LAMB OF GOD... leaders of the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal? Possibly. Innovators within the Metal genre? Undeniably. The Richmond, Virginia-based quintet have climbed the ladder of greatness a few times already in their blossoming career, with the release of 2003's "As The Palaces Burn", followed up by 2004's milestone release, "Ashes Of The Wake". Now two year's later, they've done it again with "Sacrament", a kick-in-the-face statement that reflects a more dark and personal subject matter. Truth be told, LAMB OF GOD have been given a grand opportunity to capitalize on their rising success, and they're doing just that. Drummer Chris Adler talks to METALEATER about the new album, his influences, and what Metal needs in order to move forward in the future.

How does it feel to be one of the bands picked by SLAYER (for the "Unholy Alliance Tour")?

"It's awesome! We had done shows with them in Europe maybe two years ago and became friends then and talked about putting something together in the future and blah blah blah; well, we're doing a record, they're doing a record, the time doesn't work out, and when this opportunity came up we realized that we're both doing a record at same time and the schedule is going to work out great. We started talking right away about 'Can we make this happen? Who else do we want to get?' It wasn't necessarily about competing with anything that was going on there, but it was specifically designed to grab some of the heaviest bands out there and to go and put on bands that were the real heavy, heavy bands. You know a lot of these festivals have these kind of buy-on bands and nobody understands why they're there and it doesn't make any sense. We really wanted no filler in what this package was going to be. So it's very exciting; it's so much fun. Somebody asked me to question the other day 'What would the 17-year old Chris Adler think of the 30 year old Chris Adler?' Two nights ago I was in the back of the bus with Dave Lombardo (SLAYER drummer) just listening to tunes; you know, random, weird tunes just sitting there shooting the shit. Last night I was out for drinks with Kerry King (SLAYER guitarist). So I'm pretty sure that the 17 year old Chris Adler would be pretty fucken stoked, you know what I mean? (laughs) it's just awesome to be here and we realize how fortunate we are and we're just flattered by the whole thing. We're happy."

Has SLAYER influenced you guys in your music?

"Absolutely - yeah! I mean, like I said, we all have these very different influences, but me growing up - I was telling Dave this the other night. I remember in high school driving around listening to 'South Of Heaven' with my buddy. That's the kind of stuff that we grew up on. There are a lot of bands that don't want to admit that there are these influences, but anything that you listen to is bound to in some way influence what you do, and being a die-hard Metal fan... I was buying 'South Of Heaven' when it was on cassette, and I probably went through three or four of them. So even though I maybe don't listen to it every day now, yeah... those were my formative years as a Heavy Metal fan, so there's no way that I could tell you that they didn't influence me or the band."

Your new album is called "Sacrament". How did you find the writing process? Was it more difficult this time than the previous record?

"It was more difficult for many reasons. The first one was we really wanted to create the album of our career - that encapsulated everything from the first record to this record; everything we've learned, everything we've done; and we also wanted to step away from a lot of the bands that we' re associated with. Not to take anything away from any other bands or their abilities, but we get monked in with a lot of bands, and I think we wanted to create a record - and I think we have created a record - that I think we're going to step away from the pack a little bit and where this one lands. You know, hopefully people like it as much as we do, but we know we've created something pretty special."

Let me ask you a quick question about that... why do you think the media or people have put you in that group? I think I know what you're talking about -a bands like SHADOWS FALL etc.

Well, we all definitely came up at the same time, and it's not necessarily a negative thing. We ran in the same circles forever, played the same shows, did the same tours; I mean, it was very easy to find us with those other bands. And in the past couple of years, we've purposely not done shows with those guys. They may be doing the same thing. We really wanted to step it out, and I think the reason for us is that in looking back when this whole thing is over, I don't want to look back at a legacy of this band as 'Oh, remember, the new wave of American Heavy Metal with blah blah blah and blah blah.' I want to look back and be like 'Remember LAMB OF GOD.' So that's really important for me, and that's why we wanted to go in and, like I said, write something bigger and better than we had ever done before and also help separate ourselves a little bit. There are not a whole lot of role models out there for us at this point; there are not a whole lot of people doing what we're doing and continuing on and getting bigger and better, so a lot of people come to us and say 'Well, you know, now that you're playing arenas, now do you have this 'success', what's next?' I'm starting to see a lot of other bands really start to sit back and be like 'Yeah, you know what? He made it! This is awesome!' And for us, it's really important to never ever do that. I mean, yeah... when we're 60 on our porch talking to our grandkids about it... yeah, that's when we're going to talk that stuff. But for now, it's really important to stay driven, especially in the writing process of the new stuff; and on the touring level when we're out there playing every night, it's really important for us to really blow the doors off of everybody, you know. When we're on stage for those 60 minutes, it doesn't matter if people are playing after us - that's our stage and we're going to make sure that everybody has gotten their money's worth when we're done. If they want to stick around for the band after us, awesome. It's a matter of drive and I start to see... you said earlier SHADOWS FALL, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and those bands... I'm not saying that they don't have drive - they absolutely do, and I know those guys well and care for them person to ally - but it's really important for us to internally really step it up and then try to bypass all the people around us, not just those guys. And there's nothing wrong with those guys, we love 'em but like I said, I don't want to be locked in with them anymore."

