Lamb of God: No Barriers

Willie Adler (left) and Mark Morton onstage with Lamb of God.
Listen to "Ghost Walking" and "Desolation" from Resolution:

“Whether it’s Slayer or Megadeth or anybody else, I want to go out there and mop up the floor with them,” said Lamb of God’s lead guitarist Mark Morton in Walk with Me in Hell, the band’s 2008 documentary DVD. “I want to play as hard as I can and make them look old and tired when we’re done.” This take-no-prisoners mindset has been the driving force behind LoG since its earliest incarnation in 1990 as Burn the Priest. The current lineup was solidified in the mid ’90s, when Morton, drummer Chris Adler, and bassist John Campbell were joined by vocalist Randy Blithe and guitarist Willie Adler (Chris’ brother), and the band changed its name to quell controversy that got it banned from more than a few venues.

Around that same time, change was also in the air for the metal scene in general. Along with bands like Pantera and Mastodon, Lamb of God helped usher in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal movement , bringing back some long-missing credibility to the genre after several years of “nu-metal” reigning supreme on the charts and radio waves with a recipe that often seemed to jettison melody and musicianship in favor of detuned monotony and guttural gibberish.

Albums like Ashes of the Wake and Sacrament—the latter of which garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance on “Redneck”—and prime touring slots opening for icons like Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer gave Lamb of God a prime spot to surf on that new metal wave. Resolution, the band’s latest release, hit the streets this January, and though its title and timing might lead some to think the band is embarking on a feel-good spiritual reawakening, nothing could be further from the truth.

“Although we do like puppies and flowers, that’s not what we’re writing about,” explains Morton. “I think it’s safe to say all of our songs are pretty dark. Resolution is more about being resolved to something. It’s more about the end of a certain phase of one’s life or situation, and also the clarity of an image.” Asked to expound on the latter point, Morton says, “I think we’ve kind of reached a new sound—a more realistic vision of what we are, personally. I don’t want to get too specific—I prefer not to spell things out literally, because it’s always best when people interpret the songs for themselves. But I think it’s all there [on the album].”

We caught up with Morton and Adler to get the inside scoop on recording Resolution, their signature axes, and the secret formula for maintaining a successful career.

Resolution has 14 tracks in a pretty broad range of styles. Is it difficult to be that adventurous and still keep a sound that’s identifiably Lamb of God?
Adler: It’s gotten to the point now where we really don’t see any kind of barriers, as far as our sound goes. It’s inherently going to sound like us because it’s us playing it— and I don’t think any of us would depart from the traditional sound. But it’s constant exploration, and we’re willing to try anything to see if it sticks and if it’s cool. Josh [Wilbur], our producer, was there for the entire songwriting process, and he kind of cracked the whip on us. He was like, “Yeah it’s not quite there. If you want to save the song, you better go home and rewrite it.” I’d be in the practice space from noon until 6 o’clock, and then go home and be in my own studio from about 9 o’clock till about 4 a.m., rewriting. There would be parts here and there that were standout, great parts. For quite a few songs on this record, these parts got mashed together to make one killer track.

“King Me” has a lot of parts. Is that one where you combined bits and pieces from different demo songs?
Morton: That one was originally brought in by Willie and was pretty far developed. We’d already recorded the tracks for it and pretty much decided it was going to be the closer on the album. Then Josh came up very late in the process with the idea of adding the opera vocals and the string arrangements. It’s a very unique piece for us. We all really love the song. We usually try and close the album with something big and powerful. The last track on the album is one that we reserve for an epic piece, like we did with “Reclamation” on Wrath and “Vigil” on As the Palaces Burn. So “King Me” was already holding that spot, but I think when Josh had the idea of adding those extra elements, it really took it to the next level.

Adler: When Josh came up with the idea to add the strings, it was a little bit of a scary prospect at first. I kept questioning myself, “Can we do this?” But the rest of the band was so down for it. And once I heard, I thought, “This song really lends itself to this.”

Adler cranks out blistering riffs on his signature ESP solidbody, which features Seymour Duncan JB (bridge) and ’59 (neck) pickups.

Were they real strings?
Adler: They were real strings. Josh knows a few guys up in New York, and they came in and put real strings on it.

Who wrote the parts?
Adler: I think the string players wrote them out.

The intro to that track [“King Me”] has this haunting, minor/major7-type sonority.
Adler: That’s my crazy, untrained and un-theory-knowing brain. I just kind of play completely outside the box and have no idea what I’m doing other than it’s sounding amazing.

