New Wave of American Heavy Metal- Lamb of God
Lamb of God is a five-piece American post-thrash metal band from Richmond, Virginia, formerly known as Burn the Priest.
The roots of Lamb of God were planted in 1990 when Mark Morton, Chris Adler and John Campbell were floor mates at Virginia Commonwealth University. After graduation, Morton moved to Chicago to pursue a master's degree, but the band continued. A new guitarist, Abe Spear, was found. Randy Blythe was added on vocals when the band decided to move past its instrumental sound. At this point in their career, they were known as Burn the Priest. Morton re-joined the group and Burn the Priest released a self-titled full length album soon after. Abe then left the band which opened a place for Chris Adler's brother, Willie Adler.
The band's style is generally considered post-thrash or thrash metal with death metal influences, though many, especially "true metal" fans, consider the band metalcore. The playing is fast and quite technical, with particular elements such as palm-muted riffs and non-standard song structures. Their lyrical themes tend to cover Politics ("Vigil"), American history ("In Defense of Our Good Name"), War ("Ashes of the Wake", "Now You've Got Something to Die For"), Religion ("Ruin"), Capitalism ("As the Palaces Burn"), Substance abuse ("11th Hour", "Pariah"), Betrayal ("Omerta","Break You"), and other topics.
"We play music that straddles the line between prog and traditional rock," explains Campbell. "I think we make prog-rock more listenable without cheapening the progressiveness of it. The complexity of our music appeals to people who like technical playing, but the arrangements are not so extreme that they fly over the average listener's head. It's a good balance." (from the bio in www.lamb-of-god.com)
After two well received releases and a DVD (Terror and Hubris) on Prosthetic Records, the band signed a new recording contract with Epic Records in late 2003. Their first release for the label, "Ashes Of The Wake", debuted at No.27 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and has sold around 250,000 copies in the U.S. to date.
On August 29th, 2005, the band announced that their DVD, "Killadelphia", which chronicles the band on tour supporting their album "Ashes of the Wake", had received Gold certification from the RIAA. The DVD features a complete live performance at the Trocadero on October 2004 in Philadelphia, and also contains three of their music videos, commentary by the band, outtakes, soundchecks, and a ton of backstage shenanigans.
On January 25, 2006, a press release announced the rerelease of Lamb of God's debut album, New American Gospel. The original, along with the self titled debut Burn the Priest, were both produced by Steve Austin, known for his work with Today Is the Day, Converge, and Unsane. The re-release will be remastered and repackaged with four new tracks, exclusive liner notes from the band and a re-imaging of the album art by longtime band collaborator Ken Adams. The album was rereleased on April 4th, 2006.
The band has set "Sacrament" as the title of their highly anticipated new album, due August 22, 2006 via Epic Records. Sacrament, will be released on August 22nd individually and as a CD and DVD deluxe edition, which will include over 90 minutes of special behind the scenes footage of the making of Sacrament. The footage also captures the intensely personal aspects of the album as well as taking a sneak peek inside the band's private lives. With interviews from each band member as well as director's cut versions of two videos from the upcoming release, including the first single "Redneck," this special edition look at one of today's hardest rocking bands will show audiences why LOG has been declared "The Future of American Metal" by Revolver Magazine.
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