On the new album, you've got some really interesting titles... like "Walk With Me In Hell", "Again We Rise", "Redneck", "Pathetic", "Foot To The Throat"... can you explain the inspiration you got to write this material?

"Yeah; own lyrical level was very different than in the past. We've kind of been labeled a bit of a political band, not necessarily because we were telling people... we were basically expressing our opinion in the same way you put a bumper sticker on your car or whatever. We just happen to be putting out records and this is our opinion. We're not a political party and we don't know what's right or wrong, it's just what we happen to think. But it was important for us on this one to maybe step away from that - not because we've already done it - but because our opinion of the political landscape is that it's so pathetic, and we've said what we had to say on almost every record. At this point, we are completely beating a dead horse with this mess that we have, this opinion that we have. So why not do something different? What we did on this one was really brought it much more to a personal level where it's really the kind of things that are happening in our personal lives; the trials and tribulations that make it difficult to be who we are and what we do, not necessarily as a band, but as people. It's not something that we're in alone, you know; life is not always fun; it's across the board for everybody, and some of these things that people go through on a universal level are the kinds of things that we wanted to write about in this, and I think Randy (Blythe - vocals) did an amazing job of really externalizing a lot of the internal strife and difficulties in his life the in a lot of these lyrics. It's something that Mark (Morton - guitar) also worked on with Randy and I helped out a little bit as well. It's one of those processes where we're all involved; we all want to make sure that we're standing behind the types of things we're saying. It's a very personal record; it's very dark; it's about some really difficult times that we've been through."

When you say "we", do you mean the United States, the world as a whole?

"No I mean me, Chris Adler; I mean Randy Blythe, Mark Morton, John Campbell and Willy Adler - these are the things that have maybe been difficult for us, whether it be relationship-wise or legally or anything else, you know; just really the trials and tribulations of being alive and stuff."

Are there any political songs on the album?

"No, there's none. The opinion hasn't changed, but like I said, we driven it into the ground at this point, so..."

You describe the music is being very dark. And that comes from a personal place. What message do you want your friends to get from that?

"I think for me music has always been about some type of emotion, you know, whether it makes you happy, makes you wanna mosh around, makes you wanna... you know, do something. It creates a feeling within you. In the writing, the things that we're coming up with, the parts that we're writing musically and lyrically, to me seem dark. It made me feel not necessarily sad, but just kind of very introspective, and just very dark... I mean, that's really the best word for it. To get a message to a fan, I don't know of that's what it's all about. I think the idea is to share that emotion, and it might make you smile; it might not be a dark record to you. It might make you wanna mosh around; it might make you wanna drive faster. Of those kinds of little things, music does for you internally is what's exciting for music for me and I think in being the musician or the artist here - hopefully we've created a product that will bring those things out in whoever is listening to it. A lot of the stuff in here is completely open to interpretation, where Randy may be singing about a difficult time in his life. It's not necessarily specific to Randy. You could have a very similar situation that you've been through and those kinds of things just tap into you when you're listening to him, and it becomes more than just an album; it's an experience really, and that's what we really wanted to try to create. Whether we did or not, I'm not sure. I know when I listen to it. I get that."

When you look at the whole history of LAMB OF GOD - when you started - and you look at where you're at today, where would you say you are in your career itself. Not just musically, just in general, in terms of timeline, longevity and everything?

