Lamb of God’s Mark Morton Explains the Origin of ‘Resolution’

Lamb of God will release their seventh studio album 'Resolution' on Jan. 24. Fan anticipation is at incredibly high levels, and guitarist Mark Morton shared the origin of the album title.

Morton told Metal Shrine about how he and the band arrived at the simple, one-word title. "The thing is… it's not that titles haven't come from the other guys ever before, because they have, but [vocalist] Randy [Blythe] and I write the lyrics, so a lot of times, unless dudes are paying attention to the lyrics, more or less we have like a theme that we're talking about," the guitarist said. "It's almost like pinning the tail on the donkey. If they just come up with an album title out of the abstract, it doesn't necessarily apply."

That make sense, since album titles can tie the whole concept or theme of an album together, not to mention arouse the interest of potential fans. Morton continued, "I think that was our big argument this time: that 'Resolution' really kind of relates to a lot of the themes and things we were writing about, be it clarity, like resolution first and then clarity or being the finality of a phase or the end of a conflict and a new beginning or something. Or just having resolved or having the determination to see something. All those are parts of the themes and the things we were writing about."

Morton didn't have to look further than his own band to come up with the title. As it turns out, he mined one of the band's old records to come up with it. (The first thing this writer thought upon hearing the title of the album was the song 'Ruin' from 'As the Palaces Burn.' Turns out, we were right!) Morton revealed, "My idea for it came from a line in a really old song of ours called 'Ruin.' There's a line that I wrote that says 'This is the resolution' and at that point of time it was about knowing that I was never going to do this particular thing ever again. I think that idea popped up again."

What's old is new again with Lamb of God. There's nothing wrong with recycling one's own resources.