Mark Morton (guitarist)

Morton grew up near Williamsburg, Virginia, and attended Lafayette High School. His first band was Axis, which was composed of other local youth, one being Ryan Lake of Alabama Thunderpussy fame. Morton played rhythm guitar. The band became a popular local act winning the local battle of the bands competition, known as Stockwood, in 1988.

Morton with Axis, March 1988. Ryan Lake is on left.

Morton, Chris Adler, and John Campbell met in 1990 at Virginia Commonwealth University where they were room mates. Several years later, they formed a band under the name "Burn the Priest". Morton soon left to pursue a master's degree, and the band added guitarist Abe Spear, and vocalist, Randy Blythe. After a couple years apart, Morton rejoined the group and Burn the Priest released a self titled full-length album. He was credited as "Duane" on the album "New American Gospel" Lamb of God's first major release.

Morton frequently utilizes pentatonic scales and harmonic minor scales, and it has been noted that he has a blues style to his music. He composes and plays almost all of Lamb of God's guitar solos and forms many of the heavy groove rhythms.

Morton is known for writing some of Lamb of God's less conventional songs. These include, "Descending", "Vigil", and "Remorse is for the Dead". In the DVD documenting the making of Sacrament, he made the point that he likes to "toss in the wildcard, the oddball, 'cause for every three you toss in, one of 'em winds up being real special because it's that different." Morton has also written some of the band's more traditional metal songs, such as "Now You've Got Something to Die For", "Redneck", and "Walk with Me in Hell".

Morton performing at Download Festival in 2007

In March 2012, Morton collaborated with DevilDriver frontman Dez Fafara on a new project called Born of the Storm. Two songs were released, "Nowhere Fast" and "Dust". Fafara's vocals are different from his trademark DevilDriver vocals on these songs and Morton's guitar sound is more original and incorporates bluesy rock riffs, a style that Morton is making into his own.

On July 19, 2012, Morton released his own song titled "To Make Sure2". He announced the release of his song through his Facebook page. He wrote: "heres a tune i worked on with some friends the other night....sumthin different....hope you enjoy."

In December 2018, Morton announced his solo debut album, Anesthetic to be released on March 1, 2019, through Spinefarm Records. A single from the album titled "The Truth Is Dead" was released following the announcement and features Morton's Lamb of God bandmate Randy Blythe as well as Arch Enemy frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz on vocals.[2] The album also features a posthumous collaboration with late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington,[3] which was teased all the way back to April 2017.[4] The song titled "Cross Off" was released as the album's second single on January 8, 2019.[5]

Morton's performing gear consists mostly of Gibson Guitars, using mainly the Les Paul model. For many years he used Jackson guitars, including a Rhoads style and Swee-Tone archtop (both seen in the Killadelphia DVD) and, most often, his own signature model, the Jackson Dominion strung with Dunlop Heavy Core 10-48 strings tuned to drop-D, loaded with a Seymour Duncan '59 in the bridge and a Duncan Jazz in the neck. He has recently developed a signature "Dominion" pickup with Dimarzio, which he used in his signature guitars and now uses in his Les Pauls.[6] Onstage, Morton uses two Dual Mesa Boogie Mark V heads amplifiers with Mesa 4X12 cabinets His rack gear includes a Sennheiser wireless system, a DBX 266XL compressor / noise gate, and a splitter box. He only uses a few pedals on stage, Original Cry Baby Wah Pedal, MXR Eddie Van Halen Phase 90 which "makes his solos sear", MXR GT-OD overdrive pedal, and a Boss tuning pedal. Recently, it has been rumored that a signature Cry Baby wah might be in production.