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LAMB OF GOD's RANDY BLYTHE on his upcoming book 'Just Beyond The Light': “there is a lot of self-searching in it”

16-01-2025

During an appearance on B&H Event Space‘s “Leica Stories”, LAMB OF GOD frontman D. Randall “Randy” Blythe spoke about his upcoming book, “Just Beyond The Light: Making Peace With The Wars Inside Our Head“, which is due on February 18, 2025 via Grand Central Publishing (GCP). He said: “My first book, the main theme was personal accountability, about some legal problems I had, that I went through, that some people are probably familiar with. But the second book is about perspective, as far as I can tell after writing it, because I didn’t have a very clear plan when I started writing it. It’s about looking for outside perspectives from people or experiences I’ve had in order to have me course correct and not to make so many of the stupid mistakes I’ve made over the years.

“For me, the only way I’ve ever been able to shift my perspective to a more balanced perspective is listening to people who have experienced things and come out on the other side of it a better person,” he explained. “So that’s what I was trying to do. And there is a lot of self-searching in it. I don’t know if you would describe the book as a memoir, but it’s a collection, maybe, of essays or something. And I’m writing about my experiences that I’ve had with other people or just in life. And so I’m questioning myself, and I was questioning myself as I was writing the book. I knew I wanted to write about a couple of things, but everything else was a mystery. So, it’s a lot of self-questioning.

“Something I really want for the reader — hopefully that’s the main point — is to think about their own perspective on life and to ask themselves about their own perspective and how they can change it for the better.”

Blythe went on to say that learning from past experiences is a fundamental aspect of personal growth and development.

“Nobody, as far as I know, has ever lived a perfect life, at least no one that I’ve met,” he said. “And God knows I haven’t. But that doesn’t mean I need to sit here and castigate myself and flagellate myself and crucify myself forever. I need to learn from these experiences and hopefully become a better person. If I just sit there and say things to myself, ‘Oh, you’re horrible,’ and beat the crap out of yourself, it’s really just the other side of the egomaniacal narcissism coin, really. Because if I’m just sitting there thinking I’m just the worst person in the world because I did something wrong, then I’m still just thinking about one person — myself. And I think as I grow older, my life goes a lot smoother the less I think about me. (Laughs) When I try and reach out and think about other people, my life tends to go a lot smoother. If I’m stuck here up in my head, it’s no good. My head’s a bad neighborhood. I should never go up there without adult supervision.”

“Just Beyond The Light” was previously described by Blythe as a “tight, concise roadmap of how I have attempted to maintain what I believe to be a proper perspective in life, even during difficult times.”

“Ashes Of Leviathan” celebrates the 20th anniversary of LAMB OF GOD‘s “Ashes Of The Wake” and MASTODON‘s “Leviathan” albums, both of which were released on the same date in 2004 (August 31).

“Ashes Of The Wake (20th-Anniversary Edition)” track listing:
01. Laid To Rest
02. Hourglass
03. Now You’ve Got Something To Die For
04. The Faded Line
05. Omertá
06. Blood Of The Scribe
07. One Gun
08. Break You
09. What I’ve Become
10. Ashes Of The Wake
11. Remorse Is For The Dead
12. Laid To Rest(pre-production demo) *
13. Ashes Of The Wake (pre-production demo) *
14. Remorse Is For The Dead (pre-production demo) *
15. Another Nail For Your Coffin (feat. KUBLAI KHAN TX and MALEVOLENCE)
16. Laid To Rest (HEALTH remix)
17. Omertá (Justin K Broadrick remix)
18. Remorse Is For The Dead (live in Richmond, Virginia)
19. Now You’ve Got Something To Die For (live from 2007)

* Exclusive to 2CD and digital

This summer, LAMB OF GOD will join forces with MASTODON, who released their sophomore album, “Leviathan”, on the same date (August 31) that “Ashes Of The Wake” arrived in 2004. The tour, dubbed “Ashes Of Leviathan”, also features openers KERRY KING and MALEVOLENCE.

LAMB OF GOD is Randy Blythe (vocals), John Campbell (bass), Mark Morton (guitar), Willie Adler (guitar) and Art Cruz (drums). Formed in 1994, the Richmond, Virginia-based band have released nine critically acclaimed albums, received five Grammy Award nominations and are widely regarded as one of the most influential and innovative forces in heavy music. The band’s most recent collection, “Omens”, arrived in late 2022, with Kerrang! noting that the album finds the band “as reliably heavy, violent, and pissed off as ever,” and Consequence saying the “album will break you down to nihilistic pieces.”

LAMB OF GOD released their last album ‘Omens’, on October 7th, 2022, on Nuclear Blast Records.

“Omens” track listing:

01. Nevermore
02. Vanishing
03. To The Grave
04. Ditch
05. Omens
06. Gomorrah
07. Ill Designs
08. Grayscale
09. Denial Mechanism
10. September Song

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