Taipei Metal

Lamb of God: Beyond Wrath

A million tiny, finger-shy strands must be intricately and meticulously threaded together in precisely numbered succession in order for a band to be successful and, in the beginning, nearly every one of those maddening threads is held, if only tentatively, within the grasp of the band itself. Obviously there are songs to be written and an image to be cultivated, along with personal and professional conduct to keep in line, and any one of these things can fly off the rails at any given time if a band doesn’t have at least one member in their ranks who can serve as the responsible conscience and great regulator of the others. Luckily for Lamb of God, their level-headed, Zen-like voice of reason, drummer Chris Adler, has been there every step of the way, from the band's early days as the instrumental act Burn the Priest, founded in 1990, to these current, heady days of muli-million unit album sales and Grammy nominations. From day one he's been the soft-spoken, but well-spoken, rational and responsible counter to front man Randy Blythe's brash punk rock rage, bassist John Campbell and guitarist Willie Adler's shared exploding-cigarette-and-wacky-tattoos sense of humor, and guitarist Mark Morton's quiet and yet overt confidence. In the beginning, there were no endorsement or record deals, no crowds of thousands finishing Blythe's tobacco-coated, vitriol laden screams every time he held his microphone aloft. There were just five guys bringing a decidedly punk attitude and aesthetic along with a truckload of heavy, thrashy southern groove to the Richmond motherfuckin' Virginia metal scene, as Chris recalls.

“The way we started the business was very D.I.Y. We did a lot of things ourselves. We screen printed our own shirts. We called kids who were having parties and said 'Let us play for ten bucks.' We definitely made it in our own way and that's very punk.”

For years Lamb of God sweated it out in clubs and crisscrossed America in cramped conditions, climbing the metal ladder rung by slippery rung, with the level of success they have attained today something they ever would have imagined for themselves. Even to this day Chris will tell you that he still has trouble imagining Lamb of God as a successful band, despite their long list of achievements and accolades. By the time their debut album as Lamb of God, 2000's New American Gospel, was released, most of the members of the band were in their late twenties, save Willie, who is a few years younger than his band mates. The album would go on to sell over100,000 copies in the U.S. alone, and Chris believes that, because this triumph came when most of the band was closer to 30 than to 20, it may have gone a long way to saving the band from self destruction.

“I think had it happened earlier for us we probably would have ended up killing ourselves or overindulging in something.”

He goes on to talk about how achieving success in the music industry later in life has helped the band keep their career on the right track.

“I think it's helped us to be a little bit older and a little bit smarter to make the decisions that come with that kind of maturity to help the career along. I think everybody's kept their personalities and egos intact and in check. It's probably been beneficial to have that little bit of experience under your belt before things start to get really crazy.”

Each subsequent album managed to at least double the sales of their initial offering on American soil, as Lamb of God fought and earned their way to domestic sales that topped the two million mark, and metal's biggest names took notice. When it came time for Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer to choose an opening act for their tours, all three chose Richmond's favorite sons, and the band went into those tours with their eyes open, and their notebooks at the ready, eager to learn what to do, and what not to do, from the best in the business.

“A lot of times you learn from the things they do well, a lot of times you learn from the things they don't do so well. We've been fortunate to tour with just about everybody that we grew up listening to. I think the biggest things that we've learned from them is how to treat each other and maybe how to not treat each other”

It was on these tours that the members of Lamb of God learned that everyone associated with the group is representing them in some capacity— from the guy selling the merchandise to the roadies loading gear. This lesson came in the form of an incident that could have potentially turned deadly for one unnamed member of Lamb of God when they were out on tour with a band that Chris, for professional reasons, also chooses not to name.

“One of the early bands we went out with had a crew that, while the band were a bunch of really nice guys, their crew were really a bunch of douche bags. They treated the opening bands really, really poorly to the point where one of the guys even pulled a knife on one of us. We learned early on that when we're picking our crew, we need to know that these guys speak for us in every way. When you walk into a venue, when you speak to the opening band, when you're talking to the promoter, these guys are basically wearing our band name all day long. You don't want to leave a place and have them have a bad taste in their mouth about the band.”

