LAMB OF GOD Bassist: 'When You're Onstage, You're The Baddest Band In The World'

Andrew Magnotta of The Aquarian Weekly recently conducted an interview with bassist John Campbell of Richmond, Virginia metallers LAMB OF GOD. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Aquarian Weekly: What's your headspace as far as the new album goes?

Campbell: We're very excited. It's like two and a half, three weeks now 'till it comes out. I feel strongly about this record. The cliché thing for a band dude to say is that it's the greatest thing that they've done and that they love the record, but this is actually true in this case. We're kind of just enjoying the last few moments at home that we've had off the road since ending touring back in November of 2010, so, a pretty chaotic headspace, to be honest. But exciting, and we're getting ready to fire up the touring machine.

The Aquarian Weekly: You've haven't toured since 2010?

Campbell: We finished touring in November of 2010. That was in Australia with METALLICA. [We] came home for the holidays and had some time off with our families and then we started working on "Resolution". That was a good five, six months of pretty straightforward work. We played one show this past year in Canada; we played a festival. That's been the one show we've played, and we've got one coming up here in Richmond, Virginia.

The Aquarian Weekly: How did these songs come together?

Campbell: This time was actually different from how we've done anything in the past. The songs had started to be written when we were on the road touring, with [guitarist] Mark Morton on his laptop demoing stuff. When we got back home in November, Willie [Adler, guitarist] started demoing stuff. And when we met in the rehearsal space with Josh [Wilbur], the producer, we had a ton of tracks to start plowing through to fine-tune, craft and trim the fat off of to make "Resolution".

The Aquarian Weekly: Why did you decide to call it "Resolution"?

Campbell: Well, because we argued quite a bit about what the record should be titled, and when the dust settled, "Resolution" was what the record was called. It's not just a random word, and it can mean a lot of things, which I think is what makes it a great title. If you look at the cover of the record, there's a mass of burning wreckage and a burning plane. You can imagine that this wreckage is some sort of resolution. "Resolution" could also be just having the fortitude to just carry forward on whatever path you've chosen and on whatever endeavors you've chosen.

The Aquarian Weekly: Will there be another documentary to accompany Resolution?

Campbell: I absolutely love those DVDs and have been very vocal about the fact that we should continue that. But what's happening with this run is that there's a documentary being produced that involves us — mostly our music and the affect that it has to people around the world who are in an oppressive [situation] or a situation that is tough to deal with and how LAMB OF GOD's music helps them in their situation, or what it means to them. And that's going to be filming as we tour around the world, but it's going to be mostly dealing with the fans, with the people and less to do with us.

The Aquarian Weekly: You've talked a lot about being competitive as performers; do you still feel that way?

Campbell: Absolutely! Yeah, from every moment that we're onstage that's kind of part of the character that we take on when we becoming LAMB OF GOD up onstage. DETHKLOK kind of mocks the idea, but when you're onstage, you're the fucking baddest band in the world. And if you're not, what the fuck are you doing onstage? For us, we've worked really hard writing songs that we feel are great songs, that we can perform and blow people away with. And we've made a career of doing that.

Read the entire interview from The Aquarian Weekly.