The roots of Lamb of God were planted in the year 1990, when Mark Morton, Chris Adler and John Campbell were friends at Virginia Commonwealth University. The trio began playing at Adler's house in Richmond weathering chilly conditions. "There was no heat in the house," recalls Campbell. "We would hang around the kerosene heaters, get really drunk and write metal songs. Fumes and Black Label beer were definitely what fueled our early days."
After graduation, Morton moved to Chicago to pursue a master's degree, but the band continued. A new guitarist, Abe Spear, replaced Morton as the band retired its instrumental sound and added Randy Blythe on vocals.
The quartet, known then as Burn the Priest, became a fixture in the tightly-knit Richmond music scene. To compete with the high-level of musicianship displayed by their contemporaries, the band adopted a rigid practice schedule. "To this day, we practice five days a week out of necessity," says Campbell. "The bands in Richmond can flat outplay you and if you don't practice, they will blow you off the stage. Bands like Breadwinner and Sliang Laos - two local math-metal bands - could play insanely complicated music note perfect. They inspired us to raise the bar musically and taught us the work ethic we needed to be a success."
The band was playing around Virginia when Mark Morton moved back from Chicago and re-joined the group. Soon after, Burn the Priest released a self-titled full length album on Legion Records. Abe left soon after, which opened a spot for guitarist, and brother to Chris - Willie Adler.
A year after the second Adler joined, in 2000, Burn the Priest changed its name to Lamb of God, and signed a record deal with Prosthetic Records. The band's independent-debut, New American Gospel, was released in the year 2000. "This album was all about creating a rhythmic and pummeling musical landscape with riff after riff," explains Morton. Drummer Adler notes: ''This is a classic record. We had all the elements come together to make one of the heaviest, yet contagious records of our career. It was difficult to contain us - we didn't even understand at the time what we had created."
Two years of extensive touring to support the album raised Lamb of God's profile before the band released the critically acclaimed, As The Palaces Burn (2003). ATPB won record of the year honors in such notable magazines as Revolver and Metal Hammer while garnering mainstream press in Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly.
The band hit the road again and began headlining tours across the globe. In the fall of 2003 Lamb of God was a co-headliner on the first ever MTV's Headbanger's Ball Tour which elevated Lamb of God beyond the underground. The band then released Terror and Hubris, a DVD, featuring early live performances, videos for "Ruin" and "Black Label" and behind-the-scenes footage highlighting the work ethic, humility and sense of humor of one of the most respected and influential bands around today. The DVD proved to be a commercial success as it entered the Billboard Music DVD Charts at #32.
Gradually, Lamb of God's persistence paid off. Their 2003 disc, As The Palaces Burn earned them a new level of respect and admiration, but it was 2004's virulent major label debut (Epic Records) Ashes of the Wake that turned the band into true contenders for the metal throne. By mid 2006, the record had sold over 275,000 copies. Revolver magazine voted it the album of the year, a Guitar World readers poll deemed it best metal album and awarded the band "most valuable players," "best shredders" and "best riffs." The video for "Now You've Got Something to Die For" earned "best video" from both Headbanger's Ball and Revolver. And a DVD chronicling the tour and life on the road with the band, Killadelphia, has gone gold. Lamb of God supported Ashes with more relentless touring, now playing mostly arenas and festivals, starting with a headlining run on Second Stage at Ozzfest 2004, and ending by headlining the North American Sounds of The Underground Festival in 2005.
The political angst that fueled the lyrics on As The Palaces Burn continues unabated on Ashes of the Wake. However, Blythe admits that his plans to write songs about personal responsibility quickly changed. "Mark and I write most of the lyrics together, and at the start of this album we agreed that we wanted to concentrate on internal instead of external politics," he explains. "But as we got into it, considering the condition of the world today, we felt obligated as responsible artists to give accurate social commentary, and that meant writing a few indictments against the powers that be."
Mixing a call to arms with a sneering disdain balances Ashes of the Wake. "In the end, I think the album is stronger because we show the relation between internal and external politics instead of just focusing on one or the other," Blythe says. "These songs are a reality check for everyone because they rail against a wrong-headed government and against the apathetic people that ignore the government and allow it to exist."
After Ashes of the Wake, they had been praised as one of the leaders of the new American metal movement, and while they were flattered to be considered part of something so influential, this time they wanted to stand alone. "I believe it's important for us to create a legacy for this band, and I don't want that legacy to be in association with anyone else," Adler says. "In our minds, we're a cut above and we feel like we put out a whole lot more."
