Only a few months ago, Lamb Of God guitarist Mark Morton told everyone that a collaboration with the late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington was recorded before his passing in July 2017, and we'd get to hear it some day.
Well that day is today, and we're happy to say that it rules! 'Cross Off' features an aggressive Bennington screaming and singing over some ballsy, Lamb Of God-esque riffs from Morton. It's very surreal to not only hear Chester on a track this heavy, but also on something new almost a year and a half since his death.
Check out the track below:
The song debuted on Zane Lowe's World Record show on Beats One, where Morton elaborated on his time working with Bennington:
"He's just got one of those voices, one of those once in an eon existence voices. It's unmistakable. It's just a God-given thing and you hear Chester and you know it's Chester and such an amazing, powerful voice. So emotive as well. Just everything, it's all there. Very personal and very unique."
"In our perfect world, who would sing this song that we were so excited about? Well, it would be Chester Bennington. And I, honestly, didn't even know if my work with Lamb or whatever was on Chester's radar at all. But we reached out and he knew who I was and he wanted to hear the song. And he heard the song and he really fell in love with that song. He told me, instantly, 'This song's great. I absolutely want to do it, and we worked out the details of getting it together and then we just got in a room together and we hung out for a little bit and shared a little bit about the meaning and how we each related to certain things about it. And then, we just sat across the table and started passing the lyric back and forth and trying ideas. We just started meshing it all together from the outline that we had had it in in preproduction into what it is that you hear now and then we tracked it." [Transcribed via Loudwire]
'Cross Off' is the opening track from Morton's upcoming debut solo album Anesthetic which will be out on March 1 and feature a ton of other guests including Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach), Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy) and Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe.
Mark Morton - Anesthetic Tracklisting:
1 - 'Cross Off' (feat. Chester Bennington)
2 - 'Sworn Apart' (feat. Jacoby Shaddix)
3 - 'Axis' (feat. Mark Lanegan)
4 - 'The Never' (feat. Chuck Billy + Jake Oni)
5 - 'Save Defiance' (feat. Myles Kennedy)
6 - 'Blur' (feat. Mark Morales)
7 - 'Back From The Dead' (feat. Josh Todd)
8 - 'Reveal' (feat. Naeemah Maddox)
9 - 'Imaginary Days'
10 - 'The Truth Is Dead' (feat. Randy Blythe + Alissa White-Gluz)
