At the start of the millennium, metal was changing shape. The nu metal era was about to be put out of its misery, and the rise of more traditional-sounding metal was starting to form in the underground. “There was a real feeling of camaraderie between a lot of bands from that era,” says Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe of the time. “We didn’t necessarily sound like them, but we had all come through the punk scene and were playing metal. I guess you’d call it the start of metalcore. So it was a really cool community.”
“We went out on the Headbangers Ball tour in 2003,” guitarist Mark Morton remembers. “It was us, Killswitch Engage, Unearth, Shadows Fall and God Forbid. We would even swap the bill around every night, because at that point all of us were in very similar positions in our career; there was no real stand-out ‘huge’ band. It felt like we were all coming up together. There was the sense that something was happening, which was exciting.”
