Lead single and opener Nevermore signals from the off that something wickedly wacky this way comes, as it interrupts its own rolling riff with jagged squeals.Īdler laughs when we bring it up. The last time they sounded this intrepid was on their debut. I’ve always gravitated towards the atonal Slayer-type riff too, where there’s a lot of minor going and it doesn’t necessarily conform to one theory or the other.”Īfter decades of sticking to the same guns, Lamb of God are deepening their arsenal on new album Omens. He was just unbelievable in how he solo’d and riffed. I love Rust in Peace and what Marty did on that record. “And I was always fascinated by the guys who could do the super-techy riffs. “I like the tonality of the low string: it just seems heavier to me,” says Willie. Meanwhile, Willie and fellow guitarist Mark Morton have long loved the same kind of riffs: fast-fingered dances across the low E. Lamb’s drumming – first by co-founder and Willie’s brother Chris Adler, then, since 2019, Art Cruz – has always simultaneously been effortlessly original. The band’s self-titled 2020 album shot from the hip at everything from the military industrial complex to an at best apathetic American healthcare system. When you’re doing as well as they are, why would you need to? Frontman Randy Blythe has always snarled the most overtly political lyrics he can, famously targeting the Bush administration and Iraq war on 2004’s Ashes of the Wake. Musically, Lamb of God have changed next to nothing since their explosion into the mainstream. They’ve also accrued five Grammy nominations and gigged with every one from Slayer to Metallica. Between 20, everything they released cracked the Top 10 of the Billboard album chart. Alongside Slipknot, Machine Head and Killswitch Engage, they co-helmed the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Since the guitarist joined the band in 1999 and catalysed their name change from Burn the Priest, Lamb of God have blossomed into the US’s mightiest extreme metal force. His technique may look odd but you can’t argue with the results. It was a very natural unnatural progression.” “It all just grew out of comfortability and the way I wanted to speak through my guitar,” he says, “and the way I accomplished that was manipulating my right hand into the way it’s grown into. When Adler first picked up the guitar, he only had a few lessons before directing his focus entirely on metal, which meant he never received much tutelage. “Believe you me, if I could do it any other way, where my hands were relaxed, then I would.” “I’m sure it’s gonna give me arthritis pretty soon,” says Adler, laughing down the phone from his home in Richmond, Virginia. READ MORE: 7 things about Alter Bridge’s gear that you probably didn’t know.It’s a technique that heavy music’s never seen before or since – so, the second secures an interview, we have to ask him what the fuck’s up. And his elbow’s at a near-constant ninety degrees. His remaining digits point rigidly downwards. His forefinger bends around his plectrum so sharply that it looks like it’s been snapped in half. If you’ve ever seen Lamb of God live – or watched an errant YouTube clip – you’ll know that Willie Adler has the stiffest picking hand in all of metal.
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