Coming off of that recent Lynyrd Skynyrd cover, Lamb of God guitar great Mark Morton is now serving up some homegrown Southern-rock of his own. The metal shredder is rolling in the red with a rootsy feel on his new “Hell & Back” single, and he’s dragged the Cadillac Three vocalist Jaren Johnston into the devil’s lair with him.
The new single is Morton’s first original solo song to be released since he delivered the Ether EP in 2020. Like that release—as well as the Skynyrd tribute with Clutch vocalist Neil Fallon— Morton’s getting by, here, with a little help from his friends, with Johnston hitting drawl-heavy lines about putting your boot to the floor of your Caddy while riding a highway straight to the river of sin.
“‘Hell & Back’ was so much fun to cook up! We found just the right balance of Southern-rock swagger, bluesy grooves, and Outlaw vibes,” Morton said in a statement. “Jaren is a dear friend of mine and such an incredibly talented songwriter and performer. Our whole process was as laid back and natural as the song sounds.”
“I was so stoked when Mark and his team reached out and said he was coming to town to work,” Johnston added. “I jumped at the chance to write with him and in the process made a great friend. I love the unforced mixture of our individual vibes in ‘Hell & Back’ and I was really happy we snuck a kick ass breakdown in there!”
You can hear Morton rip pure honeyed hellfire on his fretboard on the desert bowl boogie via the skeleton-heavy visualizer up above.
While no further details have been released thus far, it’s being teased that the new track is the “second taste of what’s to come” from Morton’s solo career in 2025.