Lamb of God

Lamb of God is an American heavy metal band from Richmond, Virginia. Formed in 1994, the group consists of vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler, bassist John Campbell, and drummer Chris Adler. The band is considered to be a member of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Since its formation, Lamb of God has released six studio albums, one live album, one compilation 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 (headlined by Megadeth). Recently, (2008–2010) they have toured with Metallica (World Magnetic Tour). Lamb of God also played on the main stage on Mayhem Festival 2010. The band is currently recording their next album, which is tentatively due in late 2011/early 2012.

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 Richmond 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 Randall 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. 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 their 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 guitarist Alex Skolnick and ex–Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland. 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 "Laid to Rest" (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;^[26] main stage at Ozzfest; an appearance at the Download Festival, and an exclusive co-headlining tour with Killswitch Engage, Soilwork, and DevilDriver, 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 (2008–2009)

On May 3, 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. 'Walk With Me In Hell', the third DVD from Richmond, VA's metal icons LAMB OF GOD, has officially reached platinum status. In August, 2008, it was announced, by studio producer Cole Higley, 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 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 As I Lay Dying, 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.

Musical style and lyrical themes

Lamb of God was originally an instrumental band called Burn the Priest, and included vocals after Randy Blythe joined. Since the success of the release of 2004's Ashes of the Wakethe band has been considered a leader 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. Lamb of God could currently be helping to strengthen a young tradition of great southern metal that was first pioneered by Pantera.^{[9][16][46][49][50][51]} Burn the Priest and early Lamb of God include growling death metal vocals. 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 alternate 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. 2009's Wrath focused on the increased groove metal substance explored in Sacrament. However, this release contained increased tempos and fewer guitar solos. It also included more clean guitar, such as on the songs "The Passing", "Grace", and "Reclamation". 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 and thrash 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.

Lyrical themes

The lyrical themes of the band often have a double meaning. They frequently use biblical references, but often convey anti-religious sentiment, as in Sacrament's 'Blacken the Cursed Sun'. Many of their songs have political themes, especially in the albums As the Palaces Burn and Ashes of the Wake. The band also has many misanthropic and/or apocalyptic songs, such as "Reclamation". The song "Omerta" from the album Ashes of the Wake talks about the Italian Mafia law of silence: omertà. The Ashes of the Wake album featured many songs critical of the war in Iraq, such as "Hourglass" and the instrumental title track. Though an instrumental, this song makes use of two audio recordings of former staff sergeant and former Marine Jimmy Massey giving an interview about the war. Lyrical themes that the band frequently explores are hypocrisy and other faults in the personality, particularly on songs such as "Choke Sermon" and "Pathetic".

 

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