Interview - Lamb Of God
10/15/04
Sam finds Mark Morton from Lamb Of God
Sam: I noticed
some of the lyrics on the new album are pretty political,
what are you guys thinking as the election is looming
in front of us?
Mark Morton: "I think we're probably each
thinking about it in different ways, I mean, there's no
sort of group identity politically. People seem to be
interpreting it that way, or people who are paying attention
anyway, and that's cool, but I mean, it's just basically
Randy and I write lyrics and we just write about what's
on our mind, and it's not like we're telling anybody to go
vote for one guy or the other. It's just something we're
thinking about. It's bumming alot of people out, it's
getting alot of people excited, you know, some people
who disagree are like going bad on it. It's like whatever,
go write your own record you know? We didn't write it
for anyone else, we wrote it for us. But, you know,
we'll be anxiously anticipating the results like the
rest of the country and the world."
Sam: Did it surprise you guys that
the album debuted in the top 200?
MM: "It debuted in the top 30, so
yeah, it debuted at #27 on Billboard, so, yeah, and it
stayed in the top 200 for...I think it might still be
in the top 200 I'm not sure. To be to playing the
kind of music we're playing and to have that kind of
commercial response...it's odd but exciting."
Sam: You think Headbanger's Ball
coming back and that show Urinum help in any way?
MM: "Absolutely, I think that all
that, Revolver changing their format to start covering
heavy music, and Headbanger's, and Uranium, and bigger
labels having the guts to take a chance on something
that's not nesessarily proven ground, you know? All of
those elements combined make the resurgence of thrash
metal here. It's honest right now, it's happening."
Sam: How is that big label thing
working out for you guys?
MM: "Real good, real good"
Sam: That's good to hear, you don't
hear that often
MM: "So far so good, yeah I've heard
all the horror stories, but it's been nothing but good
for us since it started so..."
Sam: How's the tour been going so
far?
MM: "We're just getting started, but
it's been great. I think the bill is set up in such a
way each band is bringing kind of a different group
to the shows, and it's making for really big turnouts.
I think the bands are so good at what they're doing
individually that I think it's a real good heavy
metal show."
Sam: Are you guys gonna keep
touring for a long time and then write a new album,
or are you going right back into the studio?
MM: "I'm hoping to work this one
a little longer than we did 'Palaces' I mean, I think
the touring schedule for 'As The Palaces Burn' was a
bit abbreviated because of the new record deal. Epic
didn't really want to wait 2 years for us to put out
a record after signing with them. I think 'Ashes Of
The Wake' is a strong record, it's our best record,
and we really want to tour to support it, so I think
we'll be on the road for a little bit."
Sam: You guys are filming a DVD?
MM: "We are, we start filming
tomorrow, we're doing 2 shows in a row at the Troc in
Philly, and we're going to film 'um both and edit it
into one show. We're going to take the best bits of
each show and put it together into one, pretty exciting."
Sam: Is it just going to be live,
or are you guys going to include videos?
MM: "You know what? We're still trying
to figure all that out, it's kind of come up pretty
quick, but it's gonna be a whole live show, that's what
the DVD is going to be based on, it's like, that's going
to be the feature of the DVD, the live show. But, there's
going to be lots of behind the scenes sillyness, and
Ozzfest drunkeness and that kind of stuff, so we'll
see what happens. We've got so many hours and hours
of footage of us, we film everything, I'm surprised
there's not a camera rollin' up there right now. We've
got a DVD camera, we film everything all the time, so
there's alot of boring tapes of stuff, but then there's
you know, a couple awesome moments on each one of those
so, we'll just search through them and find the funny
stuff, throw it in there."