I went to my third Lamb of God concert a couple of days ago. They are a pure American metal band from Virginia who met at Virginia Commonwealth University at least 20 years ago. In 2003, I flew from Chicago to a municipal airport in Creighton, Nebraska for work. I had a nursing case in Sioux Falls, Iowa, and then had to drive to Ames, Iowa for a building accessibility case. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack some cds as I was about to travel past many cornfields. I stopped at a local record store to buy music. I recalled reading a great review of a new band, but could not remember the name. As I perused the possibilities, I found the band from the review: Lamb of God. I purchased As the Palaces Burn (2003), which had a sticker that read, “The most devastating album of the year – Revolver Magazine.”
The album’s first track, “Ruin,” slammed me and I was immediately hooked. I played that cd over and over, cranked to 11, throughout my travels in the corn state. Later, I happened upon a quote from the lead guttural shrieker, Randy Blythe, about the release. He said, “There’s nothing happy on the record. Our music is not happy music. You can’t write a Lamb of God love song. The record overall thematically, between what me and Mark [Mark Morton, lead guitarist] have written, is pretty much about the demise of our civilization as we are all watching it unfold before us. The record at times is pretty political, leaning against George W. Bush.”
Lamb of God is a five piece outfit with two guitars (with Willie Adler), John Campbell on bass, and Chris Adler on drums. I figure Lamb of God did not appear in Sam Dunn’s prog rock piece that I previously wrote about as they do not employ a keyboardist. Lamb of God is pure metal, and had previously been a grindcore band called Burn the Priest, which released one cd. Check out this incendiary, polished concert by Burn the Priest:
My favorite tracks on the cd are “Bloodletting” and “Chronic Auditory Hallucination.” Locally, I attended over the years a local DIY grindcore band called Hewhocorrupts at least four times until they disbanded. I love their video:
But I digress.
After Palaces, Lamb of God released an equally blistering album, Ashes of the Wake, in 2004. Lamb of God did not fail me with subsequent releases, namely: Sacrament (2006); Wrath (2009); Resolution (2012); and Sturm und Drang (2015). During their 2012 European tour in support of Resolution, singer Blythe got arrested in Prague on a manslaughter charge. Unbeknownst to Blythe, a fan died weeks later after allegedly being pushed off the stage by Blythe during the preceding Lamb of God tour. Blythe chronicles his ordeals in a 125+ year old jail for 31 days in his 2015 memoir, Dark Days.
Blythe was an English literature major and did a fantastic job describing the prison scum, the cold employees, the dank residence, the whole ordeal of navigating a post-USSR, confusing legal system, and all of his emotional states. What is it like to be holed up with a constant whistling, non-English speaking Mongolian? What are the days like, day after day? What routines do and do not occur? What supplies can and cannot be acquired? Well, the self-proclaimed “terribly wounded, very angry mountain ape,” which is how Blythe described his singing style in the book, provides plenty of details, including how he was so moved by a book his attorney brought him while incarcerated. The book was by a German Lutheran minister named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer wrote Letters and Papers from Prison after being arrested by the Nazi Party in 1943 on suspicion of involvement in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. (Those in the North Park community know that Seminary Professor Burton Nelson was a Bonhoeffer expert scholar.)
Blythe was ultimately cleared of the manslaughter charge in a grueling, confusing trial, and Lamb of God has resumed their vigil to rawk our world while giving us cause(s) for concern.