Towards the end of 2005, the band stopped all touring and came home to Richmond, VA, to begin writing the next chapter. An intense 8 month writing process followed. "We pretty much killed ourselves working on it five to six days a week for six to eight hours a day," says drummer Chris Adler. "It was important to push ourselves into uncomfortable territory as players. A lot of times one of us would say, 'I'm not sure if I can play that.' The typical response was, 'Well, you've got a year to figure it out.' We pushed ourselves to step it up and threw out a lot of decent material because we were insisting on only the best." One reason Lamb of God pushed so hard is because they wanted to create something that couldn't be classified, categorized or marginalized.
August 22, 2006 brought Sacrament, a stunning example of how diverse, articulate and pummeling metal can be. It's a record that emphasizes just how far the band members have come as players, writers and people and stands as a true testament of triumph over adversity. With Sacrament, Lamb of God has stoked the flames by stripping the flesh to the bone and examining the carnage. The songs are bleak and dark, yet key ingredients of a ride that's as breathless, exhilarating and terrifying as an overdose.
Guitarist and co-lyricist Mark Morton notes the band chose the name Sacrament based on a specific lyrical reference as well as a more general symbolic perspective. "We like it because it employs the idea of the traditional religious Sacrament, which is something you do as ritual to get to a different level of your faith," he says. "Also, I thought it was symbolic in terms of us putting out another record and getting to the next stage of our musical development." "This is definitely a personal record and it's the darkest thing we've ever done," adds Blythe. "It stems from a lot of depression and a fucked up worldview. In the last couple years I've been going through a lot of weird, bad shit."
The biggest difference between Sacrament and Ashes of the Wake is the lyrical content. In the past, Lamb of God has lyrically been motivated by the hypocrisy, greed and turmoil of politics and politicians. This time the band turned within to reveal an even greater source of despair and frustration.
Songs like 'Pathetic' and 'Descending' for instance are about the whirlpool of addiction and alcoholism, 'Walk With Me In Hell' addresses the destruction of codependency and 'Blacken the Cursed Sun' confronts suicidal depression.
"The lyrics were so intense for me, when I was recording, it was like breathing pain instead of breathing air," Blythe says. "So, when it was done, I couldn't listen to the record for another two months. It just took so much out of me to get all this stuff out, I didn't want to touch it right away."
In addition to being relatively heavy, Sacrament is a sincere expression of the turmoil that has tumbled through the last few years of the band's existence. In an era of stagnant, contrived metal, Lamb of God is a harrowing rush of honesty, a declaration that no matter what anyone else is playing, Lamb of God will always follow their own hearts.
"This band was started because no one out there was making the music that we wanted to hear," singer Randy Blythe says. "So, we decided to make that music, and from that point it has just been a continuation of that philosophy. We had never changed anything we do to appeal to anyone, appease anyone or seek any sort of approval from anyone other than ourselves."
In 2009, Lamb of God released their sixth studio album 'Wrath' which debuted at No. 2 on the billboard top 200. The track 'Set to Fail' also received a Grammy nomination amongst other Metal heavyweights such as Megadeth, Slayer, Judas Priest, and Ministry. They spent the remainder of 2009 touring in support of the new album and expect to continue touring through most of 2010.
In an interview with Spin Magazine, Chris Adler stated that the band currently has plans to begin work on their seventh album (title unknown) at the start of 2011. The album has been stated to be released either the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012 and the band will not be doing any public performances until 2012 according to Morton's personal Twitter account.
On June 28, 2012, Randy Blythe was arrested in Czech Republic for alleged manslaughter. He was released on August 3 on a $400,000 bail until the criminal proceedings are finished.
Despite statements from band members that Lamb of God planned to enter the studio in 2014 to begin recording their eighth studio album, hoping to complete it by the end of the same year, Chris Adler said in an interview with The Virginian-Pilot that besides the large amount legal fees the band encountered from Randy Blythe's trial, the band's inactivity during the trial had eventually depleted the band's funds and thus were unable to fulfill those plans.
On January 26, 2014, Randy Blythe posted a picture and a statement on his Instagram saying he would be taking a long break from Lamb of God. The band, after the then-current album cycle would be on hiatus, except for some summer festival appearances. By September, however, Blythe revealed that he was planning to release a new Lamb of God record, which uses lyrics he had written while he was incarcerated along with his book, Dark Days: A Memoir in early 2015.
