“Hit as hard as you can”: Lamb of God’s John Campbell remembers recording ’Ashes of the Wake’
Lamb of God‘s 2004 album, Ashes of the Wake, turns 20 on Saturday. The RIAA Gold-certified record marked the Virginia metallers’ major label debut and is regarded as a classic of 21st century metal.
Reflecting on the anniversary with ABC Audio, bassist John Campbell remarks how different his and his bandmates’ lives are now versus when they recorded Ashes.
“Living life as an early 30-year-old with no wife, no kids, it was a completely different time,” Campbell says.
Campbell also remembers the band feeling a lot less secure then that they could continue to make a career in music, and that Ashes could be their last record.
“We were just burning as bright as we could at the moment, because [we thought], ‘This is our shot, man, this is all we got,'” Campbell says.
“We still kind of approach our stuff now in the same way,” he continues. “Maybe [we have] a little more confidence in that we’ll probably be able to continue on … we have time to breathe and craft. Whereas when we were making [Ashes], it was just like, ‘Holy s***. Bring everything out. Hit as hard as you can.'”
With that “no tomorrow” mentality, Lamb of God was focused on bringing the energy of their live show to the studio with Ashes.
“We were able to get that energy down and connect with people through that,” Campbell says. “Somehow we got our energy into this record, and people connected with it.”
Lamb of God is marking the Ashes anniversary with a deluxe reissue, due out Friday, and is also playing it in full live on tour, which concludes Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska. The trek is co-headlined by Mastodon, whose own 2004 album, Leviathan, dropped the same exact day as Ashes.
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