Hear Chester Bennington on Lamb of God Guitarist Mark Morton’s New Solo Song
Three years ago, Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton surprised fans with his solo song "SnowBound," a full-on fusion song. A year-and-a-half later, news broke that he was in the studio with Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and in December, Morton revealed plans for his solo album, Anesthetic, featuring an array of guests including the now late Bennington, who was featured on "Cross Off," which you can hear below.
This song comes on the heels of "The Truth Is Dead," a light vs. dark track starring Arch Enemy's Alissa White-Gluz and his Lamb of God bandmate Randy Blythe.
Speaking on Zane Lowe's World Record show, where the song debuted today, Morton stated of Bennington, "He's just got one of those voices, one of those once in an eon existence voices. It's unmistakable. It's just a God-given thing and you hear Chester and you know it's Chester and such an amazing, powerful voice. So emotive as well. Just everything, it's all there. Very personal and very unique."
He went on to add, "In our perfect world, who would sing this song that we were so excited about? Well, it would be Chester Bennington. And I, honestly, didn't even know if my work with Lamb or whatever was on Chester's radar at all. But we reached out and he knew who I was and he wanted to hear the song. And he heard the song and he really fell in love with that song. He told me, instantly, 'This song's great. I absolutely want to do it, and we worked out the details of getting it together and then we just got in a room together and we hung out for a little bit and shared a little bit about the meaning and how we each related to certain things about it. And then, we just sat across the table and started passing the lyric back and forth and trying ideas. We just started meshing it all together from the outline that we had had it in in preproduction into what it is that you hear now and then we tracked it."
Morton confided, "At that point in time, I was struggling with some things in my personal life and he was really supportive and had some experience to share with me and some strength and some hope. All that good stuff. So it was really a special time for me."
Anesthetic will be released on March 1 through WPP and Spinefarm. See the complete track listing below.
Mark Morton, Anesthetic Track Listing
1. "Cross Off" (feat. Chester Bennington)
2. "Sworn Apart" (feat. Jacoby Shaddix)
3. "Axis" (feat. Mark Lanegan)
4. "The Never" (feat. Chuck Billy + Jake Oni)
5. "Save Defiance" (feat. Myles Kennedy)
6. "Blur" (feat. Mark Morales)
7. "Back From The Dead" (feat. Josh Todd)
8. "Reveal" (feat. Naeemah Maddox)
9. "Imaginary Days"
10. "The Truth Is Dead" (feat. Randy Blythe + Alissa White-Gluz)
Chester Bennington Through the Years