It doesn’t really matter what it means, theory-wise, because what it comes down to at the end of the day is what it sounds like.
Adler: Yeah, I don’t get caught up thinking, “What mode is this in? What scale is this in?” I don’t have those walls to confine me.

Any advice for someone looking to develop the speed and endurance needed to play songs like “Visitation,” “Guilty,” and “Desolation?”
Morton: I’ve found that it’s useful to have a very accurate and powerful upstroke. If you can get your upstroke as powerful as your downstroke, it enables you to have a more fluid sound. Another thing you might try is playing a slower lick or riff using all upstrokes. Force yourself to do it with all upstrokes, and that will really hyper-focus you on defining your upstroke. It’s going to feel very awkward, and it’s probably not something you would do in a performance setting.

Do you use exercises like that to warm up before a show?
Morton: I usually grab a guitar 15 minutes before we go onstage. I don’t know why, but I’ve never really noticed a difference between playing for 45 minutes before a show and playing for five minutes before a show. I’ve had great shows where I didn’t even touch a guitar before I went onstage, and I’ve had terrible shows where I’ve warmed up for 45 minutes before.

Have there ever been times where you guys were playing live and the adrenaline was flowing and the drums sped up so much that you couldn’t execute some of your faster riffs?
Adler: It can happen. We would have meetings afterwards, and we would be, like, “Dude, you ramped that part up so [expletive] fast, I couldn’t play it!” Thank god, Chris is using a click now. He started using a click during the last touring cycle for Wrath. He maintains his speeds and the solidity of the songs, so it’s not up and down, up and down, up and down.

Mark, even though you have chops to spare, one thing you do that a lot of shredders don’t do is play bluesy phrases in between the fast stuff. Who are some of your favorite lead players?
Morton: My favorite players are blues players. I grew up on that stuff, as well as Southern rock and classic rock. I’m in a metal band and I have a vast appreciation and respect for metal but, honestly, my favorite players are Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jimi Hendrix. Certainly, those guys are rock players, but they’re very heavily blues influenced. Those are the masters to me. Those are the guys that I look up to. I’d rather listen to Billy Gibbons than Yngwie Malmsteen, any day.

Morton conjures low-end growl with his signature Jackson Dominion guitar, which comes stock with tappable Duncan ’59s although it will soon feature new custom DiMarzios.

Your solo in “Ghost Walking” has a nice contrast between arpeggios, scalar sequences, and soulful bending.
Morton: Yes, I think “contrast” is a very good word. I think of it as dynamic. There’s some pretty burning stuff in the “Ghost Walking” solo, and there’s also some more bluesy stuff, and I think when you put them next to each other there’s a push and pull—kind of a peak and a valley—and it makes it more exciting.

It also seems like you’re more focused on the integrity of the song than sticking in solos at every opportunity.
Morton: I’d rather be known as a songwriter. I never wanted to be one of these guys that could play a solo but couldn’t write a song. Even in my first band, when I was 14 years old, I found myself writing riffs and lyrics and laying out entire songs. I only really put a solo in a song if I feel that it needs one.

Let’s talk about gear for a minute. Can you tell us about your signature guitars?
Adler: ESP sent me their original Eclipse, and I wanted mine designed pretty much straight off of that. My signature model’s got Duncans—a JB and a ’59. There are a couple I have that are absolutely my babies. I’m actually retiring them from the road now. They’re getting beat up, and they sound so great in the studio so I’m just not taking these out there anymore.

Morton: Mine is the Jackson Dominion. Right now they’re coming stock with the Seymour Duncan ’59s, but we’re switching that over to DiMarzios, because I’m about to wrap up the final details on a signature pickup with them. There’s also another signature model, the D2, which is more of an entry-level guitar. That one has a bolt on neck, isn’t chambered like the Dominion, doesn’t have the coil taps, and has different tuners and pickups.

It’s pretty uncommon for a metal guy to use a chambered guitar. Why did you implement that on the Dominion?
Morton: It started years ago when Jackson sent me a Swee-Tone model. It was chambered and I just really liked the way it resonated—it had a really bright, loud resonance to it. I was playing the Swee-Tone for a while on Ashes of the Wake album and the As the Palaces Burn tour. So I incorporated that when we went to do the signature model.

Active pickups seem to be the de facto metal pickup, but you guys seem to remain firmly in passivepickup territory.
Adler: I don’t know if I’m particularly a fan of the way that those active pickups sound through a [Mesa/Boogie] Mark IV or Mark V. I’ve been a passive pickup guy for so long, man. In my mind, tone needs to come from the amps and cabinets that you’re using, not from your pickups. Not to say that I don’t really love the Duncan JBs and ’59s—they have a real gushy, powerful tone with so much bottom-end growl. They complement my Mesa tone so well that it was just like, “Okay, I’m sold.”

