can produce in the way of heaviness. Because, y\u2019know, most of Europe was laughing at our \u2018metal\u2019 scene in the late 90\u2019s.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, they got Randall Blythe and Lamb of God to contend with. And after sitting down with him backstage pre-set at a show in which, mere hours later, they would outshine metal demi-gods Slayer on the stage, I found having him as a spokesman for American metal a comforting thought.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you like to do interviews?<\/strong>
Randy Blythe: As long as they\u2019re good ones. We\u2019ll start out that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Views on press in general?<\/strong>
I can tell this is already a good one. I hate it when\u2026 let me ask you this: do you have a question that goes: \u201cWhat\u2019s it like to be on tour with Slayer?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No.<\/strong>
Alright then. It\u2019s gonna be a good interview. Because that\u2019s one of the stupidest questions in the world. So my view on press right now has already gotten better with you. I hate doing interviews with people who don\u2019t do their research. I hate people who don\u2019t do their job. If you are a journalist, your job, if you are interviewing someone, is to research so you can provide an objective, informed picture of your subject. When journalists call and say: \u201cWhen is Ashes of the Wake coming out?\u201d (Our last record that came out two years ago), I\u2019ve gotten that on this tour. Or they call and are like, \u201cHold on, can you talk slowly, I\u2019m writing the answers down.\u201d And they are unprepared, that pisses me off and that press is a waste of time. But as far as people with thought provoking questions, it\u2019s great. I myself dabble in the art of the interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who have your interviewed?<\/strong>
Kerry King (of Slayer). I did that for Decibel. I\u2019m starting to do video interviews for this British internet radio site and it\u2019s a lot of fun. I like to know my subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sacrament\u2019 is the new album. What aspect of this new release has you most excited?<\/strong>
The fact that we are done recording. (laughs). It\u2019s a very unhappy album, lyrically. It\u2019s very introspective. I\u2019ve only listened to the album once since it\u2019s been done. It\u2019s so different. I\u2019m very intrigued by the question of how the record is going to be received. It\u2019s definitely Lamb of God. It\u2019s not a radical departure, but it\u2019s so much bigger in my head. The whole sound, the whole layout of it, I did some different things with my vocals. I have no trepidation. I don\u2019t care if people hate it. I\u2019m just curious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your lyrical style is not too concerned with rhyming or rigid parameters of timing. Who do you admire as a lyricist?<\/strong>
Very much so, I admire Nick Cave. You ever hear of a band called Jawbreaker? I liked Blake\u2019s writing from the first Jawbreaker album. There was a band from Richmond, VA called Sliang Laos. I really admire his writing style. The person whose writing I admire the most, who sings almost none of the lyrics, is Mike Williams from EyeHateGod. He\u2019s a twisted genius. His writing is so dark, and I hate to use the word \u2018poetic\u2019 but it really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you feel people pay enough attention to the words?<\/strong>
No. Absolutely not. That\u2019s based on people\u2019s stupid attention spans because they watch too much TV. Everything is a sound bite. It\u2019s like pop radio. People sing along with the latest hooky chorus. They sing the words but they probably don\u2019t ever think about them. Of course with pop music, it doesn\u2019t really matter because it\u2019s all the same thing anyway. I\u2019m always extremely flattered when I meet someone who talks to me about my lyrics. They draw something out it. Whether it\u2019s what I intended, or it\u2019s something applicable to their life\u2026 I really dig that. I like it when it\u2019s loose enough for people to interpret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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