Chris Adler Opens Up About Getting Fired From Lamb of God
According to Adler, the firing was due to a few things (in his opinion) – first and foremost was him being diagnosed with Musician's dystonia, a form of focal dystonia. Adler also notes that he feels Lamb Of God wasn't happy that he drummed on Megadeth's 2016 record Dystopia, as well as Protest The Hero's 2013 effort Volition. "I haven't talked about this before, but I had—at the same time, in like 2016 or 2017, right at the end of '16—I was diagnosed with something called musician's dystonia," said Adler as transcribed by Metal Injection. "I didn't want to talk about it at the time because I felt like it would really hinder my career. But I've gone through an incredible amount of work to be able to come back from it.
These guys were my favorite band in the world back in high school. Ashes of the Wake had just come out, and I’d already been listening to their old Burn the Priest stuff, as well as Lamb of God’s first two records New American Gospel and As the Palaces Burn on repeat forever.
It was a huge shock when I found out Chris Adler was fired back then, but I’d always heard it was because of a disagreement on where their sound was headed. The first record with their new drummer sounded like they were turning into the Nickelback of metalcore. In retrospect, that’s exactly the direction they went.
I mean they were one of the heaviest bands I’d ever heard (even though they played in drop d tuning) but suddenly Randy was singing clean vocals and they were getting airtime on dad rock stations.
He goes on to explain that the band, whose guitarist is literally Adler’s brother, fired him through an email. What a shit way to say goodbye to someone who’s been with you for decades.
Pretty wild to hear all of this coming out now! I’m glad Chris is doing okay these days. Dude is a legendary drummer.