A conversation with Lamb of God bassist John Campbell, who plays this Thursday October 28 at Roseland.

"Lamb of God" is a term used for Jesus Christ; do real Christians ever show up to a gig by mistake?

I don't think they make it as far as showing up to the gig, but on our message board we get a lot of questions like "Are you a Christian band?" Generally speaking, the confusion is cleared up by the time we're playing.

Some of the best metal in recent history is coming out of the south. Why do you think that is?

Richmond's legacy is a really high bar for how good you've had to be to hold peoples' attention--just in town. So if you've measured up to that bar, you know you can go out of town and just knock people on their asses.

There have been multiple waves of metal now; would you consider yourselves part of a new resurgence of metal?

Yeah, definitely. But we've been doing this band for 10 years. For us, it's not necessarily new; the newness is in relation to popular culture. We're getting a lot more attention, our contemporaries are getting a lot more attention, and metal seems to be making a comeback.

Specifically there are a couple of tracks on Ashes that address some contemporary political issues. Are you politically active as a band?

No more so than we vote and when people ask our opinion we share it.

LOG often employs the "Wall of Death." Will Portland be getting a taste?

The kids love it but after seeing 10 broken legs in a row it's fucking ridiculous. We don't do it anymore. Can you imagine breaking a leg in the pit? Getting stomped on and not being able to get away? God that would fucking suck. If we could not bring that to someone, I would be all for that.

Which form of death would you choose, freezing or burning?

GodÉ I think I'd take freezing cause freezing works in a numbness. Burning; I guess the numbness works in once your nerve endings are scorched. Yeah, fuck burning to death. No, I'll freeze.