After over 20 years, Richmond, Virginia based metal band Lamb of God is still around and still doing it their own way. Never going the safe route, the five-piece band continues to have a place in the metal world with the release of their newest album VII: Sturm Und Drang along with lead singer Randy Blythe's book Dark Days: A Memoir.
Recently, I was able to sit down backstage with Blythe during Lamb of God's stop at DTE Energy Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan on Slipknot's Summer's Last Stand tour, and we talked about the band's history, getting sober, and being in the studio.
Looking back to those early years of the band transitioning from Burn The Priest into Lamb of God, what really sticks out?
The first time we ever-played CBGB's, that was a huge deal. That was the last gig we played with our old guitar player Abe [Spear], who got me into the band. He took Mark [Morton]'s place. Mark started the band with Chris [Adler] and John [Campbell], and then he went to Chicago to get his Master's in Political Science I think. That was the first time we ever played there and it was absolutely incredible. It was one of the highlights of my career.
Good show? Good crowd?
We were first of about 13 bands (laughs). It was called the Mad Grinders Ball. My friend Ralphyboy, who used to work at CBGB's was part of the New York punk scene for a long time, he booked it and sang for a band called Disassociate. He puts us on. We got a good response, even though we played early. There were a lot of people there.
Now that you are solidified as Lamb Of God, you guys start to get some traction as a band with New American Gospel on through to As The Palaces Burn, what was the general feel of the band at that time when all of this is happening?
It was weird because we were all still working day jobs until our 3rd album as Lamb of God. We worked day jobs up until we signed with Epic for Ashes of the Wake. It was a weird thing because we were building a fan base. We were starting to get on some decent tours, but then you come home, one minute you're signing autographs and people are wearing your t-shirts, then you go back to work and you're a line cook or a roofer or a dishwasher. All of us had these jobs that allowed us to leave. As we left more and more, I couldn't believe most of them still let us work. Chris, our drummer, kept on getting raises. He worked for the university doing computer geek shit. We were all pissed at him because he was the only one making really good money. It was a weird time. Its not like we ever thought we were going to go out and play arenas with Metallica or do Ozzfest as a main stage act. It was like this is crazy, people actually liked us.
That late 90s time in metal was one where it was going in all sorts of directions with electronic and hip hop influences and all the labels were trying to find their band to fit that niche. How were you able to tread those waters and not get burnt out?
The guys in my band formed the band in the winter of 1994. That was the grunge era when everybody wanted to be from Seattle. Nirvana had blown up. That wasn't our thing. There were some great bands to come out of that era, but that's not what the dudes in my band wanted to play. They wanted to play fucking metal! They didn't quite have the technical chops to be a really great metal band. We came from an underground scene in Richmond, which had really awesome high quality musicianship in all the bands. They started wanting to be a metal band but we came up in the punk rock scene, so there was a lot of grind influence. They always wanted to be a metal band and metal was not popular then. They formed the band they wanted to be in and then I joined the band a few months later in the summer of 1995. From the beginning, we started out as a band doing something that other people weren't doing because fuck everyone! You know what I mean? Fuck everyone that changes what they do because they are chasing some elusive style that's going to bring them popularity. I think that's a mistake a lot of bands make. They alter what they want to do. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with growing or evolving, but you got to stay true to the core of what it is that you want to do. I think real fans can sense it if you're playing something that's a money grab or an attempt to get popular. We've always just been five dudes from Richmond who wanted to be in this band. I wanted to be in Bad Brains, some of the dudes wanted to be in Megadeth, some of the other dudes wanted to be in whatever else, but it formed this sort of thing that we were happy with, and we stuck with that. We do exactly what we want to do. So there wasn't really any question of weathering outside pressures and when labels came to us, even when a major came to us, it was like "Hey, you want what we have. We don't necessarily want you. What can you do for us because we already do what we want to do and we're doing okay with that?" Signing to a major label definitely helped us be able to become a professional band on a level we couldn't have if we continued to do everything on such a small scale.
In hindsight, did the event in Prague where the fan died change your outlook at all?
