The New Wave Of American Heavy Metal: Celebrating 20 Years Of Ashes Of The Wake And Leviathan

A Time To Be Laid To Rest

The late 90s into the early 00s was a rather peculiar time in the realm of heavy music. The likes of Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park were dominating radio waves and TRL countdowns to bring the attention of ugly tones, angry lyrics, and screaming vocals to the forefront of many a teenager’s mind. The prominence of the genre became so significant that even O-Town got a spot on Ozzfest. As the Nu wave began to crest and crash, however, metalcore started to take up its mantle. If you’re thinking it’s great that the likes of Converge or Botch were gaining ground with young listeners, then you, my friend, are ever the optimist. No, it was the watered-down, good cop/bad cop approach to vocals, recycled At The Gates riffs and generic open chord breakdown version of metalcore that was starting to stake its claim.

As this wave of groups ascended and started to take international tours, a nebulous “genre” tag emerged that tried to lump them, and a great variety of other bands, together as the New Wave of American Heavy Metal (NWOAHM). This was, of course, a play on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that included little-known bands like Iron Maiden and Motörhead. Want to guess which tag has stuck around and had a greater influence?

As with its predecessor, NWOAHM really had no indicator as to what a listener could expect a band to sound like as the only unifying factor was that any included band was from the U.S. The tag encompassed everyone from Chimaira to Baroness to Killswitch Engage. Hands down the face of this merry band of screamers would become Lamb of God with Mastodon right on their heels. Now that the bulk of both metalcore and nu metal crews have been laid to rest, these two remain some of the only ones capable of still drawing crowds of several thousand people as their recent co-headlining tour would show. Released on the same day, August 31, 2004, Ashes Of The Wake and Leviathan are perfect companions to snapshot an era that would usher in many a newer fan of heavy metal from what was to what could be.

Years Of Spilling Blood and Making Thunder

Being a touch older and with a few more releases under their belt, it’s no surprise that Lamb of God was already relatively well established and seeing their star on the rise by 2004. While Ashes Of The Wake may have been the flashbang to see them jump to the next level, that resulted from nearly a decade of work on the road and honing their craft. Springing from the fertile violence of GWAR’s homeland in Richmond, Virginia, Lamb of God began their days as Burn The Priest. The initial combination of the band was Chris Adler (drums), Abe Spear (Guitar), John Campbell (bass) and Randy Blythe (vocals). Eventually, they would add Mark Morton as a second guitarist and substitute Chris’ brother Willie for Spear on guitar to release their self-titled full length in 1999. If you were to place Ashes next to Burn The Priest you would hear two remarkably different bands despite having the same players.

Those early works were raw as hell and viscerally pissed off with pure punk venom and a grind mentality. Speed and vitriol were the name of the game best exemplified by Blythe’s throat-shredding, high-pitched scream that I’m sure caused him to vomit regularly while recording. Around the time of release, the group decided to rename themselves Lamb of God and this potent lineup would stay intact for more than 15 years. Stability in cast being a common thread for both them and Mastodon. The tag of NWOAHM doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch when Lamb of God’s debut under the new moniker landed one year later with the title New American Gospel. Already, the band began to stretch their sound. Songs lasted more than a couple of minutes, solos began to breathe, Blythe added a greater variety to his vocals and so on. That debut would see “Black Label” enter the fold and make their live shows infamous for huge wall-of-death moments from the crowd.

It was album number two, however, that truly started to cement the band’s path. Devin Townsend’s filthy production on As The Palaces Burn created one of the greatest guitar tones of the early 2000s and the song “Ruin” garnered the band plenty of attention. A pummeling opening riff, that prolonged scream, Chris Adler’s raucous fill before the breakdown – it was all killer. They had found their ability to create ear-worm riffs and understood the value of a chorus. Again, Blythe took another step in shifting his vocals to be no less distinct but certainly more understandable.

In case you were wondering how much crossover their might be between Mastodon and Lamb of God, do you know who produced New American Gospel? Why that would be Steve Austin of Today Is The Day fame. Do you know who spent time in Today Is The Day? Why Bill Kelliher (guitarist) and Brann Dailor (drummer) of Mastodon, of course! After departing that band and meeting Troy Sanders (bassist) and Brent Hinds (guitarist) at a High On Fire show, of all things, the quartet would form Mastodon in 2000. The group originally included a dedicated vocalist but he would only last for one demo in their first year. The Atlanta boys released two EPs and a demo in 2001 before cementing their path with debut full length Remission in 2002. While an eight-minute instrumental closer certainly hinted at their proggy tendencies, it was crushing songs with diabolical riffs like “March Of The Fire Ants” that captured attention early on. In particular, Dailor’s uncanny drumming was absolutely relentless through the debut. Their sludge influence was still prominent here but they were already going well outside the bounds of what was typical for the genre.

