Published on February 8th, 2020 | by Darren Paltrowitz
0Lamb Of God’s Mark Morton On His New “Ether” EP, Staying Busy As A Musician & Future Plans
The Richmond, Virginia quintet known as Lamb Of God propelled heavy metal into the new millennium two decades ago with the prophetically titled New American Gospel. They followed with 2003’s As The Palaces Burn, which made the Rolling Stone list of the “Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums Of All Time.” Ashes Of The Wake, released in 2004, was the first Lamb Of God album to be certified gold by the RIAA, as was 2006’s Sacrament. In 2009, Lamb Of God released Wrath, which earned the #1 album spot on Billboard’s Hard Rock, Rock, and Tastemaker charts, with a #2 position on the Billboard 200.
Lamb Of God’s next studio album is due out on May 8th, but guitarist Mark Morton also has new music out in early 2020. Ether, Morton’s second solo offering, was released last month via Rise Records. The primarily acoustic EP is comprised of three original tracks and two covers that showcase Morton’s diversity as a musician. As with last year’s solo debut Anesthetic — which includes appearances from the likes of Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix, Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy, Buckcherry’s Josh Todd and Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz — the guitarist enlisted the talents of various musicians and vocalists to bring his songs to life. Among the musicians featured on Ether are Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale, Light The Torch’s Howard Jones and singer Mark Morales.
I had the pleasure speaking with Mark Morton by phone on February 4, 2020 about Ether, future Lamb Of God activity, performing at Columbus, Ohio’s Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival and plenty more. The full interview — which will appear on a future episode of the Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast — is embedded below for your listening pleasure. More on Mark Morton can be found online by visiting his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/markmortonmusic.