Lamb of God

Lamb of God is an American band formed in 1990 in Richmond, Virginia. The band was originally known as Burn the Priest and decided to change their name shortly after the release of a self-titled debut album in 1998. Lamb of God consists of vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler, bassist John Campbell, and drummer Chris Adler and is today one of the leaders of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.

Since its formation, Lamb of God has released five studio albums, one live album, and three DVDs. The band's cumulative sales equal almost two million in the United States. In 2007 the band received a Grammy nomination for their 2006 album Sacrament. Lamb of God has toured with the Ozzfest twice and appeared at the Download and Gigantour festivals.

Lamb of God was formed as an instrumental band, Burn the Priest, and included vocals firstly after Randy Blythe joined the band as a vocalist. After they reached the success with the release of 2004's Ashes of the Wake the band is often associated with such terms as the "leaders" of the "New Wave of American Heavy Metal" and "pure American metal" or "pure American death metal".

Burn the Priest and early Lamb of God has been defined as a thrash metal, death metal and grindcore[33] hybrid with a strong element of power groove, which often connects Lamb of God with the influential metal band Pantera. Burn the Priest and early Lamb of God include typical death metal vocals[32] with only a few moments of words that can actually be deciphered. The style has been considered to vary between several different genres, including hardcore punk, thrash metal, and even possessing sludge metal influences.

New American Gospel continues in a similar style as Burn the Priest, with drum-heavy production of double picking and double-kick drumming. Here, the band has been considered by Allmusic to be effectively bridging the 1990s' tendency towards technicality and early metal's focus on riff construction and plays a brand of heavy metal described as not unlike Meshuggah without some of their mathematical components.

2003's As the Palaces Burn saw the band's compositions focusing more on what some have called "memorable" riffs. On 2004's Ashes of the Wake, they continued the progression of As the Palaces Burn with more frequent guitar solos.

Sacrament, released in 2006, was described by critics as more technical, especially considering the vocal performance. Again, the band experimented with more melody and guitar solos;[35] however, the band has also been often reproached by the critics for the similarity of the songs within their albums.

Due to the variety of influences, stylistic elements and changes throughout the band's career the press has chosen several genres and terms to describe Lamb of God's music. Lamb of God has been labeled as a metalcore and groove metal band. Campbell, on the Walk With Me in Hell DVD, says that Lamb of God is "a punk band that plays heavy metal", while Chris Adler refers to Sacrament as to a speed metal album.