Of course, that's not to say that there hasn't been a rough patch here and there. Randy's past thirst for Jagermeister has been well known, and anyone who has access to the Internet or watched the Walk with Me in Hell DVD has seen him get knocked out by Mark Morton in a late night, drunken street brawl in Scotland while the band was on their 2007 world tour in support of their fourth album, Sacrament. But Randy has reportedly cut down on his drinking recently, and the band in general has, according to Chris, come a long way since then.

“I think we've grown certainly since that DVD. We've all kind of matured a bit. We've been together now 16 years; basically our entire adult lives we've been stuck with each other for good and bad. We tour a lot, and when we're not touring we're writing, and when we're not writing we're recording. So we're basically always together. Tensions come and go, and as we've gotten older and a little more mature we've learned to respect each other a little bit more. That's not to say that it's always best friends hanging out everyday, but I'd like to think we're beyond the point of physical violence.”

Now the band can see the light at the end of the tunnel for the touring cycle for their latest album, 2009's Wrath, an album deemed rawer and more aggressive than Sacrament by the band and critics alike. This is a tour that has seen, and still has in store, more new experiences for the band, with their first stops in places like China, Turkey, Thailand, India, and Taiwan, along with a return to the site of what has arguably been the band's most memorable performance, the Download festival at Donnington.

“It really is probably the most exciting year of our touring history,” says Chris.

“Even though we're kind of winding down the album cycle we're coming to these places we've never been. I never would have thought we'd get to these places. It's very exciting for me to continue to travel the world and see new people and to know even in places like China where there's no real music commerce that people know who we are, and despite restrictions on the Internet kids somehow still celebrate this kind of music. It's pretty exciting to know it's traveled that far.”

It's the excitement of spreading their music to new locales, feeling the unrelenting support of their fans around the world, and a perpetual desire top their previous efforts rather than merely stay consistent that keeps Lamb of God going. As the guys edge their way towards the big 4-0, they are increasingly aware of their own mortality as a band, but at the same time, they know they still have something to offer.

“Well, we're not getting any younger. Not to sound fatalistic, but I think there's obviously an expiration on everything,” Chris offers candidly.

“I still think we do have at least another record in us. But it's definitely a young man's game, and we've definitely made a bit of a mark on it. I think we can still continue at this level and greater than this level or else I wouldn't want to try. I'd rather leave a cheque on the table and have a catalogue that we're all proud of than to take that cheque and have this watered down, on-our-way-out album. Growing up as a kid you just hate when you hear your favorite band and you realize they did it for the money. I don't want to be that band.”

The writing process for the follow-up to Wrath is already well under way, with the plan being for Lamb of God to hole up in their rehearsal space in January of next year to flesh out the ideas Mark and Willie have come forward with thus far. Mark has as many as seven songs that are all but completed already, and Willie was showing a few of his new songs to his brother as the band made their way to Asia in April. Chris says that the new material will likely bring out more of the dark side of Lamb of God and make it that much more potent.

“I know we were going for kind of a dark vibe on Sacrament with some of the tunes and the lyrical content. But I think maybe some of that production took away from that kind of dark side of it. From what I'm hearing, if we were to maintain the same kind of production, I think we're going to bring out a little bit more of the...I don't want to call it scary because we're not trying to scare anybody or be evil, but a little darker.”

It has been a long, hard road to the top of the underground for Lamb of God, and they're not done yet. Still, one gets the feeling when talking to Chris that fans may have to start getting used to the idea of a post-Lamb of God metal scene, something that would undoubtedly be an incredibly brackish shot to swallow for many a metal head. But for now, the band remains as hungry and driven as they have ever been, and have avoided the inevitable burn out by feeding on the passion of their ultra-dedicated fan base.

“It's always exciting to be on stage, to perform your art to people that want to hear it, but it can be grinding. But that 90 minutes on stage is so magical that you have to swallow the bad pills with the good ones. I think that's the thing that keeps pushing us forward is that we still have some gas in the tank. I think we can put out another album that rivals any of the ones we've done and that time on stage is very, very special. I don't want to hang that up just yet.”

By Joe Henley