LAMB OF GOD Frontman Talks 'Resolution' In New Interview

Radio Metal recently conducted an interview with vocalist Randy Blythe of Richmond, Virginia metallers LAMB OF GOD. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Radio Metal: The new [LAMB OF GOD] album is entitled "Resolution". A resolution is the decision to change something in your behavior, your personality or your habits. So, what is LAMB OF GOD's "resolution?"

Randy: Resolution doesn't necessary mean that you're going to change; a resolution can be a lot of different things. It can mean the end and result of a lot of stuff, it can mean a clarity of vision, so… You're right, it can be a decision you're going to make, so my resolution on this record is just to tour the world and put on the best show we can.

Radio Metal: Musically, the album starts with a short song with a doom/sludge vibe, and it ends with a song with an orchestra. Are those songs some kind of clues of how LAMB OF GOD could evolve in the future?

Randy: We just finished this album, [and] it doesn't come out 'till January, so we aren't thinking about the next record. We are thinking about this album right now. We are promoting this. I have no idea what's gonna happen in two or three years when we'll be doing our next record. You can ask me then, but for now, I don't know!

Radio Metal: Both songs are pretty convincing. Why didn't you try to go further in those experimentations, like more songs with this doom/sludge vibe or more songs with an orchestra?

Randy: Because we wrote exactly what we wanted to write, and those songs were written because at the moment of time, we were on the mood to create a sludge song. We were like, "What if we wrote a sludge song?" Then we didn't felt like doing it anymore, so we did something else. The orchestra was added at the end. This song was not meant to have a orchestra or an opera singer; that was just added at the end.

Radio Metal: Some metalheads say that heavy metal is the new classical music. Do you agree with that?

Randy: No. Classical music is classical fuckin' music. If heavy metal guys want to use strings or whatever, there're just using an aspect of it. That's a ridiculous comment. No, heavy metal is not the new goddamned classical music. People who do heavy metal — most of them — have no clue of the in-depth that compose a piece of classical music. If you write classical music, you have to write parts for thirty, fourty different instruments, depending on how big the orchestra is. Heavy metal definitely has a high skill level involved, much more so than your average pop song, but it's nowhere near the skill and force that's required to write a full orchestration piece of classical music. But I don't know metalheads that think heavy metal is the new classical music… Whatever. You know, there's a few, but most of the metalheads I know are proud of what they are, like , "Yeah, I dig it. It's fuckin' heavy metal," you know?

Radio Metal: During your 2012 world tour, you will shoot a film documenting fans and their personal sories of how they use the band's music to cope with their everyday lives. How did you get this idea?

Randy: That's management, and that's really too early to talk about that right now. That was our manager's idea, but I don't know exactly how it's gonna work out and how they're filming and what they're giving the people for right now, the film crew and places and ideas. But really, that was our management idea. Our job is just to go out and tour, and we'll see what happens.

Radio Metal: Do you think that LAMB OF GOD's music has an impact on people's everyday lives more than other bands?

Randy: I don't know. I certainly wouldn't claim that. I'm dealing with my band, not other people's bands, so I'm not gonna be involved in a project that's says, OK how listening to RUSH or BLACK SABBATH or whatever affect your everyday life?" We're dealing with our band. No, I don't know, man. I don't know everybody. I don't know how other bands impact people's lives. I only know how my band affects some people's lives, because they tell me.

Read the entire interview from Radio Metal.