By Greg Pratt

Getting hard to say much new about LAMB OF GOD. They’re one of the most media-covered metal bands out there, and with the release of Resolution, album number seven of groove-drenched pure American thrash-tinged heavy metal, that’s just gonna keep being the case.

But here’s something new: the album takes the huge “big song” element of Lamb Of God and downplays it a bit (no ‘Redneck’ in pole position here), with many of the big arena-ready “hits” tucked away in the bottom half of the batting order. Or, so I thought, anyway.

“I don’t know that that sort of thing was anything conscious,” says bassist John Campbell. “In putting the album order together, there were some very conscious things: ‘Barbarosa’ went in the middle to kind of hit a reset button in a sense. But, yeah, we just tried to sprinkle the songs out where they seemed appropriate. Being inside the bubble, it’s hard to think sometimes, ‘This is going to be the song all the kids are going to scream for.’ So I guess that’s just how it happened to your ear.”

Apart from that, what I’ve been saying about the album is that it’s another Lamb Of God album. There’s really not that many surprises on any of their discs. I mean, an acoustic intro here (“Ghost Walking”) and, yes, one ambitious opera-tinged closer there (“King Me”), but pound for pound, it’s Lamb Of God: they’re not pulling much out of left field here, and that’s why we love ‘em. Well, they’re not pulling much out of left field except for vocalist Randy Blythe’s sobriety.

“One of the key things that sticks out is Randy’s performance on it,” says Campbell about Resolution. “He’s fucking amazing. He tears it up, man. His newfound sobriety has served him well, with his focus and his delivery. But, you know, we’ve stepped up as songwriters and performers as well. There are some twists and turns that might be unexpected on this record, but a couple months down the road, they will become typical Lamb Of God fare.”

“We’re really proud of it,” he continues about the album. “We worked really hard on it. I feel really cliché doing interviews saying it’s the best thing we’ve ever done and I love it, because that’s what everybody says, but it’s true, man. It’s the best thing we’ve ever done and I love it. I always feel amazed that we’ve managed to top what we did before. We somehow continue to do that record after record after record.”

One thing that’s changed—drastically—for the band from record to record has been their success. They’ve gone from being a band trudging through hardcore punk venues to touring with METALLICA and becoming the face of modern mainstream metal. But at what point do all the accolades and the success make for watered down music, and when does that appetite fade away? Who are the band even trying to prove themselves to these days?

“Well, we’re not really necessarily… that’s a very interesting point you bring up,” says Campbell. “The thing we’re proving is not the crux of why we’re doing this, but to be able to put out a record that is as crushing as it is proves that we’re still a viable band and still relevant band. I’ve eavesdropped on Chris doing a few interviews, and he said something that struck me as very true: you never hear people say, ‘Man, I love this band; their seventh record is their best record.’ So there is a bit of a battle there.”

Time, age, relevance. It’s a common battle for metalheads, a genre of music defined by youthful energy and the fight against that abstract beast of adulthood (when I mention to Campbell that I’ve been following the band since their Burn The Priest debut, he chuckles and says, “Man, you are getting old”; I reply, “Well, back at ya,” and he offers up a humble “well taken.”)

“But, that said,” he continues, “we got here not by eying that finish line, we got here by whipping ourselves trying to write songs that we thought were awesome and pushed us. We’ve always been in control of the creative content of what happens. I think we’ve done well with it and have proven ourselves time and time again that we write some pretty whoop-ass music and we can go out and tour the world and find fans that really appreciate what we do.”

And, really, there should be no talk of the finish line just yet with these guys. With an album as strong as Resolution—really, it’s as good as any Lamb Of God album—the band feels like a bunch of kids putting out their second disc, high on fire from the buzz the debut created. Instead, man, here we are, album seven, plugging along, still on top of their game. Not bad.

“It feels great,” says Campbell when asked how it feels to sit back and put the new album on. “There are fucking moments on this record that get me really excited, which is great. The song ‘Ghost Walking’, with the acoustic intro, then the band kicks in, that is fucking huge. It’s fun. It’s a fun record to listen to for me. But as with all records that we’ve done, I have a feeling that my days of listening to it are very numbered. Shortly after the records come out I tend to not listen to them much anymore. From square one to finished product, we’ve been living this record more or less for the past year.”

As for future years, when we caught up with Campbell he had just begun the long journey down the long road that the band always heads down after releasing one of their platters. And it sounds like it’s going to be a very long road indeed for the five-piece.

“We’re five days in the tour cycle for this record; we’re going to be out on the road for the better part of two years,” he says. “Once that winds down, it’ll be time to crawl back into the holes at home, get a little time back with the family, and then you start the process all over again. As long as you’re up for it, it’s nice to have the opportunity to continue doing what we do, especially in this day and age of the music industry.”

Indeed, it’s no small feat that the band is still selling so many albums in 2012, just one of many reasons that Campbell says he often sits back, thinks about the band’s career, and says, ‘Holy shit.’

“All the fucking time, man; it happens constantly,” he says. “Our career has just been a constant very slow upward climb. The first time you step on a bus, you say, ‘Holy fucking shit, this is crazy.’ Then you get to a point where you’ve got a band bus and a crew bus, or you start playing shows with SLAYER and MEGADETH… it’s been a pretty constant ‘Holy shit’ for the past 16 or 17 years.”