Burn The Priest

Formed in Richmond, Virginia, the heavy metal outfit Burn the Priest featured vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Abe Spear, bassist John Campbell, and drummer Chris Adler. The group issued a brief run of recordings before adopting the Lamb of God name in 1999. Drawing from metalcore, thrash, punk, sludge, and groove-laden death metal, they produced a demo, two split EPs—one shared with Agents of Satan and the other with ZED—and a self-titled full-length release, then switched identities to sidestep assumptions of Satanic ties.

Lamb of God went on to deliver multiple prominent studio albums that achieved strong commercial results, marking the band as one of heavy metal’s steadiest and most provocative acts whose unyielding style earned both critical regard and strong sales figures. In 2018 the musicians revived the Burn the Priest name for the covers album Legion: XX, an energetic survey of songs by their punk, hardcore, noise rock, and sludge metal influences such as Bad Brains, Melvins, Ministry, Quicksand, and Big Black.