With the release of their 4th full-length CD: SACRAMENT, Lamb Of God have cemented their reputation as one of the front runners of the current US metal resurgence.

 Sacrament is an un-relenting assault of thrashed out riffing & aggressive vocals. The band toured through the summer with Slayer on the Unholy Alliance tour & without missing a beat jumped onto Megadeth’s Gigantour festival.

METAL HELL: How would you compare Gigantour to other tours like Unholy Alliance?

WILLIE ADLER: It’s one of those things where it’s like after getting off the Unholy Alliance & growing up on Slayer & then jumping on this; it’s cool to be with the dudes that you grew up on, from Slayer to Megadeth.

MH: What’s your favorite Megadeth album?

WA: I would guess it’d be Rust In Peace.

MH: Did you experiment much with guitars & amps for the recording of Sacrament?

WA:  It took a while to get to the point we found. We definitely went through a couple of different amps & ended up running through a Mesa Mark 4, a Mesa Stiletto & occasionally an Orange.

MH: Is your live set up much different?

WA: The live set up is strictly the Mark 4 (head). No real effects, just a compressor gate & a hush unit & that’s pretty much it.

MH: What do you practice on to keep up your technique?

WA: It’s great that I’m around a lot of these players & I’m learning a whole lot from ‘em, particularly Dave Linsk from Overkill, who’s a complete shredder. I’ve sat down with him numerous times & he’s showing me all kinds of licks. I’ve never really been a solo guy. I can riff all day long & I can write tunes all the time, so it’s cool to be around some of these guys that are just total shredders who can give me some pointers. Dave is fuckin’ out of this world.

MH: Do you prefer writing leads that are more melodic or do you go for improvised solos more?

WA: Because I’m not that familiar with doing a lot of lead work it takes me like months in advance to figure out what I’m doing up there. I’m just touching the waters on that kind of thing. I’ll riff all day long but that kind of thing is still new to me so it takes me a while to get something down where I’m happy with it.

MH: With Ashes how did it feel to go from 2nd stage at Ozzfest to headlining your own festival the next summer, what would you attribute what the band was able to accomplish in 2005?

WA: It’s hard to say what I could attribute to that. It was definitely a process of now we’ve got to really step it up. We’re in a headlining position above all of these great bands & we need to showcase the fact that we can do this & headline this big festival. It took a little time to actually get our wits about us & become that headlining band.  So I guess it’s just from years of touring & dedication for what we do & dedication to the fans who come out to support us, to put on such a great show & a headlining show at that.

MH: Was it intentional to have more grooves on Sacrament?

WA: I don’t know that it was necessarily intentional, I know that this time around we definitely wanted to serve the songs more-so than ‘that’s my riff, we gotta have it in there’. We wanted to have these songs be structured & have the songs serve themselves and be songs & be what they are.

MH: When you’re recording does music you’re listening to have any effect on the outcome?

WA: Yeah, I mean I’m sure. In doing this I don’t necessarily listen to a lot of metal, just cause I’m bombarded with it every day & I play it every day & I hear so much of it so the last thing I wanna do is get off stage & listen to metal, so I don’t really spend a whole lot of time listening to music. There’s one band in particular right now that I can’t stop listening to & it’s Gojira from France, they’re amazing.

MH: Does everyone write separately at first?

WA: It usually starts with myself & Mark. I’ll sit at my house & put riffs together or come up with whole songs & Mark will do the same thing & then we’ll bring ‘em in & show each other & then Chris gets his hands on it & puts the drums behind it & then John will learn what we’re doing & then Randy’s usually late to the table & comes in at the end & lays down his thing.

MH: Do you ever suggest certain beats?

WA: Yeah, definitely, not to say that he listens to that all the time, but what he comes up with is probably way cooler than what I could.

MH: Were any songs left over that didn’t make the record?

WA: Yeah, we had a total of 15 & narrowed it down to 11 so there’s 4 songs that got cut.

MH: Is there any chance of those coming out?

WA: I guess there’s always a chance of that, we’ll just have to wait and see.

MH: Are you changing your set night to night?

WA: No, not from night to night. It’s one of those things where once you get in the groove of a set it becomes much more fluid. It becomes easier to do every night if you keep it consistent & the same. I could see the fun in changing it up a little bit but at the same time. It’s something where the show gets better & better if you keep it consistent.

MH: Do you prefer to headline or open for bands like Megadeth where you play & then watch them?

WA: It’s cool to headline & be the big dogs on the tour, but it is fun to be able to get done with what you’re doing & go check whomever out that’s playing after you & still have time to hang out. Whereas if you headline when you get done & get out of the shower & nobody’s there hanging out any more, the party is over.

MH: Especially with Megadeth breaking out “Set The World Afire” & “Take No Prisoners.”

WA: Yeah, it’s great. And they just recently started putting “Mechanix” back in the set.

MH: Were you always aware that there wasn’t much money to be made in metal music?

WA: I never imagined that we would make a living off of it. So to begin with my expectations weren’t very high, so now to think that I was able to quit my day job & do all that it’s definitely something that dumbfounded me at first. But I’m appreciative of everything that we get, knowing that it could end any time. Back in the beginning I did not having any kind of expectations to make anything off this & to just have fun and make music.

MH: Do you think the fact that you worked so hard for it that it keeps you grounded more?

WA: Absolutely, not to mention that we have great families back home & a real great support system.

MH: Do you think progressing too much can be bad for metal bands?

WA: Changing too much? It depends. I would imagine nobody would want to write the same record twice. You’ve got to have that natural growth & dynamic growth between band members & as a collective unit. In my book change is great, because it signifies growth. As far as changing to write singles or to make money off of it that’s a whole different ballpark and I’m not a big fan of that.

MH: Some bands record too fast & it ‘s the same.

WA: Yeah, not to name names too much but with Hatebreed it seems like they keep putting the same record out again & again.

MH: What’s next after Gigantour?

WA: After this tour we’re home & in a week or so we fly to Japan to do the Rock Hard Festival, then we fly to Australia to do a string of shows there & then we fly to Milan to join back up with Slayer for the Unholy Alliance in Europe & then we’re home for Thanksgiving & we’ll be home for a while & come mid February we’ll go out on a headlining run.

MH: Are there plans for a 2nd video or a new DVD?

WA: I’m sure there is. We don’t have anything written down in stone on what we’re gonna do so everything’s still tentative but we have DVD plans for the future & I’m sure there’s gonna be more videos to come along.

MH: Which new songs are you doing live?

WA: We’re doing “Again We Rise”, “Walk With Me In Hell”, “Pathetic”, “Blacken The Cursed Sun” & “Redneck.”

MH: Do you think the new songs take on a life of their own in a live context?

WA: Yeah definitely, any song does. There’s a different feel going on with a live show as opposed to listening to the CD, so every song be it new or old takes on an entity of its own.

MH: Any closing message for your fans?

WA: Just that I totally appreciate you guys taking the time to cover us & I appreciate the fans more-so than anybody else because they’re the ones that put us here. I just wanna say thank you & just keep on rocking with us.

 

 * Joe D./MH '06