I haven’t really been on board with Lamb of God actively since As the Palaces Burn. I’ve kept up with them, but after a few spins (especially with their last two albums), I’ve been disinterested. The familiar Lamb of God sound is there, but the appeal isn’t. It’s not bad music, just sort of… existent. And for a band often hailed as one of the torchbearers of modern metal, that’s not enough. True, they aren’t the same scrappy bunch of Southern longhairs that made the weird, dark groove metal of New American Gospel – nor should they be — but for me, that didn’t excuse reasonably inoffensive metal on cruise control. But after a while, I recognized that it could simply be me and my relationship with LoG fandom, and chocked it up to a “no offense, but this isn’t for me anymore” frame of mind.

Regularly, here is where I would say, “But Lamb of God’s latest, Resolution, restores my faith in their ability to slay motherfuckers like a hybrid of Ted Bundy and Genghis Kahn,” or something less caffeinated and hackneyed. But I’m stopping short of that, because there’s still that slickness Lamb of God added around the time of Ashes of the Wake that doesn’t sit well with me. That being said, this is the first album where I feel like they’re comfortable in their role as a well-funded major label act. Sure, the production is slick, and there are a few bizarro-radio singles here, but more importantly, the music sticks while still being thoroughly Lamb of God. The songwriting may be a little more streamlined, but there’s also more underneath it than there had been as of late. Perhaps Resolution is not the bridge upon which old and new LoG fans can high-five eachother — if such a thing is even in the cards — but a little more of a warm welcome than I’ve come to expect from them.

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Chris Adler is a man that needs no introduction.  He’s revered worldwide for his skills behind the drum kit and his band-Lamb of God-is absolutely one of the biggest metal bands in America today.  You’d think after becoming so renowned as a drummer and having his band take part in such huge events (world tour as direct support for Metallica anyone?!) he’d take it easy and just rest on his laurels.  That’s completely the opposite of the truth.

Chris continues to work harder than ever to this day to not only refine his craft but to also keep up with what’s going on in the metal world today.  Chris was gracious enough to spend some time with me where we discussed everything from his decision to switch from bass to drums, all the way to the details on his drum clinics, as well as his thoughts on Bandhappy.com.  

Check it out and troll away in the comments section.  For more info on Chris Adler and all his current actives be sure to check out his website by clicking here.  

-Justin Gosnell

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(BTBAM photo credit: Andrew Lipovsky)

Here’s a fun little tidbit to get the metalsphere salivating this afternoon: The Number of the Blog is reporting that MetalSucks-fave multi-instrumentalist Keith Merrow is teaming up with Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler and Between the Buried and Me axeman Paul Waggoner on a new side project. I contacted Keith this morning for comment, and here’s what he had to say about it:

As of right now, it’s a very casual collaboration. We have 3 or 4 song ideas we’ve tossed around over the past few months, and they are all really cool. Very different from any music you’d hear from each of us, individually. All of us are pretty busy these days, but this is a collaboration that we are all really excited about!

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The usual problems a band must endure from its drummer include tardiness, unfamiliarity with new material, no memory of old material, bringing their gf/driver everywhere, selling gear for food, non-ownership of drumsticks, car trouble, body odor, shortness, loss of one or more shoes, delirium, etc. But some drummer-issues can’t be predicted; for example, completion of the new Testament record has been delayed by drummer Paul Bostaph’s undisclosed injury. Singer Chuck Billy kinda explained Sunday in a radio interview:

Paul Bostaph is injured right now, so he couldn’t [work on] the record. We kind of put the record off a little while waiting for Paul. [Then] we found out he was not gonna be ready, so we brought on Gene Hoglan. Hoglan came in and crushed, killed the drums in about a week.

Awesome! Billy goes on to reveal the new album’s title, its other guest drummer, and the face-fuckingly awesome tour to be announced:

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So, technically, this is a picture of Gene Hoglan with Testament…

I have good news and I have bad news.

