The metal world was a little stunned when Lamb of God revealed their first single last Friday and basically announced their album is done and coming out in July. There were a lot of questions that arose, and Blythe recently spoke to Billboard to give a little more info on the process.
Blythe wrote most of the lyrics by himself on the album, whereas typically he and guitarist Mark Morton co-write the lyrics. Also, Morton and fellow guitarist Willie Adler collaborated on songs much more than their recent releases:
Blythe calls it “the most cohesive record we’ve done in a long time.” He partially attributes that to himself writing “90 percent” of its lyrics. He also credits returning producer Josh Wilbur with having main songwriters/guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler working more in collaboration instead of writing complete songs on their own. “The record is much, much stronger for it,” says Blythe, who calls it less “schizophrenic” than previous Lamb of God albums.
As to how they came up with the title of the record, VII: Sturm Und Drang:
Its subtitle — which is German for “storm and stress” — indirectly refers to it. Blythe says he and Morton were talking about how the record’s theme relates to the psychology of humans reacting under extreme conditions, and they wanted a word that encapsulated that situation. “I was like, ‘Maybe the Germans have something,’ because they’re great at cramming complex concepts into, like, one word, like ‘schadenfreude’ and ‘zeitgeist,’” observes Blythe. Morton’s mother is German, so Morton also discussed it with her while researching German vocabulary. Eventually, the band agreed to the title.
Blythe added that between this new album, his upcoming book and his photo exhibit, he hopes that this will provide him closure on the entire situation:
“Artistically for me, once this record is done, it’s done,” he says of further addressing what happened to him in Prague. [..] So for this record, I wrote a whole book about the situation because it affected me very deeply, but also so that when people are like, ‘What was prison like?,’ I’ll be like, ‘Read the book.’ ” He laughs. “That way, there’s all the answers you need.”
The new Lamb of God album comes out this July.
