Lamb of God

Influences:
 * Pantera, Slayer, Napalm Death, Eyehategod, Sepultura Trouble, Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lamb of God, not to be confused with the nickname of that really famous guy with the beard, is a five-piece metal band from Richmond, Virginia. They are considered the main band of the "New Wave of American Heavy Metal", which technically makes them the contemporary version of Iron Maiden.

The band's current membership consists of vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler, drummer Chris Adler, and bassist John Campbell. They formed in 1990 as an instrumental band named Burn the Priest, later adding vocalist Blythe. Their debut album was the self-titled Burn the Priest in 1998, which is now not technically self-titled because... yeah. Shortly afterwards, they changed their name to "Lamb of God" because loads of people thought that "Burn the Priest" was too evil.

Since then, they have released six more studio albums: New American Gospel (2000), As the Palaces Burn (2003), Ashes of the Wake (2004), Sacrament (2006), Wrath (2009), and Resolution (2012).

"Mark: I love Randy like a brother, but that doesn't mean we don't have our problems. So if I have to be the one to say something, then I will... And if that means someone's going to have to sing a lyric about themselves, then they're gonna sing a lyric about themselves."
 * Album Title Drop—A strange case. Ashes of the Wake - the album - has its title track, however the song is mainly an instrumental with some talking bits. No use of the words 'ashes of the wake'. "Hourglass", on the same album, does have the lyrics 'ashes of the wake', however.
 * Black Sheep Hit—Possibly "Laid to Rest".
 * Christian Rock—Subverted, hard, because they're not a Christian rock band despite the name. Also, see "Gannon Banned". The video for "Redneck" screws with this when a mother asks the band to play a child's birthday party. Guess what happens...
 * Concept Album—Some have claimed Ashes of the Wake is a concept album due to its recurring references to the Second Gulf War.
 * Death Metal—Some of their early albums qualifies as death metal, if The Other Wiki is to be believed.
 * Every Episode Ending—Every concert finishes with "Black Label", and the infamous Wall of Death in the mosh pit.
 * Humans Are the Real Monsters - Just read Randy's section of the special thanks in the lyric book for Sacrament.
 * Groove Metal
 * Indecipherable Lyrics—Quite a fair bit of the time. But especially so with "Black Label".
 * Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition: The 2010 anthology Hourglass comes in 5 versions: a 3-CD set, a US$100 set with all 6 studio albums on USB drives, a US$120 set with all 6 albums on vinyl, a US$260 set with the vinyl albums, USB drives, the 3-CD set, and an art book. And for the truly devoted insane, there's a US$1000 set with the vinyl albums, USB drives, 3-CD set, the art book, an autographed 8x10 picture, an "Hourglass" sticker, a 4-foot by 6-foot cloth flag...and a Jackson Signature Series Mark Morton guitar.
 * Metalcore—They have been strongly associated with the genre in the past, and their prominent use of breakdowns should be noted here; but Your Mileage May Vary as to whether they actually count as a metalcore band. However, there are many non-metalcore bands that use breakdowns (Pantera, Slayer, Sepultura, Behemoth), and metalcore itself is not that breakdown-oriented (being a trait that was flanderised when Deathcore came along), frequently having guitar solos as well as breakdowns.
 * Metal Scream—The general vocal style is a type 3, though it's not so much a scream as... well, who the fuck knows. A growl? A shout? What the fuck is it? The fact that Randy can actually put some musical pitch into it doesn't help the discussion. With that said, he does occasionally use actual screams alongside the growl/shout/whatever.
 * Averted completely, finally, Randy having several tracks where he spoke but never sang, with Insurrection off Resolution. The song opens with clean vocals before the growl-scream starts.
 * Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness - Most of the time, either a hard 8 or a soft 9.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown—As seen in the footage of the Killadelphia DVD, Randy and Mark got into a fight due to Randy being a drunken asshole, and Mark beat the shit out of Randy. They both agreed later on that it was probably better that they just went ahead and punched each other and got it out of their systems rather than walk around bitter at each other.
 * Non-Appearing Title—As stated above, the song "Ashes of the Wake" does not mention the title.
 * Protest Song—A few of the tracks off Ashes of the Wake, particularly the title track (which has the distinction of being the only protest instrumental ever).
 * Self-Titled Album—Technically "Burn the Priest".
 * Spoken Word in Music—When there's no growling/screaming/whatever.
 * "Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man..."
 * Take That -- "Redneck" towards Randy.


 * Wizard Beard—Bassist John Campbell has one of these; while he's not the oldest member of the band (that would be Randy), it's going grey a lot faster than his hair, and he started letting it grow much longer during the Wrath tour.