The bad news is, Paul Bostaph, who’s a great drummer, is injured, and therefore won’t be able to appear on the new Testament record. That’s a bummer. Hopefully Bostaph’s ailment won’t keep him away from the kid for long, ’cause like I said, dude can plan.

The good news is, Testament have recruited Gene Hoglan and Chris Adler to take his place, and those dudes can certainly play, too.

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There’s a bunch of new shit streaming right now that I think may be worth your time, even if I don’t love of all it… if that makes sense. Anyways, rather than do a bunch of separate posts, I’m just collecting it all here, because I’m lazy like that. And so…

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You know we’re teaming up with our bestest buds at Metal Injection and 1000Knives to put on a showcase at this year’s CMJ Music Marathon, right? It’s on Wednesday, October 20th at Club Europa in Brooklyn, and it’s gonna be one of the best shows of the year. WE SHIT YOU NOT. Which is why we’re not surprised that you’ve already bought a ticket. And if you didn’t, well, please allow us to give you five awesome reasons why you should:

1) IT’S A LIFE ONCE LOST’S FIRST NYC SHOW IN A YEAR AND A HALF. A Life Once Lost put on an absolutely KILLER show; we’ve seen them play festivals, we’ve seen them play basements, we’ve seen them play clubs and we’ve seen them play theaters, and they have never, ever done anything less than rip our faces off, eat those faces, shit out those faces, and then affix that shit on our skulls where our faces used to go. It’s been way, way too long since they played our neck of the woods, and the venue is so scared for its own well-being that they’re enlisting some Expendables-type soldiers of fortune to work security. Seriously.

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As a writer for MetalSucks, I find it pretty shocking that there are pretty much no mentions at all of Ron Jarzombek. Many of you probably don’t even know who he is. So I feel that it’s my duty to enlighten those who don’t. You may have heard of Blotted Science, the supergroup composed of Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse on bass, Chris Adler from Lamb of God on drums (who was later replaced by Charlie Zeleny of Behold…the Arctopus), and Ron Jarzombek on guitar. They’ve only released one album, The Machinations of Dementia, but it received a lot of praise and the band has said that they’re in the process of writing another album. But even though Blotted Science is the least prolific of Jarzombek’s projects, it’s the most well-known and the most recent.

Jarzombek has been making insane shred-tastic metal albums as a solo artist as well as in the bands Spastic Ink and Watchtower (among others) since 1987. He’s guested on albums by Obscura, Jeff Loomis, and Gordian Knot. Yet still, people don’t know about him. This has to change. Just watch some of the videos below if you don’t believe me – I’ve provided a few from his various projects.

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The first time I ever heard This or the Apocalypse, I wasn’t really into them. Then I found out that Chris Adler was producing their new album, Haunt What’s Left, and I was like, “Okay, well. If Chris Adler likes ‘em, I’d best give ‘em another chance.” I’m a Chris Adler fan, man. I even used his name as an example of the best seasoned veterans in metal earlier today.

Well, Mr. Adler, you and I are just going to have to agree to disagree, ’cause TOTA just released a song from Haunt, “Charmer,” and it doesn’t do anything for me. It’s not your production, fine sir; I just think the song is kinda generic. In the press release you say that song “gives me goose bumps and makes me jealous,” and I want so desperately to have goose bumps and think “Gee, Chris Adler should really be jealous of these dudes,” but I just don’t. I did get a little hungry when I was l listening to the song, but I don’t think that has anything to do with the music so much as it does that I forgot to eat lunch.

Listen to “Charmer” here and let me know what you think, gang. Haunt What’s Left comes out on Good Fight on June 22.

