In a new interview with Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco Bay Area radio station 107.7 The Bone, LAMB OF GOD frontman D. Randall “Randy” Blythe, who is promoting his just-released second book, “Just Beyond The Light: Making Peace With The Wars Inside Our Head”, was asked what the next year will look like for him and his bandmates. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “For me, sketching out the next year, that’s kind of rough… We’ll do some festivals, the band will, this year, and we have our [Headbangers Boat] cruise. And I suppose we will eventually start getting together and going through demo ideas.” He then quickly clarified: “No, we’re not in the studio right now. Our bass player [John Campbell] did an interview [recently] where he’s, like, ‘Well, it’s time to start working on music again.’ Everybody’s, like, ‘Are you going into the studio?’ It’s, like, no, dude, we’re always working on music. It’s just we’re off the road for a minute. But for me right now, my main focus is promoting this book. And I’ve been doing a lot of press for it, a lot of podcasts and so forth. And that will continue on after the book’s release, because I think books sell slower than records do. It takes a while sometimes for them to find their audience. So I’m gonna continue to promote this thing. And ’cause we have a pretty light touring year, I’d like to just kind of enjoy myself a little bit.”
Elaborating on LAMB OF GOD‘s decision to play fewer shows in 2025, Randy said: “We do not have to tour forever. We’re not slaves. It’s okay. We can take time off and relax. We don’t live in New York City or Los Angeles. We live in Virginia. It’s not as expensive. You can be wise with your money and take a little time off and enjoy your life. We’re getting old. Sometimes that’s best for a band.
“There’s always pressure to tour from everyone, not necessarily management or whatever,” he continued. “I mean, they’ve offered us some gigs [for later this year], and we’re, like, ‘No. We’re chilling for a little bit.’ We’re gonna do a few.”
“A lot of my guys [in LAMB OF GOD] have young children,” Blythe explained. “It’s, like, you only get a chance to raise that kid once. And we’ve been doing this for almost 30 years — 30 years. It’s not like we haven’t paid our dues. So if we wanna kick back for a little bit and work a little smarter, not harder, then we will. We’ve played everywhere — everywhere — multiple times. It’s okay if we don’t come back the next month. And also I think absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say. If you’re playing somewhere three times a year, people are gonna be, like, ‘Ah, I’ll catch ’em next time.'”
Last summer, LAMB OF GOD completed its “Ashes Of Leviathan” co-headlining tour with MASTODON. The trek, dubbed “Ashes Of Leviathan”, also featured openers KERRY KING and MALEVOLENCE.
“Ashes Of Leviathan” celebrated the 20th anniversary of LAMB OF GOD‘s “Ashes Of The Wake” and MASTODON‘s “Leviathan” albums, both of which were released on the same date in 2004 (August 31).
On August 30, 2024, Epic Records and Legacy Recordings marked the two-decade anniversary of “Ashes Of Leviathan” with “Ashes Of The Wake (20th Anniversary Edition)”, featuring new mixes by Justin K Broadrick (GODFLESH, JESU),HEALTH and KUBLAI KHAN TX and MALEVOLENCE, as well as demo and live versions of the album’s classic songs.
LAMB OF GOD is Randy Blythe (vocals),John Campbell (bass),Mark Morton (guitar),Willie Adler (guitar) and Art Cruz (drums). Formed in 1994, the Richmond, Virginia-based band have released nine critically acclaimed albums, received five Grammy Award nominations and are widely regarded as one of the most influential and innovative forces in heavy music. The band’s most recent collection, “Omens”, arrived in late 2022, with Kerrang! noting that the album finds the band “as reliably heavy, violent, and pissed off as ever,” and Consequence saying the “album will break you down to nihilistic pieces.”
Source: blabbermouth.net
