LAMB OF GOD Frontman On Record Sales, Mercenaries And Songwriting

Patrick Slevin of The Aquarian recently conducted an interview with vocalist Randy Blythe of Richmond, Virginia metallers LAMB OF GOD. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Aquarian: "Sacrament" sold about 65,000 copies in the first week four years ago when, relatively, the record industry was healthy. "Wrath" has beaten that number with even less people buying records in the middle of a recession. Is that a validating feeling?

Randy: To me, it's a testament to the loyalty of metal fans, you know. It's a testament to the hard work we've put in over the years on the road. As far as looking for validation from numbers and all that stuff, I don't really care. Some of the guys are like, "Oh, we charted number two!" I think that's pretty cool and all only because we beat out a Disney band. I don't really care about sales. But as I said, it is a testament to the loyalty of metal fans, they actually give a fuck about their bands and buy records and so forth. With the economy the way it is and the fact that the industry is in such a slump, it's pretty cool I suppose.

The Aquarian: Lyrically, you've always worked with a lot of moral grey area, and "Contractor" is the song that sticks out to me in that respect.

Randy: I have these weird things, these tics I like to go off on, little tangents I become very interested in. For a while, during the writing of this record, I became interested in mercenaries, historically, back to the 1700s even. I started researching them, not thinking that it would turn into a song, but it was just something I was interested in. Particularly when I got to the '60s and '70s in Africa, there were a lot of mercenary actions there. And I realize that now looking at the situation in the Middle East where we have mercenaries still, but they aren't the traditional romantic image of these small groups of dudes who are hired and go out and do a dirty job for money. It's corporate now, with companies like Blackwater and so forth. It interested me a lot, the fact that killing someone else for money, much like everything else, has stepped from being a private gig to a corporate gig. Being a contract killer is a corporate gig now, and that struck me as kind of ironic. Mercenaries have always had this persona of being these outsiders, but you can go online now and they [Blackwater] list their training courses and so forth, and you can become a corporate killer, and the employer is the United States government. There are dudes over there doing jobs that the government, up until now, didn't want to be held accountable. But if they're using privatized military corporations they can be like, "Oh, this is a civilian contractor. They don't have to follow the rules of engagement." Some of that made it into the news, some of those cowboy antics over in the Middle East. It fascinates me. And that song is written from the view of a contractor over there in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. It was a lot of fun to write.

The Aquarian: There's a couple of levels there, especially that many of the contractors are veterans who are getting paid twice as much as the guys who are working directly from the government.

Randy: Yeah, and it's also a statement on how our government takes care of our veterans, which is fairly fucked up. I'm not in any way or shape a pacifist and I don't believe we should exist without a military, I believe that a military is necessary in today's world. I think it's fucked that these guys are trained to go over there and when they're done — all these ads you see on TV, "Army: Be All You Can Be" — I've talked to a lot of veterans and it's a bitch getting their VA benefits and stuff. It's a bitch making a living. With the economy the way it is, you aren't automatically guaranteed a job. Naturally, for some of these guys who have been over there and seen action, the logical thing to do to make money is to go back there and get paid from a private corporation. I think that says something about the way our government takes care of its veterans which is pretty sad in and of itself.

The Aquarian: Regarding the writing process, as I recall, with LAMB OF GOD, it was always instruments laid down first, vocals second. Has that changed?

Randy: Nope. I think really that's every band. You lay down instruments first. I don't think anybody does a cappella versions of songs and then works under them. I'm not a guitar player. Mark [Morton, guitar] writes some lyrics with his guitar parts because he's able to do that. I write away from the band, since I'm not capable of producing a riff if you paid me. So I write separately and then we come in and put it together.

The Aquarian: Do you ever want to change that paradigm? The band originally started as an instrumental act, and I'm never going to get the idea that LAMB OF GOD is going to write three disc epic prog albums or anything like that, but does the idea of trying to change things or get out of your element in the process appeal to you?

Randy: For me, you know, watching them write a record is a very painful process. Let's get that straight first of all. They like it when I come around to the practice space while they're writing, and I'll sit there outside and I'll listen to them play the same riff for two hours with a sixteenth note variation. At the end, they'll say "What do you think?" and I'll say, "I don't fucking know, it all sounds the same to me." They're changing things in such a subtly nuanced way that it's almost impossible for me to pick up. Especially when you've been hammered with it again and again and again. They're pretty meticulous. Sometimes if there's a major question like a riff or progression of where something's going to go, I'll certainly give my opinion. But most of the time it's me sitting there watching the paint peel while they play the same riff for two hours over and over again. That's just the nature of the beast. So unless the dudes in the band shifted their work mode into a manner in which I felt that I could understand what they're doing…. I don't know. As it is, I like writing alone. I enjoy being alone while I write. I don't want to write around those dudes. I see them enough, you know. That's when stuff comes out of my head. I don't like being around anyone while I write. They do their thing together, creatively, and I do my thing separately. Sometimes Mark and I will work on a song together, and that's a little bit different. We have a really good relationship and we work well together and bounce things off of each other. But as far as all five of us coming together and writing something, it's enough of a clusterfuck as it is without throwing my dumb ass into the mix. So I don't see that changing in any way and I don't really see the need for it to change.

Read the entire interview from The Aquarian.