-AR

When it comes to music (and other things really), I tend to play devil’s advocate. If everyone is shitting on a certain band, for some reason, I become more attracted to that band and seek them out. I don’t know what it is about my personality, but I think it stems from the same perspective that inspired me to write the antagonistic blog about rethrash. It may be a character flaw, but I’m sure it has something to do with a need to be an individual. From what I gather, this website is inhabited mainly by “true” metal heads. What I define as “true” are people whom are purists in the realm of metal and usually scoff at any band or trend that reeks of premeditated commercialism or an overt play for popularity, and who usually demand a certain level of musicianship and underground credibility. These fans usually hate every Metallica record after …And Justice For All, and for that matter always prefer any particular band’s older releases, which usually have a more raw and unrefined recording quality, as well as more abstract, less traditional song writing. For example, they will prefer Carcass’s Necrotiscim to Heartwork, or Morbid Angel’s Blessed Are The Sick to Domination. Oh yeah, and these guys gave up on In Flames and Soilwork years ago.

I have a good deal of that purism in my bones, but it always seemed short sighted and close minded. You have no idea how many arguments the Adler brothers from Lamb of God and I have gotten into over the merits of a particluar Metallica or Megadeth record. If you even bring up Disturbed or Limp Bizkit on MetalSucks, it is mocked and disregarded 100% of the time. I think metal heads often have a sheep mentality because of the fear of being viewed by their peers as less credible for liking bands that aren’t considered “true” or “real” enough. We all have guilty pleasures, but the real question is “Why should we feel guilty about something we enjoy?”

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I have a theory that there are two periods in which no one – and I mean absolutely no one – looked cool:

1. High school.
2. The 80s.

Lamb of God’s Chris Adler, who I think is a fantastic drummer and an insanely cool and down to earth guy, was born in 1972, which means he had the unfortunate luck of being in high school in the 80s, which a double whammy of awful.

So. After the jump we have an old yearbook photo of Chris’, sent to us by reader Norm Burt, who apparently has a buddy that went to high school with Chris. Yes, it is a bad photo, and yes, it is bad in a very funny way. But Chris, if you’re reading this, know it’s nothing personal. I looked pretty dorky in high school, too.

Here it is…

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Howard Zinn, Zelda Rubinstein, and J.D. Salinger all died within twenty-four hours of another. That’s crappy on all fronts, but right now I’d like to concentrate on Salinger.

On the one hand, it’s very sad that he’s dead because I happen to think he was a brilliant writer; on the other hand, it’s not like he’d written anything in a long, long, long time anyway, so it doesn’t feel like we’re really losing anything; on the other hand, his son Matt was one of the frat douches in Revenge of the Nerds and played the title role in the straight-to-video live-action Captain America movie, which is to say he and Mr. Salinger’s other remaining kin folk will almost certainly sell away his father’s ideals ASAP. Look for Catcher in the Rye 3-D, starring Zac Efron as Holden Caufield, to hit screens sometime in 2011.

Now that that’s off my chest, here’s a recap of what happened in the metal world this week:

• We definitely spoke to Lamb of God’s Chris Adler and think we spoke to the guy who may or may not actually be Andrew W.K.
• Eyal gave us a recap of NAMM, and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley told us how he got into metal.
• Norway finally caught up with the nu-metal trend.
• The Insane Clown Posee have made multiple feature-length films. Gee, I wonder how we didn’t know that?
• Footage of a new Cynic song!!!
• Also, this.

Alright, it’s fucking freezing as fuck out there, but I’m gonna try and get my ass out and enjoy what’s left of my youth anyways. If you live in the NYC area, don’t forget that The Austerity Program play this Sunday January 31, in Brooklyn at Public Assembly (70 N 6th St) with White Suns, Immanent Voiceless, Daniel Malinsky. This your chance to thank Justin for all the awesome writing he did for us, or to tell him off for all the terrible writing he did for us, depending on your perspective.

See ya Monday!!!

-AR

I’m not going to give you Chris Adler’s resumé the way I might in a normal interview intro. If you’re reading MetalSucks, you either know who Chris Adler is, or you’re my mom and you’re just trying to be supportive. Rather, I want to tell you a quick story about my experience interviewing Adler.

