Lamb of God
| Lamb of God | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 Lamb of God at the Rock-am-Ring -Festival 2015 |
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| General information | |
| origin | Richmond , Virginia , USA |
| Genre (s) | Groove Metal , Thrash Metal , Heavy Metal , Metalcore , Death Metal (formerly) |
| founding | 1990 as Burn the Priest |
| Website | www.lamb-of-god.com |
| Current occupation | |
| Randy Blythe (since 1994) | |
| Willie Adler (since 1999) | |
guitar |
Mark Morton (until 1994, since 1999) |
| John Campbell | |
| Art Cruz (since 2019) | |
| former members | |
guitar |
Abe Spear (1994-1999) |
Drums |
Chris Adler (until 2019) |
Lamb of God ( Engl . For Lamb of God ) is an American metal band from Richmond . The band was founded in 1990 under the name Burn the Priest and has had its current name since 2000. Lamb of God has released eight studio albums and three DVDs to date , and sold over three million albums worldwide. The American magazine Loudwire has Lamb of God on its list of the 50 most important metal bands of the 21st century.
In 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2015 the band was nominated for a Grammy in the category Best Metal Performance and Best Hard Rock / Metal Performance . Her albums Wrath and VII: Sturm und Drang each reached number one on the Canadian album charts, while the albums Ashes of the Wake and Sacrament were each awarded a gold record in the USA and Canada .
history
Foundation and Burn the Priest (1990 to 1999)
In 1990 guitarists Mark Morton and Matt Conner, drummer Chris Adler and bassist John Campbell attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. The four students lived in the same hallway and decided to start a band together. The first rehearsal room was in an unheated shed behind the house of Chris Adler's parents. There they started to write metal songs together. The band called itself Burn the Priest and initially only had instrumentals in their repertoire.
After Mark Morton graduated, he left the band and moved to Chicago . He was succeeded by Abe Spear. With Randy Blythe the band line-up was supplemented by a singer . To keep up with the local bands, Burn the Priest rehearsed five times a week. In 1995 the band released their first self-titled demo . Two years later Burn the Priest released two split albums with the bands ZED and Agents of Satan , which are released via Legion Records. Morton returned from Chicago and rejoined the band, which played numerous concerts in the state of Virginia . In 1998 the compilation Sevens and More was distributed via the Internet portal MP3.com .
The self-titled debut album , produced by Today Is the Day singer Steve Austin, was released a year later . Shortly after the release, Spear got out again. He was replaced by Chris Adler's brother Willie. Because of their band name ( Burn the Priest ), the group ran into problems. She was not allowed to appear in some clubs and was sometimes put in the black metal corner by the press . After the band signed a contract with Prosthetic Records , the group renamed itself Lamb of God. Even if the new name has a religious reference, according to Willie Adler the term simply stands for the new beginning of the band.
New American Gospel and As the Palaces Burn (2000 to 2004)
In September 2000, New American Gospel was the band's second album and the first under the new name. The work, produced again by Steve Austin, was received positively by the press. Sometimes Lamb of God was compared to Pantera . The lyrics for the song Letter to the Unborn was not printed in the booklet as it deals with the death of Blythe's daughter and ex-wife. Together with Shadows Fall , Scissorfight , Darkest Hour , From Autumn to Ashes and Unearth , Lamb of God play numerous concerts on the American east coast.
After Lamb of God had been on tour for over two years, the band started their third album in November 2002, which was produced by Canadian Devin Townsend . In addition to Steve Austin, former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland appeared as a guest musician . As the Palaces Burn was released in May 2003 and was named album of the year by Revolver magazines and British Metal Hammer. Numerous tours followed again. First Lamb of God played in the spring of 2003 together with Chimaira , Eighteen Visions and Atreyu . In autumn 2003 the first " MTV Headbanger's Ball" tour followed, in which Killswitch Engage , God Forbid , Shadows Fall and Unearth were part of the party. However , the band refused to perform at the Ozzfest because, in the opinion of the musicians, too few metal bands were represented in the program.
At the end of 2003, Randy Blythe appeared as a guest singer with the Canadian band Bloodshoteye, before Lamb of God released the first DVD of Terror and Hubris in January 2004 . The DVD contains live recordings, music videos and documentation . Terror and Hubris debuted at number 32 on the Billboard DVD charts and Lamb of God were signed to major label Epic Records .
Ashes of the Wake and Sacrament (2004 to 2007)
During the recordings for the next studio album, the group was able to engage former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland as well as Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick as a guest musician. Ashes of the Wake was released in August 2004 and sold 35,000 copies in its first week in the US. For the first time, a Lamb of God album made it into the charts after the album debuted at number 27 on the American album charts. The group played on the Ozzfest tour of North America in the summer of 2004 and played on the second stage with bands such as Slipknot , Hatebreed and Lacuna Coil . This was followed by a US tour with Children of Bodom , Fear Factory and Throwdown . Lamb of God were not allowed to play at a concert in Los Angeles because the owners of the concert hall, Faithful Central Bible Church, objected to the band's earlier name. Willie Adler described this church decision in an interview as a disappointment for the band, especially since Lamb of God are in no way "evil or satanic".
