Lamb of God Biography

Lamb of God is a five-piece heavy metal band from Richmond, Virginia, formerly known as Burn the Priest.

The roots of Lamb of God were planted in 1990 when Mark Morton, Chris Adler and John Campbell were floor mates at Virginia Commonwealth University. After graduation, Morton moved to Chicago to pursue a master's degree, but the band continued. A new guitarist, Abe Spear, was found. Randy Blythe was added on vocals when the band decided to move past its instrumental sound. At this point in their career, they were known as Burn the Priest. Morton re-joined the group and Burn the Priest released a self-titled full length album soon after. Abe left the band in 1999 after admitting himself to a rehabilitation center outside of Williamsburg, Virgina. This opened a place for Chris Adler's brother, Willie Adler.

Their lyrical themes tend to cover religion, pain, misery, politics, heresy as well as other often personal topics.

"We play music that straddles the line between prog and traditional rock," explains Campbell. "I think we make prog-rock more listenable without cheapening the progressiveness of it. The complexity of our music appeals to people who like technical playing, but the arrangements are not so extreme that they fly over the average listener's head. It's a good balance." (taken from www.lamb-of-god.com).

After two well received releases and a DVD (Terror and Hubris) on Prosthetic Records, the band signed a new recording contract with Epic Records in late 2003. Their first release for the label, "Ashes Of The Wake", debuted at No.27 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and has sold over 250,000 copies in the U.S. to date [1].

On August 29, 2005, the band announced that their DVD, "Killadelphia", which chronicles the band on tour supporting their album "Ashes of the Wake", had received Gold certification from the RIAA. The DVD features a complete live performance at the Trocadero on October 2004 in Philadelphia, and also contains three of their music videos, commentary by the band, outtakes, soundchecks, and plenty of backstage shenanigans.

On January 25, 2006, a press release announced the rerelease of Lamb of God's debut album, New American Gospel. The original, along with the self titled debut Burn the Priest, were both produced by Steve Austin, known for his work with Today Is the Day, Converge and Unsane. The re-release will be remastered and repackaged with four new tracks, exclusive liner notes from the band and a re-imaging of the album art by longtime band collaborator Ken Adams. The album was rereleased on April 4, 2006.

Lamb of God is also part of a tour titled "Gigantour." The line-up includes Megadeth, Lamb of God, Arch Enemy, Overkill, and Opeth. The tour will take place throughout 2006.

Their newest album Sacrament met with immediate success, debuting at #8 on the U.S. Billboard charts.

Lamb Of God Toured with Unearth in 2006 in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne with I Killed the Prom Queen, Unearth and Killswitch Engage.

After the release of Sacrament, the band took part in the 2006 The Unholy Alliance tour in North America and Europe with Slayer, Mastodon, In Flames, Children of Bodom and Thine Eyes Bleed.

Lamb of God's song "Laid to Rest" will be featured in Guitar Hero II. Lamb of God's song "Black Label" is featured in Tony Hawk's Underground 2