Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe recently opened up about his personal music listening habits, revealing that he actively avoids major streaming platforms in favor of directly purchasing albums to better support independent artists.
During a recent guest appearance on the “Mark And Me” podcast, Randy Blythe explained his old-school approach to building his digital music library. While he still uses modern technology like his smartphone to listen to tracks on the go, he prefers to buy his music outright from platforms that offer fairer payouts to musicians.
“I don’t stream now. I don’t use Spotify or Apple Music or any of that stuff. Well, I still buy. I listen to music on my iPhone, but I buy the album, the digital album from the iTunes store, or what I really like is [the American online music distribution platform] Bandcamp. The band gets the money [from Bandcamp]. So if the albums are available on Bandcamp, and I just want it ‘to go’ — I also buy vinyl, but I can’t carry a record player around with me on tour — I will buy from Bandcamp as much as possible and have that and then put it in my iTunes to listen. Even with that, you can listen, you can preview stuff, like a song or two. On Bandcamp, you can listen to the whole thing, but half the time I kind of have this sort of, I guess, longing for the mystery of the old days. So I don’t even preview much stuff. I listen to, like, one song.”
Expanding on his desire to keep a sense of mystery alive when exploring new music, the singer shared a funny story about a recent Valentine’s Day outing with his girlfriend. While attending a goth-themed event hosted by the North Carolina band Dead Cool, he ended up blindly buying a full album based on a single dance track he heard over the venue’s speakers.
“If I hear a song and — let’s say for instance, the other night, my girlfriend and I, for Valentine’s Day, we went to the goth prom; there was a goth prom. I painted my fingernails black and everything, wore my vampire fangs. We got all gothed up. Some friends of ours threw it — this band Dead Cool from North Carolina threw it — and so there’s us and 300 goth people there. And in between bands, over the stereo, there was a DJ, and he was playing some dark wave stuff. So I Shazamed it. I’m, like, ‘What is this? And it was just one song that I really liked, like a dance track. And I went on iTunes and bought it right there at the club — boom! And my girlfriend is, like, ‘You better hope the whole record’s good. You could have just bought one song.’ And I’m, like, ‘Eh, screw it.’ Yeah, it’s a mystery. And it also doesn’t hurt, though, to be perfectly honest, because I am a professional musician, that the albums I buy are a tax write-off for me, ’cause it’s research. Me, I’m [also] a bestselling author. My books I buy — tax write-off. It’s part of my business.”
Lamb of God recently unleashed their highly anticipated tenth studio album, Into Oblivion. The record officially dropped on March 13 through Epic Records in the United States and Century Media in Europe.
Produced and mixed by longtime studio collaborator Josh Wilbur, the recording process for Into Oblivion was uniquely spread across several locations tied to the band’s identity. The drum tracks were captured in their hometown of Richmond, Virginia, while guitars and bass were recorded at guitarist Mark Morton‘s personal home studio. Blythe tracked his blistering vocals at the iconic Total Access studio in Redondo Beach, California—the birthplace of legendary punk records by Black Flag, Hüsker Dü, and Descendents.
Into Oblivion Official Tracklist:
- “Into Oblivion”
- “Parasocial Christ”
- “Sepsis”
- “The Killing Floor”
- “El Vacío”
- “St. Catherine’s Wheel”
- “Blunt Force Blues”
- “Bully”
- “A Thousand Years”
- “Devise/Destroy”
Lamb of God 2026 North American Tour Dates:
- March 24 – Minneapolis, MN – Armory
- March 25 – Chicago, IL – Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
- March 27 – Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
- March 28 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Union Event Center
- March 30 – Portland, OR – Theater of the Clouds
- March 31 – Seattle, WA – WAMU Theater
- April 1 – Vancouver, BC – PNE Forum
- April 3 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
- April 4 – Inglewood, CA – YouTube Theater
- April 5 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
- April 7 – Albuquerque, NM – Revel Entertainment Center
- April 10 – Austin, TX – Moody Amphitheater
- April 11 – Irving, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
- April 12 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall
- April 14 – Nashville, TN – War Memorial Auditorium
- April 15 – Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre
- April 16 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater
- April 18 – Reading, PA – Santander Arena
- April 19 – Virginia Beach, VA – The Dome
- April 21 – Buffalo, NY – Buffalo RiverWorks
- April 23 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
- April 25 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
- April 26 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Summer 2026 European Tour Dates:
- July 24 – Istanbul, TUR – Bonus Parkorman
- July 24-26 – Plovdiv, BUL – Hills Of Rock
- July 27-31 – Rasnov, ROM – Rockstadt Extreme Fest
- August 1 – Wacken, GER – Wacken Open Air
- August 3 – Leipzig, GER – Haus Auensee (w/ Thy Art Is Murder, Bleed From Within, Fit For An Autopsy)
- August 5-09 – Lisbon, POR – Vagos Open Air
- August 6-09 – Kortrijk, BEL – Alcatraz Open Air
- August 6-09 – Walton-On-Trent, UK – Bloodstock Open Air
- August 11 – Copenhagen, DEN – K.B. Hallen (w/ Thy Art Is Murder, Fit For An Autopsy, Vended)
- August 12 – Dinkelsbuhl, GER – Summer Breeze
- August 13-15 – Sulingen, GER – Reload Festival
- August 14 – Eindhoven, NET – Dynamo Metalfest
