Lamb of God's Mark Morton Talks Debut Solo Album, 'Anesthetic'

Mark Morton with his signature Jackson Dominion model (Image credit: Travis Shinn)

He didn’t set out to make a star-studded solo album; he just wanted to write songs. In fall 2016, When Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton came up with the main riff of what became “Imaginary Days,” he loved the proggy, atmospheric vibe of the tune, which reminded him of some of the best Eighties Queensrÿche. He knew it wasn’t right for Lamb of God, but he kept working on it. Then, when he was done with the framework for the song, he wrote more material.

Morton wasn’t sure which of the songs he was working on would end up being Lamb of God tunes and which might surface somewhere else. All he knew was that he wanted to draw from a wide well of influences, including classic rock, surging hard rock, commercial metal, alternative and thrash to create a large batch of material that expanded the boundaries of what he had previously written. The ultra-heavy stuff was separated for possible use on the next Lamb of God record. What interested him more were the songs that relied on texture, melody and somewhat traditional rhythm structures that didn’t lend themselves to howling vocals and barreling beats.

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Jon Wiederhorn

Jon is an author, journalist, and podcaster who recently wrote and hosted the first 12-episode season of the acclaimed Backstaged: The Devil in Metal, an exclusive from Diversion Podcasts/iHeart. He is also the primary author of the popular Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal and the sole author of Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends. In addition, he co-wrote I'm the Man: The Story of That Guy From Anthrax (with Scott Ian), Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen (with Al Jourgensen), and My Riot: Agnostic Front, Grit, Guts & Glory (with Roger Miret). Wiederhorn has worked on staff as an associate editor for Rolling Stone, Executive Editor of Guitar Magazine, and senior writer for MTV News. His work has also appeared in Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Yahoo.com, Revolver, Inked, Loudwire.com and other publications and websites.