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Lamb Of God Feel No Pressure Leading New Wave Of Metal Bands
Thursday July 20, 2006 @ 06:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
Lamb Of God |
Of all the bands who got tagged as part of the "new wave of American heavy metal," Lamb Of God are most deserving of the description. Their bombastic, technical metalcore has converted hundreds of thousands, and instead of watering down their sound or aping older bands, they're taking modern metal into uncharted territory.
The band recently completed their fourth studio album, Sacrament, which is due out in August. There are a few melodic avenues to the record, but don't be fooled — Lamb Of God have made an even darker disc this time around. ChartAttack recently spoke with guitarist Willie Adler about the new album, touring with Slayer and metal in 2006.
"I'd expect this to be the best record we've ever done, by far," says Adler about Sacrament. "It's got hints of all the records we've done being encompassed in the sound, and a whole lot more. It's an overall very creepy and dark record."
The dark tones may stem from a shift in lyrical content. "We got pretty personal this time around, straying from all the political commentary on the last album, and that's pretty evident on the songs and lyrics," says Adler.
"The record was produced by Machine, who worked on Ashes Of The Wake. We are constantly writing while we're at home, be it Mark [Morton, guitar] or myself bringing in riffs or whole songs. We put our nose to the grindstone and went to work.
"Our work ethic is evident in the songwriting, which, for me personally, is leaps and bounds beyond anything else that we've accomplished in the past. When we're not on the road, we keep a pretty rigorous work schedule, similar to any other job. We practise five times a week, pretty much living and breathing our music."
Lamb Of God's stern focus on practising, coupled with their non-stop touring schedule, is what cements their status as leaders of modern metal.
"Metal seems to be coming around again in 2006," the guitarist muses. "We're lucky and blessed to be playing such an important role.
"I think that we've taken metal back. A lot of bands probably claimed that moniker in recent years past, but there were only a handful that were actually doing it, Slayer and Megadeth to name a couple.
"We're just making the metal that we thought was sorely missing from the scene."
After a successful run on last year's Sounds Of The Underground tour, the band were invited to open up for Slayer on this summer's Unholy Alliance tour. Adler is surprisingly nonchalant about the enviable position.
"You have to remember that at Sounds Of The Underground, we were headlining, so we're used to the big stages. Touring with Slayer is fine. Good dudes. They are strictly metal."
The calm attitude drops when asked if there's any pressure to open up for the legendary band.
"Have you ever seen us play?" he asks rhetorically. "No."
—Shehzaad Jiwani
 
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