Not counting the Legion: XX covers album from 2018, it’s been 5 years since new songs have hit Lamb Of God fans ears but that wait is over as the band return with their new self-titled album on June 19th. With 4 singles already released giving us something to salivate over until then, anticipation has been hanging in the air so we had a chat with bass player John Campbell ahead of the release to discuss the songs as well as find out the challenges of bringing new songs to the live stage plus get some insight into the new drummer Art Cruz.
Andrew: Thanks for your time, I really appreciate it, especially in all these interesting times that we’re going through at the moment.
John: [laughs] Yeah interesting times indeed!
Andrew: Yeah it’s crazy, so how are you guys handling it? Obviously you guys have been impacted with all that’s going on so how have you guys been handling it?
John: I mean considering what some people are facing, I would say very well but we are in isolation and doing whatever else we can holing up at home.
Andrew: Obviously with all that’s going on, the good news on your part is a new Lamb Of God album is coming out and it’s been a while since we’ve heard new Lamb Of God material so how are you guys feeling about the new songs?
John: I absolutely love them. I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished and I think we’ve been able to outdo ourselves once again.
Andrew: Going into the whole writing and recording process then, this is sort of a landmark album in that it’s been 20 years since the first and second albums came out so going into this, what was the idea in what you wanted to achieve with these new songs?
John: Well we don’t put an album together with thoughts of doing anything other than writing our best album. We’re constantly trying to one up ourselves, do better than what we’ve done before and put out something that we all really appreciate and like.
Andrew: And self titled, it’s a question I ask a lot of bands who do go for the self-titled album. Why now and why this particular album?
John: Like you said it had been a little while, we hadn’t put out a record in a bit and we feel like this album is a perfect statement of who Lamb Of God is at this point in time and it seems very natural to make that statement.
Andrew: In some ways this is sort of a new era in the band with the new drummer Art [Cruz] being in there as well. How did that go and how has he fit in with the band on the recording?
John: Art is great, he’s full of great energy. We’re excited about a lot of the stuff that he never experienced and for us maybe we’ve kind of outgrown the novelty of it, it’s really great having him around to see that kind of excitement again and kind of refresh the experience. As far as him being on this recording, it was we have a process of how we do records and he fit in great. He was there for all the pre-production and for the recording and sharing ideas and he thought about things coming together and he fit in seamlessly and I think it shows on the record.
Andrew: The stuff that I’ve heard with the singles and the video clips so far sounds amazing and really it seems Art has fitted in nicely so it seems like an easy transition. But was it difficult because it’s the first album without Chris Adler being part of it or was it really just the next Lamb Of God album?
John: It was very much like the next Lamb Of God album. Art had been touring with us for over a year, we’d known him for a long time and he’s been a great friend of the band for a long time and he fit perfectly, I couldn’t be happier.
Andrew: Good to hear as sometimes you do hear how it can be difficult for a new guy to come in to the band so it sounds like it went really well for you guys.
John: Yeah ever since he’s been playing drums he’s been a fan of Lamb Of God and looking up to the drums in the band and has been teaching himself how to play by following that kind of idea and it just made for a perfect fit.
Andrew: I know you guys had done a bit of touring in and out of the recording process so how much of an impact did that have on the songs themselves?
John: Well we were actually planning on writing and recording this record a lot earlier but as we were winding down the tour cycle for the last album, Slayer asked us if we wanted to go out on a tour with them and that turned into a year and a half of touring with Slayer before we finally had to say, ‘We gotta stop, we gotta work on the new record’. I don’t know if it had a direct impact on it, it just kind of pushed it back as the opportunity to tour with Slayer came up.
Andrew: When you do go into recording, and I don’t know if you’ve ever done this on any of the Lamb Of God albums in the past, but do you ever consider and think about how the songs would translate to the live stage at all?
John: I don’t think it’s considered as much, at the time we’re really focused on writing the songs. It’s more about tempo mats and making sure we have the best versus and choruses and bridges and everything for the song and then after that’s all done it’s time to transition these new songs to play live.
