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 wit