LAMB OF GOD Frontman: 'We're Perfectionists At Our Music'

Simon Milburn of Australia's The Metal Forge webzine recently conducted an interview with LAMB OF GOD vocalist Randy Blythe. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On the reason for the band's commercial success:

"I think one, is that we work really hard at what we do. We're perfectionists at our music. We don't want to put out anything sloppy or not well thought out. The other thing is that I think that we're just a brutally honest band about who we are and what we do. We don't change for anything or anyone and people seem to respect that I think y'know, that you're doing exactly what you want to do."

On whether the band's success is placing any additional pressure on the band when it comes time to write an album:

"Not really because we always put an intense amount of pressure on ourselves. We're very self critical as a band. We love the band and it's great that we can make a living from this, and y'know, critical acclaim or whatever is cool and it's flattering, but primarily, we make music because we like it. We want to make music that we would want to go out and buy and listen to that we can be proud of. That's really the big impetus for us to do this, and as long as we're happy with what we produce, it doesn't really matter to us what anybody else thinks."

On the band's writing process:

"Sometimes the two guitar players will bring in a riff and they'll play off each other, and everybody will listen to it and it'll develop kind of organically. Sometimes, somebody will bring in a complete song. It just depends on what's going on. The music is generally finished first… well it's always finished first … and then I start laying vocals onto it. This time they seemed to pay a little bit more conscious effort to leaving room for vocals and really take the arrangements where the vocals go. Over the years, it's been a constant learning process for us as a band. They're all kind of used to being together as a part of the creating process and then there's me on the outside who kind of comes in. This time, they saw it, I think, a little bit more about where I would fit in, and so that's nice, y'know?"

On the band's decision to work with producer Machine (STATIC-X, BLOODSIMPLE) again:

"He's super-energetic and he has a good ear and he's kind of an outside the box producer for metal bands. He's not really a metal producer which is one reason why we chose him. There's a lot of great metal producers out there but they're going to deliver a signature sound and you can be like 'Oh, this is a so-and-so record.' With him, it tended to give us a little bit of a wild card approach and I really like that about it. We all did. We wanted to stand out a little bit and that aspect of him certainly lead us to him the first time and choosing to work with him again."

On his own progression as a vocalist:

"Well, I guess just expand my range as a vocalist. When I started signing in metal bands, basically I was doing pretty much straight cookie monster death metal growls. That's what I started with. I guess over the years, trying to learn how to control my throat. My guitarist, Mark (Morton),calls them my characters, like different types of voices. So with each record, I try to bring a different type of character, y'know? So there's all these crazy different voices that I can do, and on this one, we brought out some different characters that we hadn't used previously and we're all pleased with it."

On his expectations for "Sacrament":

"Of course I hope it does well. But the reality is though, that I like the record. I'm proud of it. I think we did a good job and that's all that really matters to me. I'm satisfied already. It doesn't even have to be out. It just has to be done in my mind. So my expectations are already fulfilled. I just wanted to make a good record. I don't care about reviews or what the critics think or even the fans really because we write music for ourselves. And as I said before, my job is done. I made the record. I'm satisfied."

Read the entire interview at www.themetalforge.com.