The band began teasing a new album, with the placeholder title Lamb of God VII via Instagram and Twitter in late April 2015. A website, lambofgodvii.com, initially comprising an empty black screen, went online in early May. The "VII" (the roman numeral for the number seven) refers to the album being the band's seventh, and does not take into account the first of their albums, released with a slightly different line-up as Burn the Priest. On May 15, 2015, it was announced that the title of the new album VII: Sturm und Drang, and would be released in July via Epic and Nuclear Blast Entertainment. The first song, "Still Echoes" was made available for streaming on LambofGodVII.com, and available for digital download on May 18. In June of the same year, the band released a video for the song "512".
On November 14, 2016, Lamb of God released a new EP titled "The Duke", which featured two new songs from the VII: Sturm und Drang recordings and three live tracks. The title track is dedicated to a fan and friend of vocalist Randy Blythe, Wayne Ford, who died after a 5-year battle with leukaemia. In addition to the new release, several members of the band auctioned off their instruments, signed CDs, lyric books and gold records to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
On April 4, 2017, Blythe said it was time for the band to "really go on hiatus" after their summer North American tour; this was in reference to the first hiatus being on the back of his release from prison and acquittal. On August 10, guitarist Mark Morton confirmed that the band would be going on hiatus but stated that they would still be making music but did not hint at whether this was either for an upcoming release or indeed for Lamb of God at all.
On January 22, 2018, Lamb of God was announced as one of the bands supporting the Slayer Farewell Tour.
On March 22, 2018, Lamb of God announced that on May 18, 2018, they would release a cover album, Legion: XX under their original name Burn the Priest. It is the band's first album as Burn the Priest since their 1999 album.
On October 23, 2018, Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler was interviewed on the 486th Metal Injection Livecast and in the interview with Metal Injection he revealed that the band is aiming for a December 2019 release date for Lamb of God's tenth studio album. He also revealed in the interview that he had a conversation with fellow heavy metal drummer Lars Ulrich of the band Metallica about what it is like to work with ex-Metallica guitarist and current Megadeth lead vocalist and guitarist Dave Mustaine prior to working with him on Megadeth's 15th album, Dystopia, which was released in 2016.
In June 2019, on the topic of Chris Adler returning to the band on a touring basis, Randy Blythe stated during an interview with WSOU that he had no comment and that "it's hard to see what's going to happen with Chris Adler."On July 19, 2019, the band released a statement informing that they had indeed parted ways with Chris Adler, with Winds of Plague and former Prong drummer Art Cruz being named the new drummer of Lamb of God. They additionally stated that they had begun pre-production on their forthcoming 10th album.On October 23, 2019, Chris Adler released his own statement about his departure from Lamb of God revealing that he "did not make the decision to leave my life’s work" and he "is unwilling to paint by numbers".
On February 5, 2020, the band released "Checkmate" as the debut single from their self-titled album, Lamb of God, which marks the first song to feature new drummer Art Cruz. The album was initially planned to be released on May 8, but was postponed to June 19, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Lamb of God will spend most of 2021 touring in support of the album, including a co-headlining US tour with Megadeth, and a European trek with Kreator and Power Trip.
In a September 2020 interview with Australia's Subculture Entertainment, Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton was asked how he was spending his coronavirus downtime. He responded, "Writing and recording and creating new music is my favorite part out of all the things we get to do. There's a lot of elements, a lot of components about being in a band like Lamb of God. Performing and touring is one of them. Writing and recording is another one of them. The writing and recording part is far and away my favorite part of what we get to do. And so I have been doing some writing. I've been writing some stuff for Lamb of God, some stuff for other people, some stuff for my own solo project, so there's a lot of new music jumping out of me right now."
On February 4, 2021, the band released a song called "Ghost Shaped People" off the upcoming deluxe version of their 2020 self-titled album. The reissue of the album is set for release on March 26, 2021.
Delusion Pandemic
Lamb of God Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Relegate your muses to the surrogates
Long green apron stings that end in hooks
Sunk deep, written off, and on the books
Ripped off, a weak derivative culture
Disposable, nothing's built to last
Whipped dogs, a bleak cognitive future
Ineptitude is reaching critical mass
You are being herded by the wolves
A generation of mockingbirds
Feeding yourself to the wolves
This is the rise of our demise
Fucked up and uncivilized
This is the rise of our demise
You paint a target right between your eyes
Collateral damage in the aggregates
Structural analysis of duplicates
Errors of illusion, clouded perspectives
Terrorized delusions and end game objectives
Locked out, a stiff tactical suture
A victim complex now reality
Blocked ground, a swift statistical maneuver
Persecution of the self-made weak
A generation of mockingbirds
You are being herded by the wolves
A generation of mockingbirds
Feeding yourself to the wolves
This is the rise of our demise
Fucked up and uncivilized
This is the rise of our demise
You paint a target right between your eyes
Now it's the moment that everything can change
You are completely responsible for your own life
And no one it's coming to save you from yourself
So stop blaming your problems or any or everything else
It does not matter one tiny fucking bit
How unfair you think the world is, it's only what you do
Right here, right now
Right this fucking instant that matters
It's your choice to
Sink or swim
Sink or swim
Sink or swim
Sink or swim
It's imminent, the rise of your demise
Sink or swim
It's all around, the rise of your demise
Sink or swim
The lyrics of Lamb of God's song Delusion Pandemic speak to the state of humanity in the modern world. The first verse, "Allocate your future to the delegates, relegate your muses to the surrogates" suggests that people are giving away their power to those in positions of authority, and are no longer seeking inspiration from within themselves. The imagery of the "long green apron stings that end in hooks, sunk deep, written off, and on the books" is a metaphor for being trapped in a system that is designed to keep people enslaved. The following lines describe a culture that is disposable and built to fail, with "whipped dogs" being a metaphor for a generation that is no longer able to think for itself.
