ONE ON ONE WITH LAMB OF GOD

Story and photos by SEAN SCHUETZ
Story by JACKIE LEE KING, photo by BARRY BRECHEISEN

I caught up with Lamb of God lead singer Randy Blythe at the Chicago stop of Ozzfest 2004. For a concert review, click here. For interviews with Ozzfest bands Lacuna Coil and Otep, click on the links.

Jackie Lee King: Why is Ozzfest successful over other tours like …

Randy Blythe: …Lollapalooza …Cause most of the music on Lollapalooza sucks … and the music that the bands on [Ozzfest] play … is more popular right now. Metal is on an upswing but it's has never ever ever died out. Like new metal … is going to die … it will die … Limp Bizkit will not be around. Slayer has been around … a long time. Black Sabbath has been around for a long time. It has staying power. Also with our political and economic climate right now people are pissed off and this is pissed off music.

Yeah a lot of bands on the second stage were encouraging the audience to yell out "Fuck Bush."

I think he's (Bush) an agent of unmitigated evil. And he should be taken out of office before he gets us all killed.

How do you feel about female fronted metal bands, like Otep and Lacuna Coil touring with Ozzfest?

Otep … they get their name chanted before they even go up. They have a pretty rabid following. I don't think that in metal … well in any genre or group of people there is going to be ignorance … whether it be racist … sexism or whatever … for some reason there doesn't seem to be much sexist comments. You know there's not a lot of, 'show me your tits' and all that stuff. Also [Otep would] probably knock them out … she's a semi-pro boxer so … She does a good job, she brings a different flavor to it.

And Lacuna Coil?

Lacuna is awesome…Christina is really an awesome person … really awesome front person too, you know?

What's your band's background

Richmond, Virginia. We've been together for about 10 years. And we all listen to a lot of different stuff. I grew up listening to a lot of punk rock and reggae.

Yeah I've noticed a lot of the punk rockers in my day listened to reggae, too.

You look at the evolution of reggae and punk rock – it goes hand in hand. Back in the day all that we did was hang out and listen to I-Roy and Culture, a lot of dub stuff … that's what I grew up listening to and that's where the political attitude and stuff come from.

Yeah, I learned about Poll Pot from Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedy's) back when punk was meant to educate the public.

What do you call this? (Showing a not quite accurate version of the horns)

That means I love you? (Showing me the real way to do the sign) These are the horns.

Ok, you got me, but a lot of bands have been calling them different things like metal eyes, war sign and the horns. What do you think it is?

That's an occult symbol … and Ronnie James Dio brought it out. That's a fact. It's like a goat … if you look at the shadow of this (showing the sign correctly) and you do it right it looks like a goat head. He was in Elf at that time or Rainbow then … back in the day.

Hey, thanks for the comments.

Thanks for interviewing me I'm glad I did something.