In October 2004 the band recorded two concerts in Philadelphia , which were released on DVD a year later under the title Killadelphia . The DVD was awarded platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2007 . Mark Morton appeared as a guest musician on the Fear Factory album Transgression . The debut album Burn the Priest was remixed in 2005 by British producer Colin Richardson and re-released by Epic Records. Lamb of God toured Europe with bands like DevilDriver and The Agony Scene and played at the Download Festival .
In early 2006, the band began work on their next studio album, Sacrament . The recording was interrupted in the summer because Lamb of God was traveling through North America with Children of Bodom and Mastodon as part of Slayer's "Unholy Alliance" tour . In the US, Sacrament sold 63,000 copies in the first week; more than twice as much as its predecessor. The album debuted at number eight on the US album charts. In September 2006, Lamb of God took part in Megadeth's "GiganTour" with Opeth , Arch Enemy and Overkill before touring Australia with Killswitch Engage . Another tour through North America followed in early 2007 with Machine Head, Trivium and Gojira .
Lamb of God was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Metal Performance category for the song Redneck . These were held on February 11, 2007 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles . The prize went to Slayer for the song "Eyes of the Insane". The other nominated artists were Ministry and Stone Sour . Two days earlier, Lamb of God appeared on Conan O'Brien's Late Night TV show , playing the song Pathetic .
Wrath and Walk With Me in Hell (2007 to 2010)
In summer 2007 Lamb of God took part in various festivals such as For example the Ozzfest, the Download Festival, the Graspop Metal Meeting , the Korn Family Values tour and the German festivals Rock am Ring , Rock im Park and Reload Festival . At the end of 2007 the band appeared in Great Britain with Iced Earth in the opening act for Heaven and Hell . After the tour, the band put together their third DVD Walk with Me in Hell , which was released in June 2008. In addition to documentation, the DVD also contains various live recordings. In the meantime, the band signed a contract with Roadrunner Records , which from now on sells the band's albums outside of North America.
From August 2008 began recording for the sixth studio album Wrath , which was produced by Josh Wilbur. At the end of the year Lamb of God played a few concerts in the opening act for Metallica . The band received the invitation from Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett , who is a big fan of Lamb of God. As in 2005, however, the band was not allowed to play at the concerts in Los Angeles and were replaced by Machine Head.
Wrath was released on February 24, 2009, sold 68,000 copies in the first week and reached number two on the US album charts. In Canada the album even reached the top position. For the first time the band made it into the charts in German-speaking countries and reached number 61 in Germany, number 53 in Austria and number 56 in Switzerland. In the spring of 2009, Lamb of God went on a headlining tour of North America. They were accompanied by As I Lay Dying , Children of Bodom, God Forbid and Municipal Waste . In Europe the band played at the Sonisphere Festival , the Metalcamp and the Download Festival as well as the Soundwave Festival in Australia .
The Walk With Me in Hell DVD went platinum in late July 2009 for over 50,000 units sold in the US . For the song Set to Fail , the band was nominated in 2010 for a Grammy in the category Best Metal Performance . In June 2010 the band released Hourglass, a career-wide retrospective in seven different versions. This was followed by participation in the “Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival” tour in North America, where the band played on the main stage with Korn, Rob Zombie and Five Finger Death Punch , as well as an appearance at the Heavy MONTRÉAL festival .
Resolution and VII: Sturm und Drang (2011 to 2017)
At the 2011 Grammy Awards, Lamb of God was nominated for the song In Your Words in the Best Metal Performance category. In the spring of 2011, the band released the song Hit the Wall , which was written exclusively for the soundtrack of the video game Iron Man 2 . Then the new studio album Resolution was recorded in the summer under the guidance of Josh Wilbur , which was released on January 20, 2012.
Singer Randy Blythe was during the European tour in 2012 because of injury with death arrested. Blythe is said to have hit a fan who climbed onto the stage at a concert in Prague in 2010. This fell on the back of the head and later succumbed to his injuries. After about a month in custody Blythe was against a deposit in the amount of 400,000 US dollars dismissed.
The song Ghost Walking was nominated for the 2013 Grammy Awards in the category Best Hard Rock / Metal Performance , but the award went to Halestorm . In the summer, performances at the Wacken Open Air , the Summer Breeze and the Graspop Metal Meeting followed. In November 2013, John Campbell had to leave the tour due to family problems; he is temporarily represented by Matt DeVries ( Fear Factory , Ex- Chimaira ). A year later, Mark Morton left the band's current tour due to a "private emergency" and was replaced by Paul Wagoner from the band Between the Buried and Me .