The chorus, "A generation of mockingbirds, you are being herded by the wolves, feeding yourself to the wolves" is a powerful commentary on the state of society. We are being led by those who are not looking out for our best interests, and we are willingly following them to our own destruction. The second verse continues this theme, with lines like "Structural analysis of duplicates, errors of illusion, clouded perspectives" suggesting that we are living in a world where everything is a copy, and it is difficult to discern what is real and what is not.
The final part of the song is a call to action, with lines like "It's your choice to sink or swim" suggesting that we have the power to change our lives, but we must take responsibility for our own actions. The repeated refrain of "sink or swim" is a reminder that we all have a choice, and it is up to us to decide whether we will drown in the delusion pandemic or rise above it.
Line by Line Meaning
Allocate your future to the delegates
Give control of your future to those in power
Relegate your muses to the surrogates
Put aside your sources of inspiration for more practical pursuits
Long green apron stings that end in hooks
Working hard for little reward, trapped by financial obligations
Sunk deep, written off, and on the books
Permanently stuck in a disadvantaged position, forgotten by society
Ripped off, a weak derivative culture
Culture lacking originality and easily exploited
Disposable, nothing's built to last
Products and people seen as replaceable and not long-lasting
Whipped dogs, a bleak cognitive future
Individuals obediently following without critical thinking, leading to a hopeless future
Ineptitude is reaching critical mass
Lack of skill and ability becoming an overwhelming problem
A generation of mockingbirds
A group of people mindlessly repeating what they hear, without original thought or action
You are being herded by the wolves
You are being led and controlled by those with harmful intentions
Feeding yourself to the wolves
Harming or betraying yourself by blindly following those with harmful intentions
This is the rise of our demise
We are heading towards our own downfall
Fucked up and uncivilized
In a state of chaos and lacking basic manners and social norms
You paint a target right between your eyes
You are knowingly making yourself vulnerable to danger or harm
Collateral damage in the aggregates
Negative consequences affecting a larger group of people
Structural analysis of duplicates
Pointing out the repetitive and stagnant nature of a system or organization
Errors of illusion, clouded perspectives
Mistakes caused by delusion and inability to see clearly
Terrorized delusions and end game objectives
Fearful false beliefs leading to harmful goals
Locked out, a stiff tactical suture
Unable to access resources or opportunities, stuck in a difficult situation
A victim complex now reality
A mentality of constantly being wronged has become a part of one's life
Blocked ground, a swift statistical maneuver
Obstacles preventing progress, countered by efficient problem-solving methods
Persecution of the self-made weak
The disadvantaged and vulnerable face mistreatment and injustice
Now it's the moment that everything can change
The present is an opportunity to create positive change
You are completely responsible for your own life
You alone are in charge of your future and your decisions
And no one it's coming to save you from yourself
There is no external force that can improve your life for you
So stop blaming your problems or any or everything else
Take responsibility for your own problems instead of blaming others
It does not matter one tiny fucking bit
No excuses or reasons can absolve you of your personal responsibility
How unfair you think the world is, it's only what you do
The world may be unfair, but your actions are what matter
Right here, right now
The present moment is where change can happen
Right this fucking instant that matters
The choices you make in this very moment are what will shape your future
It's your choice to
You have the power to choose
Sink or swim
Surrender to failure or rise to the challenge
It's imminent, the rise of your demise
Your downfall is quickly approaching
It's all around, the rise of your demise
The signs of your downfall are everywhere
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: CHRIS ADLER, DAVID RANDALL BLYTHE, JOHN CAMPBELL, MARK MORTON, WILL ADLER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind