Chris Adler to Tour with a Band That Isn’t Lamb of God

When oh when will Chris Adler return to Lamb of God? I don’t wanna say “Never,” but no matter how hard I try to put a positive spin on this news, the fishy smell overwhelms.

See, it’s been close to a year since Adler was forced to sit out touring with LoG as the result of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident (Winds of Plague’s Art Cruz has been filling in). In the meantime, Adler has launched Kintsugi Management. Still, we all naturally assumed that Adler would rejoin the band ASAP, given how intertwined their identities are, last month Randy Blythe said this…

“It’s hard to say what’s gonna happen with Chris Adler. I have no comment on him.”

…which made our antennae perk up. As does this news from The PRP:

“…Adler will be out handling the drums as part of the ‘Hail! Rockstar Extravaganza’ later this year.

“Joining him on that overseas run are Exodus vocalist Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza, Vio-lence/ex-Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel and former Megadeth, etc. bassist James LoMenzo. Thus far the below October 19th date at the Rock House in Moscow, Russia has slipped out.”

So however bad Adler’s injuries were, he now feels confident enough to play whatever he’s gonna play with these dudes. Why them and not Lamb of God? If a completely different style of drumming was required here, you could write it off as, “Well, maybe he still can’t play at the necessary speed for Lamb of God” or whatever. But given his collaborators, it seems unlikely the set will consist of smooth jazz covers.

So what does this all mean? Our stomachs sink to ponder it. No disrespect to Cruz, who I’m sure is a fine drummer, but LoG losing Chris Adler would be akin to Slayer losing Dave Lombardo. Let’s keep praying to our various entities of choice that this situation looks more dire than it actually is.