LAMB OF GOD's JOHN CAMPBELL: 'It Made Perfect Sense' For CHRIS ADLER To Play With MEGADETH

Levi Seth Buckley of Sticks For Stones recently conducted an interview with bassist John Campbell of Richmond, Virginia metallers LAMB OF GOD. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On whether he was worried about how the track "Overlord" from LAMB OF GOD's new album, "VII: Sturm Und Drang" — the band's first song to feature frontman Randy Blythe's "clean" vocals — would be received by the LAMB OF GOD fans:

John: "That was a surprise for me, because the vocals tend to be the last thing that gets put on the music. I remember [producer] Josh Wilbur when he was about to play 'Overlord' for me, he sat me down and said, 'I'm going to tell you something: Randy sings on this one,' and I was, like, 'Wait, he does what?' Then he hit 'play,' and it was incredibly badass. I wouldn't have expected it. Was I worried? Or were we worried about what fans would think about the track? No. 'Worried' is completely the wrong word. When that song got released, it was exciting to see all the reactions. The people that were bummed were the funniest reactions for that song. I read that a guy said the first three minutes of that song made him want to take a fillet knife and cut the LAMB OF GOD tattoo off of his arm. That's entertaining to me, though; that's hilarious. That's great that we had that big of an effect on that guy twice — he was ready to commit himself for life with a tattoo, and that one three minutes of music that we crafted totally bummed him out that hard. Believe me, we're older gentlemen who are confident and are probably somewhat self-absorbed; it doesn't matter what anyone's got to say about us. We know we are good-looking and badass motherfuckers."

On LAMB OF GOD drummer Chris Adler playing with MEGADETH:

John: When it came up… We've all known each other for a long time, and it occurred to me that, in some weird way, Chris has been working his was his entire life to play drums in MEGADETH. That band has motivated him, inspired him from the beginning to play heavy metal, to play bass guitar and drums, and when that opportunity came up, it made perfect sense. I was, like, 'You absolutely should do this. It would be ridiculous not to.' For him to be able to do this is a really cool thing. I couldn't imagine standing in the way of Chris being able to do that. Even if it meant the end of LAMB OF GOD, that's just what it is. He knows how to play drums and he's an amazing drummer, so why not?"

As previously reported, LAMB OF GOD will be the musical guests on the Thursday, August 27 episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" The band will perform several songs on the show's outdoor stage in front of a standing-room-only crowd.

"VII: Sturm Und Drang" was released on July 24 via Epic in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast Entertainment in all territories outside of North America. The CD was once again produced and mixed by Josh Wilbur with engineering by Wilbur, Nick Rowe and Kyle McAulay, and was recorded at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, California and Suburban Soul Studios in Torrance, California.