Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe doesn’t expect to achieve closure from his Prague prison ordeal.
And he’s revealed the inspiration for latest track Still Echoes was a Nazi guillotine he saw during his confinement in 2012, while awaiting trial for manslaughter following the death of fan Daniel Nosek two years previously.
The song appears on upcoming Lamb Of God album VII:Sturm Und Drang, announced last week.
Blythe tells Rolling Stone: “There was a guillotine right down the hall from me, from when the Nazis had the prison. From 1943 to 1945 they executed almost 2000 people by guillotine – because it was cheaper than shooting and quicker than hanging.
“They call it the saw room or the axe room. I sat there at night and I’d think about all those dudes that got their heads chopped off, men and women, in that place not too far from me.”
His lyrics were also inspired by his research into the 120-year-old establishment, which he describes as “fucked up.” He adds: “Parts of it look like downtown Detroit – broken windows and abandoned stuff. So the song is a history of the repression the Czech people have undergone.”
Blythe was acquitted at trial in March 2013 and the decision was made final three months later. But while he hoped to relax afterwards he didn’t have the option, because Lamb Of God had got into serious debt to cover his legal bills.
“I wanted to go to the beach, go surfing, go skateboarding,” he recalls. “That didn’t happen – six lawyers ain’t cheap, and we borrowed money for the bail.
“Thank God for the fans that made t-shirts, sold them, and bought items at auction and helped us out. Thank God for my friends in bands that did benefits, otherwise it would have just been nightmarish.
“We didn’t go bankrupt, but we came pretty close to broke.”
He also wrote about his experience in his book Dark Days – but it still doesn’t mean it’s all behind him. “Someone recently asked, ‘Did you get some sort of closure from writing the book?’” he says.
“It’s not a fucking Hallmark card. It sucked.”
Lamb Of God play this year’s Download festival at Donington next month.
