Metal Obsession spoke with John from LAMB OF GOD the other day and they spoke about everything from the new album to guitar tuning, gaming and much more. Check out some extracts below:

Metal Obsession: With the lyrics on Resolution, is there any particular theme you tried to go with?

John: Most would be in relation to the title. Well, what happens is, to make a long story short, the songs come together, and we kinda look through the lyrics for specific words and things to try and come up with a title for the record. That’s what we did, and it appropriately reflects the themes of the album.

Metal Obsession: I noticed most of the songs on this album were tuned to Drop C# instead of the usual Drop D, why did you want a lower tuning for this album?

John: That is an amazing observation; most journalists wouldn’t take notice of the tunings we were in. It was definitely a conscious thing, y’know, dropping it down another half step because it’s chronically heavier. We just thought it sounded badass, and a couple of songs sounded appropriate in C#. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the very opening track is actually tuned to Drop C.

Metal Obsession: It is. What makes you feel like this is the best Lamb of God album yet?

John: Well if you think about it logically, we have been for a long time so we’ve got better at doing this. But it’s ah, we’ve learned lessons along the way that we’ve actually used, and when bringing out a new record, we’re not interested in bringing out the same record we did before. To stretch and try new things and try to evolve as a band has always been what we’ve aimed for when we’ve gone to write and put out a new record.

But what makes it better? Specifically, I couldn’t really put my finger on it, but being very involved with all the recordings we have done, this is my absolute favourite and most challenging group of songs we’ve put together.

Metal Obsession: I know that you’re a gaming fan, have you played any of the new games out like Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Skyrim? What one is your favourite?

John: I have not. I’ve had to kinda hang out and do things a little bit. I’m more of a family man now, I’ve got two children and once my son got old enough to kind of realise what was happening on the screen with the video games, I had to give up with all the bloody, brutal games. But these games are very close to my heart, I love these sorts of things, I don’t even have an Xbox anymore, I have a Wii. They released Call of Duty out on the Wii and I had a mess around with that a little bit.

I’m not as hardcore of a gamer as I used to be, and I unfortunately haven’t had a chance to play any of the very new games. I actually have a copy of Modern Warfare 3 sitting in my house for Xbox, I just have to figure out which one of my friends have an Xbox, so I can make some free time getting over to their place and check it out.

Metal Obsession: You have toured with many of the biggest names in old and new metal over the years, what band was your favourite to tour with and why?

John: Well I guess I might be repeating myself a little bit but, Mastodon is probably my absolute favourite band to tour with. Two of their guys was in the studio when we recorded the Burn the Priest record, because they were playing in the band with the guy who recorded it. So we met those guys a long time ago, and they’re doing the same thing we are in a lot of ways, and I feel like brothers with these guys. So without a doubt for me, playing shows with Mastodon is more than a pleasure, they’re one of my absolute favourite bands to tour with.

Click here to read the full interview..