Gun Shy Assassin Presents Adler Chatter With Chris Adler
Posted by Chris Harris on December 29, 2011 in Adler Chatter with Chris Adler, Exclusive
Adler Chatter With Chris Adler
These days, it seems every major album release is preceded by at least one if not two “lyric videos.” For the old dudes like me, this, essentially, is a video featuring audio of the song and visuals of the album cover along with lyrics that scroll across the screen in time with the singer’s delivery of them.
Me? I’m not a big fan of them. I grew up during a time when you would wait for albums to come out. You would rush out to the store the day of release, pick up the cassette tape (see here for a description of what “tapes” are), unfold the liner notes, and read the prose of such poetic giants as Hetfield, Walker, Staley, Gilmour, Farrell, Patton, and Ozzy. I’m old.
I feel like kids should grow up the same way, because, after all, I ended up fine — though some people would argue with that.
“I don’t even know when this whole ‘lyric video’ thing became necessary, as in tune as I try to be with what’s going on,” says Chris Adler during Gun Shy Assassin’s most recent discussion with the drummer for mega metal band Lamb of God.
“It seems to be somewhat of a stopgap in information, so the company that came to us that we had hired through working with the label on making a video for the song said, ‘Here’s something in the meantime just to show you a little bit about the direction we’re going in for the real video,’” Adler says, of this lyric video.
“This wasn’t necessarily supposed to be released; they were just trying to show off a little bit of what they were capable of if they got the job to do the real thing, and we loved it so much,” Adler said.
It is pretty cool, but like me, Chris misses the good old days.
“It’s funny because I’ve been around the block a few times now, but I still listen to a lot of the old albums I listened to growing up,” starts Adler. “I was listening to [Anthrax’s] Persistence Of Time today at the gym, and I heard some lyrics that I had been — for however long it’s been — saying the wrong words. And I realized today, ‘Oh, that makes a lot more fucking sense.’
“When I was a kid, I would either take out the record sleeve or the CD sleeve or the cassette liner notes, and I would read along as I was listening to the song,” he continues. “That was kind of an exciting process. Nobody was better in my opinion at doing that kind of stuff and having lyrics that were worth reading than Megadeth, so rarely am I going to be stumped on Megadeth lyrics. Outside of that, I would never really pay attention.
“Today’s answer to that problem — and the problem that has our dad’s singing the wrong lyrics to 60-year-old songs on Sundays — is the ‘lyric video,’” Adler concludes, and just like that, my opinion on the lyric video has changed. Maybe they are good. Maybe they are useful, and maybe I can’t just assume the way I did things was the right way.
I learn so much being friends with Chris Adler. Happy New Year to Lamb of God, Chris Adler, and all of you fine folks.
We’ll have more Adler Chatter for you in 2012. Follow us on Facebook so you’ll know the second that shit goes up.
Chris Adler is the drummer for Grammy-nominated metal band Lamb of God and the author of the book “The Making of Lamb of God’s New American Gospel,” a comprehensive behind-the-scenes narrative book detailing the early days of Lamb of God and the writing and recording of their ‘New American Gospel’ LP. He has also released a new book that addresses the recording of ‘As The Palaces Burn.’ Anything else you need to know about Chris Adler, you can find at his web site, Chris-Adler.com.
