RANDY BLYTHE: How JAMEY JASTA And CHUCK BILLY Ended Up Guesting On New LAMB OF GOD Album

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In a recent interview with U.K.'s TotalRock Radio, LAMB OF GOD singer Randy Blythe spoke about the guest musicians who appear on the band's forthcoming self-titled album. He said: "On one song, I have my friend Jamey Jasta [HATEBREED], on a song called 'Poison Dream', that he did guest vocals on. I've been really good friends with him for years, and the guys in HATEBREED — some of my dearest friends. Both my guitar player Mark Morton and I have both have done stuff on Jamey's solo records, and for a while, I've been, like, 'I wanna get Jamey on a song.' And it's about environmental pollution by chemical factories and so forth, which both Jamey and I have lived in areas where there's been a lot of pollution in the waters. So I reached out to him — I heard a certain part of the song I wanted him to be on — and he was totally down. It's just family for us. And there's another song called 'Routes' that Chuck Billy from TESTAMENT is on, and that was inspired by my trip to Sandy Rock, North Dakota during the #NoDAPL pipeline movement, which was a Native [American]-led movement, so it was important for me to have a Native voice on that. And Chuck Billy happens to be a gigantic Pomo Indian from California, so he was really down to do that. I'm just really pleased he was able to do that… He did a great job on the record, and so did Jamey. And I'm really pleased we got this done before this whole fucking pandemic happened. At least we got a record in the can." "Lamb Of God" will be released on May 8 via Epic Records in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast Records in Europe. The follow-up to 2015's "VII: Sturm Und Drang" marks LAMB OF GOD's first recordings with Art Cruz, who joined the band last year as the replacement for the group's founding drummer, Chris Adler. Cruz filled in for Adler on several LAMB OF GOD tours in the past couple of years before being named Chris's official replacement last July. When Adler's absence from LAMB OF GOD's summer 2018 tour was first announced, he released a statement saying that he had been undergoing physical and occupational therapy for injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident in late 2017. Cruz made his live debut with LAMB OF GOD in July 2018 in Gilford, New Hampshire.