When I called him for our scheduled interview, he apologized and asked if he could call me back in a little while. “I’m just sitting my daughter down for dinner,” he tells me. When I later told him that I’m impressed that he actually still sits his daughter down for dinner, he chuckled and replied, “Yeah, dude, when I’m home, I’m totally Mr. Mom.”

And that’s Chris Adler in a nutshell: one of the most accomplished drummers from one of the biggest bands in modern metal is actually a really down-to-earth dude. And that’s not just hype; this is the second time I’ve spoken to Adler, and the second time I’ve walked away with the distinct impression that he is a sincerely nice guy who has managed to keep his head on his shoulders despite all his success. Isn’t that a nice change of pace for once?

After the jump, read my chat with Adler about this Sunday’s Grammy Awards, touring with Metallica, what the future holds for Lamb of God, and, oh yeah, the MetalSucks comments section.

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I love the end of the year. I mean, I hate the cold fucking weather, I hate the getting fucking dark outside early, I think the holidays are fucking retarded, New Year’s is a total fucking pain in the pass, and then starting in January no good movies come out for a least a month or two. So that all blows.

But the lists… Ah, the lists! So much arguing to be done over what is really just the opinion of one person or possibly a congregation of a few people! Behold as all the frail egos collapse under the need to have their opinion justified by someone they will never admit they perceive as “important” regardless of the fact that everyone eats and breathes and shits the same way! OH MY GOD, I HAVE SEEN THE MADNESS, AND THE MADNESS IS FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC.

So. We’re still more than a month away from publishing our own year-end lists here at MetalSucks, but by n0w all those big glossy analog blogs will have collected their staffs’ lists (’cause they gotta get that shit done way in advance, whereas us nerdonauts can procrastinate like we was gettin’ a one-time-only blow job from Bobbie Brown circa 1990), I know of at least one other blog with a looming deadline for all such lists, and now Metal Hammer has proclaimed that “Every day from now until Christmas, we will be revealing a different band/member of a band’s top albums of the year.”

You can see all the lists here. Musicians who have weighed in thus far include Lamb of God’s Chris Adler and Chimaira’s Mark Hunter. Hey, both those dudes were also cool enough to vote in our 21 albums poll! Awesome! So now you can go give Metal Hammer shit for a change.

-AR

I’ve been aware since the release of The Ashes of the Wake that Metallica’s Kirk Hammett is a Lamb of God fan – Kirk was spotted at that album’s release show at the Roseland Ballroom here in NYC – and I’ve wondered in the past if he wasn’t responsible for LoG suddenly becoming a go-to support act for Metallica.

And, hey, lookit: the above screenshot was taken from Chris Adler’s Facebook page, and reveals that Hammet and Adler are now working together on… something.

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Wrath, Lamb of God’s highly anticipated new album, opens with a track entitled “The Passing,” which has to be one of the best soft intros ever not written by Metallica in the 80s, before exploding with a typically rockin’ riff on the first real song, “In Your Words.” It’s a rousing start, and one which might lead the listener to think that Wrath is gonna be another winner from one of the American New Wave’s most popular and widely adored bands.

And then something strange happens: you wait for a chorus that never really arrives.

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I think I just came up with the stupid tagline for Lamb of God’s new album. Epic, you can make the check payable to MetalSucks. Thanks.

ANYWAY, Lamb of God’s new album, the imposingly titled Wrath, now has an official release date of February 24, 2009. There’s still no track listing.

In a statement, drummer/mouthpiece Chris Adler said, “Hype hype hype hype, heaviest album ever, hype hype hype, February 24.”

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Just in time for Vince’s birthday on Valentine’s Day (which explains why he’s so darn sexy), Lamb of God will release a new album this February, according to a press release that just arrived here at the MetalSucks Mansion.

The band is working with producer Josh Wilbur (pictured above) this time.

Wait… who the fuck is Josh Wilbur?

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