LAMB OF GOD's Mark Morton picks favorite SLAYER song | Revolver

LAMB OF GOD's Mark Morton picks favorite SLAYER song

"It just sounds like a nightmare"
Lamb of God Mark Morton live 2021 1600x900, Travis Shinn
Lamb of God's Mark Morton
photograph by Travis Shinn

Slayer have one of the most diehard fanbases in metal history, and in some ways, they're also the ultimate band's band. Intensity begets intensity, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a metal musician out there who doesn't love at least one Slayer record.

Metal Hammer asked several of the now-defunct thrash titans' peers and disciples to pick their single favorite Slayer song, and Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton was one of them. See his selection below.

"Mandatory Suicide"

I love the cadence of the vocal — without being particularly melodic, it's still really catchy. Dare I say it's like a hip-hop kind of thing, where there's a pattern to lock into. The South of Heaven album was so awesome to me. I liked Reign In Blood, but it was a little too punk and fast for me.

I was listening to hip-hop and into Testament and stuff like that, and on South of Heaven they got into this slowed-down groove, the same way rap does. That resonated with me, and I think parts of that song, in the verse particularly, have that kind of emotion to them — that lope, that kind of pulse.

The lyrics are super-scary and dark and crazy and awesome, like Slayer. The bit at the end where he's kind of got this ominous, devil track, spoken-word thing over the whole outro — with the guitars wailing and echoing — it just sounds like a nightmare. When you can create that kind of atmosphere with just sound, that's art to me.