The band later recorded their eighth studio album VII: Storm and Drang , which was again produced by Josh Wilbur. The album was released in July 2015 and was released outside of North America through Nuclear Blast Entertainment . With the album, Lamb of God reached number one on the Canadian album charts for the second time in their career. The band went on a European tour with Children of Bodom and Sylosis and played at festivals like Download, Nova Rock , Tuska Open Air , Greenfield Festival and Heavy MONTRÉAL. On November 19, 2015 Lamb of God canceled the remaining concerts for security reasons. The reason for this was the terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015 in Paris .
Song 512 was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 2016 Grammy Awards . However, the award went to the band Ghost . On November 18, 2016, the band released the EP The Duke , the theme song of which is about the suffering of their fan Wayne Ford. Ford was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010 , from which he died five years later. In the summer of 2017, the band toured North America with Behemoth and Slayer as headliners.
Legion: XX and Lamb of God (since 2018)
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of their debut album, Lamb of God announced the album Legion: XX , which was released under the name Burn the Priest , for May 18, 2018 . The album only contains cover versions of bands that have significantly inspired Lamb of God such as B. The Melvins , SOD or the Bad Brains . At the same time, Lamb of God played alongside Anthrax , Testament and Napalm Death in the opening act for Slayer's farewell tour in Europe. Chris Adler had to sit out of this tour because he had to seek medical treatment as a result of a motorcycle accident . Former Prong drummer Art Cruz stepped in for him . Guitarist Mark Morton released his solo album Anesthetic on March 1st, 2019 .
On July 19, 2019, Lamb of God announced the split from Chris Adler, who is still under medical treatment. At the same time Art Cruz was promoted to a permanent member of the band. In September of that year, the album Sacrament was awarded gold in the USA. Then the band recorded the next studio album. The self-titled work was announced for May 8, 2020, but had to be postponed to June 19 due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Jamey Jasta from the band Hatebreed and Chuck Billy from the band Testament can be heard as guest vocalists . A co-headlining tour through North America with Megadeth and the opening acts In Flames and Trivium has been announced for the summer of 2020 .
style
music
Even if she is often assigned to metalcore , she also uses numerous death and thrash metal elements in her songs . In addition, in contrast to some other metalcore groups, Lamb of God never build in clear vocal passages, the lyrics are either screamed or growled by singer Randy Blythe . Also the rhythms , mostly ternary , are rather untypical for metalcore, like the partly percussive drumming of the drummer Chris Adler.
The exact genre is controversial. Lamb of God are assigned to Metalcore, Thrash Metal and the so-called New Wave of American Heavy Metal . The band itself describes their style as Pure American Metal . Bassist John Campbell described Lamb of God on the Walk-with-Me-in-Hell DVD as a “ punk band that plays heavy metal ”. MTV employee Jon Wiederhorn described the music on the album Ashes of the Wake as a mixture of the brutality of Death Metal, the raw intensity of Thrash Metal and the mathematical precision of Progressive Metal .
Texts
The band first dealt with issues critical of religion , but this changed in part with the album As the Palaces Burn , in which they also dealt with social issues (e.g. "The Subtle Arts of Murder and Persuasion"). The resulting swing in the album Ashes of the Wake tends towards anti-war songs (e.g. "Remorse Is for the Dead", "Ashes of the Wake"). On her album Lamb of God , singer Randy Blythe addresses many political issues and historical events from the USA.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
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 UK
|
 US
|
 CA
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| 1999 | Burn the Priest Prosthetic Records |
- | - | - | - | - | - |
First published: April 13, 1999
as Burn the Priest |
| 2000 | New American Gospel Prosthetic Records |
- | - | - | - | - | - |
First published: September 26, 2000
|
| 2003 | As the Palaces Burn Prosthetic Records |
- | - | - | - |
US64 (1 week) US |
- |
First published: May 6, 2003
|
| 2004 |
Ashes of the Wake Epic Records |
- | - | - |
UK-  |
US27  (5 weeks)US |
CA- |
First published: August 31, 2004
Sales: +610,000 |
| 2006 |
Sacrament Epic Records |
- | - | - | - |
US8th (8 weeks)US |
CA- |
First published: August 22, 2006
Sales: + 550,000 |
| 2009 |
Wrath Roadrunner Records |
DE61 (1 week) DE |
AT53 (2 weeks) AT |
CH56 (1 week) CH |
UK25 (1 week) UK |
US2 (12 weeks) US |
CA1 (3 weeks) CA |
First published: February 23, 2009
|
| 2012 |
Resolution Roadrunner Records |
DE37 (1 week) DE |
AT28 (2 weeks) AT |
CH30 (2 weeks) CH |
UK19 (1 week) UK |
US3 (8 weeks) US |
CA2 (2 weeks) CA |
First published: January 24, 2012
|
| 2015 |
VII: Sturm und Drang Nuclear Blast |
DE12 (12 weeks) DE |
AT12 (2 weeks) AT |
CH5 (4 weeks) CH |
UK7 (3 weeks) UK |
US3 (6 weeks) US |
CA1 (1 week) CA |
First published: July 24, 2015
|
| 2018 |
Legion: XX Nuclear Blast |
- | - | - | - |
US107 (1 week) US |
- |
First release: May 18, 2018
as Burn the Priest, cover album |
| 2020 |
Lamb of God Nuclear Blast |
DE7 (2 weeks) DE |
AT8 (2 weeks) AT |
CH4 (3 weeks) CH |
UK16 (1 week) UK |
US15 (... weeks) US |
- |
First published: June 19, 2020
|
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Lamb of God at Allmusic (English)
- Chart sources: US / DE / AT / CH / CA
- Music sales: US / CA
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lamb of God. Roadrunner Records , accessed December 4, 2013 .
