"The System Is A F*cking Fraud": The Story Behind Lamb Of God's New Song Checkmate

Last week, Richmond metal heavyweights Lamb Of God made their return with Checkmate – taken from their upcoming self-titled album.

It's the first new music we've heard from Lamb Of God since their 2015 album VII: Sturm Und Drang, and sees frontman Randy Blythe share his rather negative views on the American political system.

The song was chosen by guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler to be the lead single, giving us a taste of what's to come from LOG's first proper full-length in five years (if you ignore their 2018 covers album Legion: XX).

"It’s the most on the nose politically, but this whole record is political," Randy Blythe tells Kerrang!.

"There’s not a single song [on the album] about an individual. “When we had [George W. Bush] during the (2004 album) Ashes Of The Wake era, he was a whole lot easier to write specifics about because we had the war in Iraq, the mythical weapons of mass destruction, but right now, the political world everywhere looks like Peewee Herman’s playhouse.

READ THIS: The 75 best albums of the 2010s

"They are two sides of the same coin," he continues. "Civility and discourse is at an all time low, and that’s because people view political parties now not for their policies, but they support these different parties like sports teams. The lyrics reflect that. The system is a fucking fraud.”

To dive deeper into the album, and Randy's own headspace, can read our full, world-exclusive interview with the man himself in the new issue of Kerrang! magazine.

You can also get a very special, limited collectors' edition package containing this week’s magazine and a stunning A2 four-colour process lithographic print, produced on 200gsm uncoated stock. Only 300 of these prints exist anywhere in the world.

Kerrang.Newsstand.co.uk is the only place you can order this exclusive package – with worldwide delivery! – so don’t hang about if you want to get your hands on one.

Catch Lamb Of God on tour across the UK this April at one of the dates below. Get your tickets here.

Lamb Of God UK tour 2020

April

21 Bristol O2 Academy
22 Manchester Academy
23 Glasgow O2 Academy
24 Birmingham O2 Academy
25 London O2 Academy Brixton