Both bands had already started to garner a rabid fanbase but the next release felt like it would be their tipping point in either direction.

Now You’ve Got Something To Set Your Hearts Alive

The fact that both Mastodon and Lamb of God would cement their legacies on the same day is a synchronicity that’s rarely seen. Both groups took a step forward with different kinds of polish and truly announced themselves to the metal community in 2004. 

Ashes Of The Wake is less a departure of style as it is one of sound and song craft. The production, in particular, took huge leap forward in terms of its clarity and heft compared to anything the band had put out before. The album immediately hits the listener with what would become one of Lamb of God’s most recognizable riffs in “Laid To Rest.” Blythe’s spoken-word intro is a perfect preface for his first vocals, which are shockingly clear, making it easy for the listener to learn the lyrics and want scream along. In terms of other bands that were reaching this size at the time, Blythe was the only vocalist doing absolutely zero clean singing, which made the album’s success even more impressive. The kick patterns, infectious chorus, massive breakdown and relatable desire to scream “see who gives a fuck” vaulted “Laid to Rest” to the forefront of Big Metal Songs Of The Summer.

The band’s ability to combine Pantera’s groove with subtle doses of Slayer thrash and slap a memorable chorus into the middle made them prime for the big stage. While the sound and approach to writing is consistent throughout, a one-trick pony the Virginia quartet is not. “Hourglass” has a classic galloping riff, the siren screaming across the breakdown in “The Faded Line” makes it feel massive, “Omerta” has the slow ominous battering of an oncoming boss fight, and the riff is so well tied to the vocal hook in “What I’ve Become” that you could hear the opening notes and the words will pop into your head without having to see the title written in front of you. 

Part of Lamb of God’s success is their ability to channel their influences without aping them. They are also proud to shout out the thrash giants that came before them, so much so that the instrumental title track features guest solos from Chris Poland of Megadeth and Alex Skolnick of Testament. “Ashes Of The Wake” also proved that even when Blythe isn’t there to provide a vocal hook or anthemic chorus, the band can still absolutely kill it. 

Mastodon’s progression and polish came in the form of more dynamic songs and introduced cleaner vocals. Much like their Richmond pals, the Atlantans managed to start Leviathan with one of their most iconic riffs in “Blood And Thunder.” The vocals remained gruff but a touch clearer and the chorus riff was massive, like a ship shifting among uncertain seas. “I Am Ahab” follows with rollicking drums and complex, jagged riffs that remind of Meshuggah. That violent one-two punch is subdued by “Seabeast;” its opening is clean but expressive, with guitars that meander rather than attack and it’s one of the first examples of Mastodon using truly clean vocals that provide an undeniable hook. The song balances back and forth between heavy and calm, but each reprieve sees the drums increase in complexity and intensity. Eventually, when the song gets truly heavy, the guitars and vocals both get harsher, and the song ends with a huge simple crescendo of a riff. “Island” follows with a pure pit-burster to prove the band isn’t interested in faffing about for too long. 

Somehow, the guitars on “Iron Tusk” manage to sound thicker and heavier than on any other track. The song sees them lean more into their sludge origins while riding one hell of a Sleep-style riff. Parts of “Megalodon” feel like a movie chase sequence and “Naked Burn” rolls an 80’s rock intro into a woozy vocal hook and pops off a part that was surely written just to make crowds clap along. 

Just as Lamb of God was content to feature their heroes on a track, Mastodon got Neurosis’ Scott Kelly to add vocals to “Aqua Dementia.” The high-energy opening riff is fit for a fight and flits between ears in a rousing manner before leading with some real giddy-up and extra harsh vocals. Particularly when the song opens up with a big crusher of a guitar part around the two-minute mark, and it slows to a pummel, you can tell the band wrote this with Neurosis in mind.

Then Mastodon had the big whale balls to drop a 13-minute beast into the album. It starts with a slow fade but the greatest trick of “Hearts Alive” is that even on repeated passages, it’s always building on itself. The song is perpetually moving forward, creating tension and adding little layers to whatever it’s trying to do. It has moments of levity providing a glimmer of hope, but it ends with a repeated crusher of a simple riff that, in its earlier moments, is accompanied by the guitars going absolutely wild. The album proceeds to close with an instrumental as Mastodon has done several times before and since. It’s an odd choice after such a massive track, but it’s also more impactful. The largely acoustic nature of “Joseph Merrick” is a reprieve from the heaviness that precedes it and provides the listener with a sense of an ending and an instruction to reflect. It’s both hopeful and somber, befitting its Elephant Man inspirations.