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Andrew: It’s interesting because a lot of the songs that you have played over the years have gone over really well at the live show and I’m wondering if there was any songs in the past that from your own standpoint maybe didn’t over as well that you thought maybe would of.
John: Well there’s over the years of putting together records of these songs that will have gang choruses on them and it’s been talked about, about that being something to incorporate in with the live performance and the audience would be a part of it. But it’s never been active like, ‘Hey we need to write a new song and it’s going to be a great song live’. There have been songs we’ve played that don’t go over well live that we will try for a few shows, if we throw a song in the middle of a set and people through out the set have been very energetic and we get to that song and they just kinda stop moving and look at us with these blank look on their faces, that may affect whether we play that song again.
Andrew: And rehearsing these new songs I guess you may have an idea of what will work and what may not work just from a technical standpoint I suppose.
John: Yeah I guess to that point on this record the only thing that would present any issues or anything would be [on Routes] there’s a key change in there that in recording it we tuned the guitars down but in order to play something like that live we would have to have some sort of effect so it would drop the scale of what we would be playing where we would continue playing the same thing but backstage they would have to do some switching for us or something. But all those things can indeed be done and this age of digital recording, you can record some really technical difficult parts to play but for us at least, if you can’t play that live then there’s no point in taking the time to construct something in the studio.
Andrew: Have you ever gotten to that point where you have made a song and thought, Na this is not going to work live at all?
John: Absolutely. Working with Machine on “Redneck”, there’s a spot in the middle where it gets really fast and I remember putting the song together on the bass I was having a really hard time with what exactly I was going to do on that part there and so I sat and was talking with Machine and he was like, ‘Well lets construct what the guitars are doing on the bass.’ So these 2 notes and these 2 notes and then we put together what he thought I should be playing. And I told him that sounds great but that’s fucking ridiculously difficult, I won’t be able to play that live. I can’t record that now because that cannot be done and we argued for a long time until I got sick of arguing with him and decided, fuck it, I’ll learn them. And I had to go and learn this very difficult part and now we play that song every single time we play a show.
Andrew: [laughs] Well I suppose you’re itching to play some of these new songs live. I guess with every band noone really knows when the touring is going to come back but how do you think think these songs will go over live on tour?
John: Well given what we’re all dealing with right now, I think just about anything would go amazingly well on stage at this point! But I’m really exciting and hoping that fans attach to these songs like they have with our older songs, I attest to these songs and think it’s our best work and are really exciting and fun to play and I look forward to them being additions to the set.
Andrew: You’ve released a few singles with video clips so far so what kind of feedback have you been getting from fans so far?
John: It’s been mostly positive. I feel like we are in some ways – saying we’re an institution is probably a little more than what I’m trying to say – but people are immediately going to have negative things to say about us just because they’ve decided that Lamb Of God is a brand and that they are not cool. That’s all good and well, we still have a successful career and when there’s not a pandemic we can go out and play shows and fill them out and sell a bunch of records and get a lot of positive feedback. So for the most part it’s positive, there’s always going to be haters and people who love to say shitty snide things on the internet.
Andrew: Yeah I think for your own good you just have to kind of ignore that stuff and focus on the positive. I have to say as a fan for 20 years now, you guys have been consistently good but the evolution has been really interesting and I think that’s one of the best things about the band is the fact that you have kept things going forward with every new challenge that’s come at you over the years.
John: We’ve been incredibly lucky to weather some pretty bad storms and I don’t know why that is but I’ll be forever thankful and grateful to the universe for that.
Andrew: Well congratulations on the new album, the songs that I have heard so far have sounded killer and we look forward to hearing the rest of the album. Thanks for your time and once all this blows over we are really looking forward to seeing you down in Australia at some point as well.
John: [laughs] You have no idea how badly I want to get down there and play shows. Thank you very much Andrew, I appreciate it.
Pre-order Lamb Of God here: https://nblast.de/LoGAU
