Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe has never claimed to be a tried-and-true metalhead. Despite fronting one of the biggest bands in the genre for over two decades, Blythe cut his teeth in the hardcore scene before stumbling into metal, and even now, his three favorite records of all time reflect his lifelong preference of punk to metal. However, in a new interview with Chaoszine, the frontman revealed that there were two metal vocalists in particular who influenced his iconic vocal style, and fittingly, both are extreme as shit.
When he was asked to name the vocalists who had the biggest impact on his screamed delivery, Blythe said that in terms of metal, it was Lee Dorian — specifically his work on Napalm Death's trailblazing grindcore opus, Scum — and Brutal Truth frontman screamer Kevin Sharp who really informed his growls during the early days of Burn the Priest (who'd later change their name to Lamb of God).
"In terms of metal influences, Lee Dorian-era Napalm Death," Blythe said of his biggest metal vocalist inspirations. "The first era. I love Barney, but I got into Napalm Death before Barney was in the band. The first two Napalm Death records. I really liked Brutal Truth — Kevin Sharp from Brutal Truth. A lot of the more grindcore stuff, you know what I'm saying? Really underground. Very extreme. That was what really attracted me to it is like, these people are … when I first started doing [metal vocals], I was just doing like, the deep 'Cookie Monster [voice].'
"Then I remember the first time I heard the Napalm Death Scum record, I was like, 'what the fuck is that guy doing with his voice? That's crazy.' [Them] or Brutal Truth. Just really extreme shit, and so I started doing that. Not trying to sound exactly like them, but just to see what kind of weird noises could come out of me. Then as we carried on as a band, I tried not to just sound like one particular thing.
"Every record we do, Mark [Morton] our guitar player calls them 'my characters' — the different pitches or whatever. He's like, 'we need to find a new character. You need to find a new character.' He has different nicknames for them. So with each record, [I] try and expand the voice a little bit."
See Blythe's full interview below, and then check out a song from each of his vocal idols.