Another interesting factor tying these two bands together is the prominence in the metal scene that their drummers would take and for totally different approaches to the instrument at that. Adler would garner attention for his ability to add extra groove to the song, his catchy kick patterns and ability to ping cymbals at just the right time to amp up any song. The lead-up and fill in “Omerta” is killer, the kick roll and dry snap of the snare that ends it in “Hourglass” makes those open moments all the more potent, and the rolls in “Remorse Is For The Dead” are diabolical. Dailor, on the other hand, is a man of complexity, performing mind-boggling tricks that manage to not overwhelm the song. His fills and snare work are exceptional. Even when songs are more reserved, Dailor is in the background, hitting about 115 notes at a time, but they’re soft and balanced, managing to both support and shine through the other instruments. He is a goddamn wizard.

Bloody Words Of The Scribe

In an era where nu metal focused on teen angst and metalcore seemed obsessed with lost loves, Mastodon and Lamb of God provided listeners with something else to think about. Something with more to chew on than a $10,000,000 glob of ambergris on a beach. Leviathan is a loose concept album inspired by Moby Dick. A book well known for it’s density and lengthy passages of now-outdated whale facts, Herman Melville’s classic isn’t exactly the source material you figure a young metal band should mine to make a hit. The poetic nature of that era of literature comes through in what Mastodon put to paper. They deftly balance Ahab’s rage: 

“White whale – holy grail
Split your lungs with blood and thunder
When you see the white whale
Break your backs and crack your oars men
If you wish to prevail

This ivory leg is what propels me
Harpoons thrust in the sky
Aim directly for his crooked brow
And look him straight in the eye”
(“Blood And Thunder”)

With Melville’s sense of awe and terror of the beauteous and wrathful nature of the ocean:

“We like to breathe the ancient wind that we have followed
A perfect fire to burn the land
Before they knew it
The sun had fallen
Boiling the water where the hydra’s crawling
The righteous go in blazing fury
And we cleanse the earth to bring it down
Bring it down
And God will watch it burn”
(“Aqua Dementia”)

Lamb of God’s white whale, on the other hand, was a goofy little man from Texas that had decided to wage war on the Middle East. Blythe’s punk background certainly came into play in past lyrical content with such ditties as “O.D.H.G.A.B.F.E.,” which stands for officer dick head gets a black fucking eye, by the way. Where he succeeds here, though, is his ability to take the angsty rage of a generation and turn it from personal to collective. Those young folks screaming along to Slipknot’s “Surfacing” all of a sudden had a more pointed reason to hate the world. Lamb of God tapped into the age-old topic of the American military’s pointless global crusades, poignantly summarized in “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For”:

“Bombs to set the people free,
blood to feed the dollar tree.
Flags for coffins on the screen,
oil for the machine.”

The Ahab I’ve Become

In the wake of 9/11, the news slowly turning toward a 24-hour cycle and the internet becoming more ubiquitous, it was becoming easier to get exposed to the rest of the world. For a suburban teen like myself, going from the self-indulgent tunes of more prominent metal acts to ones that took a deep dive into complex literature or had something to say about the socio-political state of the world was engrossing. Each album seemed to be doing something that others at their level simply weren’t. 

Sure, many of you had a cooler older sibling that made you listen to Master of Puppets when you were eight years old and it kicked open a door. Many of you were lucky enough to come of age in the 80s when metal was exploding with possibilities and tape trading created a fascinating network of faceless friendships. For folks like myself, growing up in a quiet neighborhood with no network of other people listening to this kind of music, albums like Ashes Of The Wake and Leviathan felt like a revelation. Liner notes, guest appearances and shoutouts in online interviews were opening rabbit holes I wanted to dive down. I was finally ready for music that had something to say. I had the attention span to sit through a song that lasted for more than 5 minutes. I no longer needed to listen based on raw emotion alone and could start to appreciate complexity, the value of a chorus and music that made me feel something beyond self-pity or rage. They made me start hunting for the elusive white whales of what could be the heaviest, the most complex, the simplest world-beater, the greatest riff, the most dizzying array of notes, the ones that could balance the beautiful with the hideous, and so on.

Mastodon and Lamb of God didn’t start any sort of revolution. They aren’t trailblazers. More broadly, the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal turned out to mostly be a light lapping at the shore. What these two bands did do, though, was create a new wave of American heavy metal fans. Beyond that, they helped usher many like myself past the entryway and toward the more substantive parts of our grand playground of metal madness. I’ll never begrudge you disliking either of these albums, but I can tell you I wouldn’t be here writing about obscure shit like Concrete Winds and brutal death metal EPs by bands called Castrator if I hadn’t dove into the deepest recesses of all that Ashes and Leviathan had to offer first. 

Nostalgia effect be damned, I simply love what both bands have accomplished and will forever keep these two albums in rotation.

Posted by Spencer Hotz

Admirer of the weird, the bizarre and the heavy, but so are you. Why else would you be here?

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