Well, I know that no one ever, including ourselves, expected us to get here. We started up the band there was not a goal to play arenas or to be able to do all the things we've been able to do. So every day is a bit of a pleasant surprise for us that this thing is still going on. But it's our passion and our drive for what we're doing that makes it so... I can't really define exactly where we are in the point. When we start sitting back and saying 'Yeah, you know we did everything we set out to do,' that's when that kind of complacency sets in, and everything suffers - the music suffers, people stop caring. You see it in a lot of bands that just end up... you can't believe when you're listening to the record that it's the same band that put out the record before that, you know. It's like, you see that all the time. We'll definitely know when we don't have the passion to write something better than we've already written, and then we absolutely are not going to be putting out records. It's not about fulfilling contracts or trying to make money. For us it's really the passion of the music, and I think we're just getting started. I mean, I think we've got a lot of time and although earlier I was saying there's not a whole lot of role models out there for us past this point, where we're in this position now, I think it's important for us to help become a role model for bands that are now breaking through the door behind us and show that even in this day of the Internet and record labels failing at all the stuff, you can still make it, you know. Heavy Metal is not dead, and we started out when the Internet was killing bands and record labels and everything else, and we were supportive of the idea of giving our music to people in any way that we could. Even through our opinion on that whole thing, we're packing these shows and we're playing arenas, and I think it's amazing for Heavy Metal to show that even in this Internet age that a band can still come from the basement shows and get into arenas, which really doesn't happen anymore. You go out and look around for bands that are doing it and it's either big radio bands or guys that are doing these weirdo reunion tours, or like Billy Joel or something like that. Metal is not... maybe the '80s it was here, but it hasn't been here in a long time... and to see it happening now, despite the climate of buying music and all that, it's awesome, and we're really excited to be able to be doing what we're doing. I also think it's important for us to understand it's a responsibility to help create that role model for, like I said, bands that are coming right behind us."

Do you think that Metal is going to keep rising?

"In my personal opinion two things are going to happen: one is that there are gonna be a few select bands that really take it to the next level - maybe not the METALLICA level - I think that time has come and gone - but probably the PANTERA level. But I think at the same time, there's gonna have to be some cleaning house internally... not that I'm saying that I'm in support of that, but I think the scene is going to begin to eat itself here shortly, because there are so many bands that sound like so many other bands, that look like so many other bands, and I think people are just gonna get sick of it. It's in the same way Metal has kind of come back around and become more popular now, it's because like any trend, if it's not a popular thing, then it's kind of cool. But then, when everybody knows about it, and everybody is doing it, then nobody cares anymore. I think it's going to have to clean itself up a little bit to get rid of some of that fat before anybody can really move on."

Why do you think so many bands have cloned one another? It's like you have one proto-type and the rest or cloned.

"People ask me, how did we come up with this LAMB OF GOD sound, and I always say 'You know, we're not reinventing the wheel. This has been done before, but it's been a little while since it's been done.' The idea of so many bands doing the same thing is because as soon as you see somebody get a little bit of success, you realize that's your way in; you can just copy that and do it. When we started out, the five of us have such different musical tastes; I mean, I'm a Speed Metal freak... like I love old MEGADETH, TESTAMENT... stuff like that; I just love the stuff. Our guitar player, Mark, is a Country fan; our bass player is just a Rock 'n Roll fan; Randy listens to the SEX PISTOLS and old school Punk Rock stuff. So when we sat down and said, 'Hey guys, let's be a band!' we didn't say 'I want to sound like these guys' or 'I want to sound like that band'; it was just like 'What kind of crazy noise can we make with of all these different influences?' But what happens to a lot of people that don't have those different types of influences where everybody gets together like... I'm going to school with five dudes and we're going to start a band that all of our favorite band is PANTERA. What do you think your band's going to sound like? It's like, you have to bring different creative influences to the table in order to be able to create something that is new, but as soon as it's created and people catch on to it in any way as success, then everybody starts to develop that sound - not because they go out and start listening to Country and the SEX PISTOLS, but because now we've defined what it is that we sound like and people can copy it. And I'm not assuming that you're saying people are cloning us, but I see it all the time in all the different subgenres of Metal where there is one band that kind of leads the way and there's 20 behind them that look and sound exactly like them, and that's the kind of thing I said earlier. It's like, for Heavy Metal to continue to grow, I think some of that fat needs to be trimmed off." [FIN]