- ↑ Joe DiVita: 50 Most Important Metal Bands in the 21st Century. Loudwire , accessed November 3, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Lamb of God. NARAS , accessed July 27, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c Lamb Of God Bio. Lamb of God Bio, accessed December 4, 2013 .
- ↑ Lamb Of God. laut.de , accessed on December 4, 2013 .
- ↑ Christopher J. Kelter: Pure American Metal - An Interview with Lamb of God. Rough Edge, accessed December 4, 2013 .
- ^ Patrick Kennedy: New American Gospel. Allmusic , accessed December 4, 2013 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Garry Sharpe-Young : Lamb of God biography. Musicmight, archived from the original on March 1, 2012 ; accessed on December 4, 2013 .
- ↑ Thomas Kupfer: "Under fire". In: Rock Hard , November 2004, page 77.
- ↑ a b MACHINE HEAD Replaces LAMB OF GOD At METALLICA's Los Angeles Shows. Blabbermouth.net, accessed April 3, 2018 .
- ↑ Danity Kane Sidesteps OutKast To Claim No. 1. Billboard, accessed December 4, 2013 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD "Pathetic" Live On Late Night With Conan O'Brien Posted Online. Metal Injection, accessed December 4, 2013 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD: New Album Title, Cover Artwork, Track Listing Revealed. Blabbermouth.net, accessed April 3, 2018 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD frontman Still In Czech Jail. Blabbermouth.net, accessed April 3, 2018 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD Frontman Released From Czech Prison, On His Way Back To USA. Blabbermouth.net, accessed April 3, 2018 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD bassist Forced To Leave Tour; FEAR FACTORY's MATT DEVRIES Steps In. Blabbermouth.net, accessed December 4, 2013 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD Frontman: MARK MORTON 'Needs To Be With His Family Right Now'. Blabbermouth.net, accessed May 16, 2015 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD To Release 'VII: Sturm Und Drang' Album In July; New song 'Still Echoes' streaming. Blabbermouth.net, accessed May 16, 2015 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD Cancels Remaining European Tour Dates Due To 'Security Concerns'. Blabbermouth.net, accessed December 8, 2015 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD To Release 'The Duke' EP In Honor Of Fallen Fan. Blabbermouth.net, accessed October 19, 2016 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD To Release 'Legion: XX' 20th-Anniversary Covers Album As BURN THE PRIEST. Blabbermouth.net, accessed March 23, 2018 .
- ↑ CHRIS ADLER Explains His Absence From LAMB OF GOD Tour. Blabbermouth.net, accessed September 15, 2018 .
- ↑ Lauryn Schaffner: LAMB OF GOD ANNOUNCE SPLIT FROM DRUMMER CHRIS ADLER. Loudwire, accessed July 19, 2019 .
- ↑ LAMB OF GOD Releases Music Video For New Single 'Checkmate'. Blabbermouth.net, accessed February 7, 2020 .
- ↑ MEGADETH + LAMB OF GOD Announce 2020 North American Tour; TRIVIUM And IN FLAMES To Open. Blabbermouth.net, accessed February 10, 2020 .
- ↑ Nina Golgowski: US heavy metal singer arrested in Prague over death of fan 'he attacked on stage'. Daily Mail , accessed February 11, 2016 .
- ^ Jon Wiederhorn: Lamb Of God's Ashes Slams Suits Who Play Risk With American Lives. MTV , accessed December 4, 2013 .
- ↑ Rodney Fuchs: LAMB OF GOD - Your own identity. FUZE Magazine, July 26, 2020, accessed July 26, 2020 .