Morton: I’m not a big fan of active pickups. I don’t think they have anywhere near the tone or dynamics that a passive pickup does.

You guys are both big Mesa/Boogie aficionados. Which of their amps are you using?
Adler: The Mark V. I’m kind of messing around with combining the Mark V and Mark IV tones to get that gushy low end that the V has, and brightness that the IV has.

You mean the real Mark IV and not the Mark V’s IV mode?
Adler: Yeah, a real IV.

How would you say the Mark V’s IV mode compares to the actual Mark IV?
Adler: It’s good, but a Mark IV is an actual amp. The Mark V has a killer tone and I absolutely love it as the Mark V, and then the Mark IV, I absolutely love as the Mark IV.

Morton: I have a Mark V and have used it a bit, but until very recently I was pretty much using the Mark IV. Recently I’ve been switching over to a Royal Atlantic with EL34s.

Is it Marshall-y?
Morton: Not really. It’s got a nice, tight saturation. To me, it’s kind of a blend of the Mark IV, with a little bit of the Rectifier/ Stiletto sound on the bottom end—just a tighter low end than a Rectifier has.

Your respective sounds mesh really well. Do you guys EQ your amps differently to accomplish this balance?
Morton: Sometimes I’ll use an overdrive pedal with the distortion turned all the way off and just use it as a line boost for a solo. For a while I was using the MXR GT-OD, but recently I’ve been using the Way Huge Green Rhino.

Adler: A little bit. Mark has a little bit more high mids in his sound. I’m a little more scooped.

How scooped are you—a total V, or kind of scooped but not all the way?
Adler: I’m kind of scooped but not total metalcore scooped. Our guitars sound drastically different, and that scooped sound really complements my guitar.

Moving on to big-picture stuff, you’ve toured with some of the most influential metal bands of all time—and you’re now one of the biggest names in metal. What did you learn from being on tour with, say, Metallica?
Morton: Without getting too specific, I think they just taught us the next level of being pro. Those guys approach everything with the most professional attitude. I have never seen a show where they are just going through the motions. They are really … they’re the biggest and best heavy metal band in the world. I think it was, more than anything, really inspiring to see a band at that level really care so much about what they’re doing and still take it so seriously. I’ve seen really big bands that honestly don’t give a [expletive] about what they’re doing on any given night. I’ve never seen that with Metallica.

That said, you guys have been around for a while now, too. How do you maintain your longevity?
Adler: That’s a very good question. It’s hard to say. I think we’re all smart enough to realize that it’s way bigger than its individual parts. We’re all part of something that we all deem extremely special.

Morton: I think we just enjoy what we’re doing. We’d be doing this anyway. I’d be playing guitar whether I had a record deal or not. Also, we work hard to keep the same lineup. A lot of bands change members and break up at the first conflict. We’ve weathered a lot of conflict, personally speaking— things in our lives that have nothing to do with the band. I think we all realize that the five of us are Lamb of God. So, as long as we want to do Lamb of God, that’s what it is.

The music industry has changed significantly since you guys started out. What advice would you give upcoming bands— musically and business-wise?
Adler: It is a whole new game, man. Musicwise, stay true to yourself. Don’t try to compete with anybody. Don’t try to sound like anybody. Do what you love. If it’s something that’s meant to be, it will happen. Honestly, it’s a whole lot of luck. We were just fortunate to be in a position where the iron was hot and we were able to strike it right then.

Morton: If you’re in a band because you want to get rich and you want to get famous, then you’re probably looking at it the wrong way. You’re setting yourself up for failure. There are so many things that have to fall into place and so much of it is luck. I mean, yes, you have to be good … yes, you have to be dedicated … yes, you have to surround yourself with people that are as dedicated as you are. But there’s a lot of luck and timing involved, too. My advice is to do what you love and then let the rest come if it will.

Youtube It

To witness Lamb of God’s brand of merciless mayhem, check out the following clips on YouTube.com.

LoG plays their Grammy-nominated hit, “Redneck,” to an insanely huge crowd at the Download

“Laid to Rest” has been featured on Guitar Hero II and covered by Gym Class Heroes, but when all is said and done, no one does it better than the badasses from Richmond, Virginia.

“Set to Fail” was nominated for a 2010 Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Although they didn’t nab the honors, it was far from an epic fail. Watch the band ravage through the brutal number in this clip from the main stage at the 2009 Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium.