HISTORY OF HEAVY MUSIC: Ashes Of The Wake – Lamb Of God

The time between LAMB OF GOD‘s third and fourth albums took just under sixteen months to complete, but what happened in that time was the emergence of one of the most prominent bands in a movement that was quickly dubbed “The New Wave of American Heavy Metal.” 2003 Album While the palaces burn ended the year at the top of both Revolver And Metal hammerAlbum of the Year charts, while the band toured both the UK and North America, opening for ANTHRAX and participate in the inauguration Headbangers ball tour along KILLSWITCH ACTIVATION, SHADOWS FALL And God forbid.

More importantly, it caught the attention of a major record label Epicwho signed the band from Prosthetic and wanted an album right away, which gave the band little time to recover. “We had to react quickly, there was no other way” guitarist Mark Morton told Loudspeaker back in 2004. “We were under a lot of pressure – we hadn’t really finished touring the last record and before we knew it, we were back in the studio writing songs.”

Drums were followed by Water music studios recorded in Hoboken, NJ with guitars and vocals in Sound of music in their hometown of Richmond, VA. At the helm of production was Gene Freemanbetter known as Machine and a man who had already worked with people like CLUTCH, VISIONS OF DISORDER And PITCH SLIDERincluding the breakthrough of the latter in 1998 www.pitchshifter.com; he didn’t give them an easy ride either. “I’m glad working with (him) wasn’t stress-free,” Morton would reveal. “I want the man I work with to care about me and disagree with me and fight for what he thinks is right.”

When making the record, the band wanted to distance themselves from the emerging metalcore scene that critics tried to place them in. If you watch videos of LAMB OF GOD From the early 00s onwards you often see people in the pit two-stepping and hardcore arm throwing. They took their existing sound, added melodic death metal and thrash to it and brought Ashes of the wake twenty years ago this month, on 31^st August 2004. Despite its more extreme elements, it was an instant hit, not only with the band’s fans, but with metal fans in general. It would debut at #27 on the Advertising board 200 and twenty years later it is still the band’s best-selling album.

Much of the music, particularly the lyrics, was inspired by the events in the Middle East that began in March 2003 when the US and UK invaded Iraq on the grounds of terrorism and the building of weapons of mass destruction. “I always like to write about whatever I’m thinking about, and I think the war was on everyone’s mind at that time,” said singer Randy Blythe said. “Politicians said one thing, but it didn’t take much to see that something completely different was going on, and that all these soldiers were being led into a situation that they didn’t sign up for.”

Songs like the pounding Now you have something to die for, The blurred line And One gun all of them drew their inspiration from the conflict, as did the instrumental title track with poignant excerpts from an interview with former Marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey in an interview after his return from the war (the song also featured guitar solos by TESTAMENT‘S Alex Skolnick and former MEGADETH axeman Chris PolenElsewhere there was talk of honour Omerta – RandyThe opening quote of ‘s paraphrases the Sicilian mafia’s code of silence – and the opening number Laid to restnow one of the group’s most popular and recognizable songs, would immediately usher in the groove metal sound that, for better or for worse, LAMB OF GOD given the nickname ‘The New’ PANTERA‘.

Please note, as a then drummer Chris Adler‘s words were something to go by, the comparison to one of metal’s biggest bands meant they were heading in the right direction. “I think it’s important for us to create a legacy for this band, and I don’t want that legacy to be associated with anyone else,” he also said Loudspeaker in 2004. “In our eyes, we’re a lot better than the rest of the bands out there right now, and we feel like we put a lot more into our music than some of the bands we’ve been compared to.”

As it turns out, the album would not only help LAMB OF GOD kickstart such a legacy, but continue to help cement it. Tracks from Ashes of the Wake remain a constant in their setlists, and the band opted to play the record in its entirety as part of a livestream during the COVID-19 pandemic. Depending on how you view the albums that have come out since then – and there have been half a dozen – you might not consider Ashes of the wake are LAMB OF GOD‘s best album, but it is almost undeniably their most important.