Since its formation, Lamb of God has released six studio albums, one live album, and three DVDs. The band's cumulative sales equal almost two million in the United States. In 2007 the band received a Grammy nomination for their 2006 album Sacrament. Lamb of God has toured with the Ozzfest twice and appeared on Slayer's The Unholy Alliance Tour in 2006. They have also appeared at Download, Soundwave and Gigantour festivals.
Lamb of God was formed as an instrumental band, Burn the Priest, and included vocals after Randy Blythe joined the band as a vocalist. After they reached the success with the release of 2004's Ashes of the Wake the band is often associated with such terms as the "leaders" of the "New Wave of American Heavy Metal". and "pure American metal"
Burn the Priest and early Lamb of God has been defined as a thrash metal, death metal and hardcore punk or grindcore hybrid with a strong element of power groove, which often connects Lamb of God with the influential metal band Pantera. Another connection between Pantera and Lamb of God is the fact that both were and are highly influential metal bands from the Southern United States, Texas and Virginia, respectively. Along with Mastodon, from Georgia, Lamb of God could currently be helping to strengthen a young tradition of great southern metal that was first pioneered by Pantera. Burn the Priest and early Lamb of God include growling death metal vocals and sometimes lyrics that are difficult to decipher. The style has been considered to vary between several different genres, including hardcore punk, thrash metal, and even possessing sludge metal influences.
Guitarist Mark Morton performing at Ozzfest 2004 without his beard.
New American Gospel continues in a similar style as Burn the Priest, with drum-heavy production of double picking and double-kick drumming. Here, the band has been considered by Allmusic to be effectively bridging the 1990s' tendency towards technicality and early metal's focus on riff construction and plays a brand of heavy metal described as not unlike Meshuggah without some of their mathematical components.
2003's As the Palaces Burn saw the band's compositions focusing more on what some have called "memorable" riffs. On 2004's Ashes of the Wake, they continued the progression of As the Palaces Burn with more frequent guitar solos.
Sacrament, released in 2006, was described by critics as more technical, especially considering the vocal performance. Again, the band experimented with more melody and guitar solos; however, the band has also been often reproached by the critics for the similarity of the songs within their albums.
Due to the variety of influences, stylistic elements and changes throughout the band's career the press has chosen several genres and terms to describe Lamb of God's music. Lamb of God has been labeled as a metalcore and groove metal band. Campbell, on the Walk With Me in Hell DVD, says that Lamb of God is "a punk band that plays heavy metal", while Chris Adler refers to Sacrament as a speed metal album.
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