In a new interview with The Downbeat Podcast, hosted by STRAY FROM THE PATH drummer Craig Reynolds, LAMB OF GOD guitarist Mark Morton spoke about the band’s upcoming tenth studio album, “Into Oblivion”, which will be released on March 13 via Epic. Asked if it was a conscious decision for him and his bandmates to bring back some of LAMB OF GOD’s earlier sound on the new LP, Mark said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “So I’ll tell you, and we all come into these things with our own perspective and mindset. LAMB OF GOD is very collaborative, and there’s no meeting before we get going about what our premise is gonna be or anything like that. But I do think collectively we were having conversations about, ‘Well, what is it that we’ve gotten away from?’ Not because anything was necessarily wrong, because some of the more recent work we were feel really excited about — ‘Ditch’ is a monster, from the last album; we play that almost every night. And ‘Resurrection Man’ — those are all new songs that are big in the live show and we’re into. ‘Memento Mori’ was massive. But it’s, like. what have we gotten away from that was really at the genesis of this thing that was really the cornerstones that we built it on?”

Mark continued: “So two things happened for me. And I don’t remember exactly where we were in the writing process, but we did a tour that was the ‘Ashes Of The Wake’ 20-year tour. So that had us, and me, going into those songs and learning them inside out. Some of those songs — I think a couple of the songs we’d never played live. I don’t know the stats on that, but certainly most of them we hadn’t played in a long time. So I was digging into those songs. So when you learn something like that and rehearse it so much, you start to understand the patterns that you’re not really… ‘Oh, I don’t really do that move anymore.’ You know what I mean? ‘But I’m doing it now ’cause I’m learning this thing that’s 20 years old.’ And kind of jumping off of that, I also — rather than go back and listen to ‘[As The] Palaces [Burn]’ or go listen to ‘[New American] Gospel’, which I’ve listened to this records from time to time, just [for] nostalgic [reasons]… So, for me, I decided to kind of start going back to the music that I was listening to when we wrote those records. So I started going back and listening to THE HAUNTED and to AT THE GATES and to early MESHUGGAH and all that kind of Swedish stuff that I was so excited about at that point in time. That THE HAUNTED ‘Made Me Do It’ record, I was burning that thing down. It’s so good. And ‘Slaughter Of The Soul’ [by] AT THE GATES, that’s just an absolute classic record. So [I was] just kind of going back there and re-tapping back into my excitement around those bodies of work and then allowing that to inspire what I was doing when I was picking up the guitar again.”

Elaborating on the inspiration he has drawn from Swedish experimental extreme metallers MESHUGGAH, Mark said: “‘Destroy Erase Improve’, that’s one of my favorite metal records, for sure. Some of the stuff, they get so abstract that I don’t… I’m probably impatient as a listener for some of the stuff that they’ve evolved into. And that’s not a criticism. It just means for me, the sort of essence of the basic groove that ‘Destroy Erase Improve’ has, that weird groove with an extra angle but it still grooves, that was a big influence.”

Morton also talked about the contributions of LAMB OF GOD drummer Art Cruz, who joined the group seven years ago as the official replacement for Chris Adler. Cruz, who had previously played with PRONG and WINDS OF PLAGUE, filled in for Adler on several LAMB OF GOD tours before being named the latter band’s new drummer in July 2019. Asked if Cruz ” felt more comfortable to spread his wings” this time around than he did on 2022’s “Omens” and on 2020’s self-titled effort, Mark said: “I think he felt more comfortable. This is Art’s third record [with LAMB OF GOD]. So, the self-titled record, I think there was probably a little bit of more intense focus on the drum parts, just because we had such a large body of work with Chris, and that sound, it’s the LAMB OF GOD sound. So to change drummers and have the drums be drastically different didn’t feel — it didn’t feel right for us, it didn’t feel fair to anybody, including the listeners.

“The beauty of Art being our drummer is he is such a big fan of the body of work of LAMB OF GOD,” Morton explained. “And that’s become a resource for us when we’re songwriting, because we can get a perspective from Art that we don’t have ourselves. He can say things like, ‘Well, LAMB OF GOD in 2009 would’ve done this.’ And we trust that perspective, because we know how important the band’s music was to him coming up and how formative it was for him. So he’s in a unique position to be able to honor that sound and also run with it, which he has done. So I think on the self-titled record, the drums were treated a little more conservative in terms of making big sweeping changes stylistically. And then over the course of the ‘Omens’ record and now ‘Into Oblivion’, you see that sort of evolving, as it should.”

News of “Into Oblivion”‘s March arrival was accompanied by the debut of its title track, “Into Oblivion”, alongside a video directed by Tom Flynn and Mike Watts.

In the months leading up to last month’s album announcement, the metal veterans released a pair of singles that offered listeners a taste of the album’s range. “Sepsis”, the band’s first new song since 2022, paid homage to the early ’90s Richmond underground that shaped LAMB OF GOD’s formative years. Consequence, in their “Heavy Song Of The Week” feature, noted the track’s fresh approach, saying “Mark Morton’s riffs are bruising at this slower pace,” and adding that singer Randy Blythe bellows “like a heavy metal Nick Cave.” “Parasocial Christ” followed, evoking classic LAMB OF GOD with a three-minute onslaught that Revolver dubbed an “anti-tech thrasher.”

Produced and mixed by longtime studio collaborator Josh Wilbur, “Into Oblivion” was recorded across multiple locations tied closely to the band’s identity. Drums were tracked in Richmond, Virginia, with guitars and bass recorded at Morton’s home studio. Blythe recorded his vocals at the legendary Total Access studio in Redondo Beach, California, the birthplace of seminal punk records by BLACK FLAG, HÜSKER DÜ and DESCENDENTS.

LAMB OF GOD previously announced a spring North American tour in what promises to be the heaviest trek of 2026. Joined by KUBLAI KHAN TX, FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY and SANGUISUGABOGG, the tour kicks off on March 17. Tickets and VIP packages are on sale now via Lamb-of-god.com/tour.

“Sepsis” arrived during a milestone year for LAMB OF GOD. In 2025, the band celebrated the 25th anniversary of its discography, performed at the historic “Back To The Beginning” concert and subsequently released their thunderous take on BLACK SABBATH’s “Children Of The Grave”, along with appearances at several festivals, including Inkcarceration and Louder Than Life, and a headlining show at Richmond’s new 7500-seat outdoor venue Allianz Amphitheater during its opening season.

Photo credit: Travis Shinn