No. Of course, when something like that happens, it makes you very fucking sad, an element of personal sadness to my life. There wasn't some sort of radical change in the way we do things because we were doing everything that we were supposed to do in the beginning. This club did not fulfill contractual requirements, things got out of hand. Regrettably, due to lack of security and lack of a properly placed barricade, which is contractually stipulated, which we had in place, which the club agreed to provide us, but did not, even though they would at a security meeting before the gig, it was a horrible incident. We had all these safeguards in place, now I guess we are a bit more draconian than ever, which we already were in enforcing this. As an organization and as a person, things haven't changed because we did everything we could to keep things safe for the band and for the audience before that. For me, I haven't changed as a person because of this. I definitely changed as a person a few years before all this happened when I got sober. That's when a massive change occurred to me. It was huge! It changed everything. Once I got sober, than everything else was just following what I viewed as the correct procedure.
What made you get sober?
It was making me miserable and I was going to die if I didn't stop drinking. I wanted to die basically. It stopped working. I drank for a long time. I had some great times. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with having good times and drinking if you can control it. In the end, I was not drinking to have a good time. I wasn't drinking to throw some back and enjoy myself. I was drinking because that was what I did! That was my life! I had become a receptacle for alcohol, that's it! That's not a good place to be, so it was making me miserable.
Going into this new album VII: Sturm Und Drang, what was the overall mood of the band when you guys started throwing around ideas?
For me, it was dread because I hate writing and recording an album. I fucking hate it. I like touring. This is what I like. My guitar player Mark and my drummer Chris, they love the studio. They love tweaking. They love turning knobs. They get excited. To me, I hate it. But Mark doesn't like touring. He hates it, fucking hates being on tour. He likes playing live, but that's an hour out of your day, 50 minutes on this tour, so you got 23 hours and 10 minutes to fill the rest of the time, he's bumming. I'm having a good time! For me, the mood of going into the record was like fuck, I got to do this again!
How did some of the ideas for this record come about like doing the clean vocals on "Overlord"?
It happened very organically, the clean vocals. Willie [Adler] was fucking with his guitar playing some blues riffs and recorded it, and I was down at the beach writing my book and surfing. We were texting one day. I was driving my truck to go surfing and I'm listening to this demo he sends me and there some blues stuff. I just started humming. They finally wrote a song I could sing to. We don't have a plan. We are a totally plan-less band when it comes to creative stuff for the most part. It's like get in there and do it. It's just what comes out.
How do you know when something is working versus it being complete shit?
As far as wicked riffs, to get all Boston on it, our producer was telling me and I agree with him 100%. Have you seen the movie Bridesmaids? You remember when they are all trying on the dresses, and the girl runs out and she has to shit in the street. When you hear a riff, and make the face like you have to take a shit in the middle of the street, that's when you know it's a good riff! That's the qualifier for awesome kick ass riffs.
I come from a hip-hop background and it's the same thing with beats! The scrunch face!
NASTY! Like almost sour! That's nasty! It's the same thing. When you hear music and it fucking hits you, and its good, I don't think you have to have some barometer of is this good or not. When it hits, you know it! You know when its nasty! When I'm recording, even though I hate recording, when I do something and it's ill, when I drop like this growl, then I'm like that is fucking heavy! I know it! I think that's one reason why I don't like recording because I do things over and over to the point that you can't tell what's good anymore. Live, you can immediately tell if it's hitting or not. In the studio, after a while, that's why you got to have a producer because they can hear that shit that maybe you can't. You do it again and again to the point where you lose perspective. When these dudes write music, it's the same fucking thing. They used to want me to come and be present while they are writing. I don't play guitar. I don't play bass. I don't play drums. I can't do that shit. I write lyrics, right, and I holler. They were like "you're not being a part of the creative process." So I remember one time, I came to make them feel better. I sat outside the practice room for a while. I sat inside for a little bit trying to write lyrics but I couldn't because they're distracting me with all this fucking noise their making. I got to have quiet to write, be by myself. They'll play a riff, work on a riff, and they're perfectionists. They're playing this riff and they'll play that 15 times for 20 minutes. Which is better? I don't fucking know! It's like a quarter note! They are playing that for an hour literally! I have no fucking clue! I shouldn't be here. This is wasting my time. It grates on my fucking nerves.
Lamb of God is currently on the "Summer's Last Stand" tour with Slipknot, Bullet For My Valentine & Motionless In White. The new album "VII: Sturm Und Drang" is available now. Randy Blythe's book "Dark Days: A Memoir" is also available now. For more information on Lamb of God, visit lamb-of-god.com.