Desolation: A Heavy Metal Memoir

Lamb of God guitarist Morton debuts with a bruising personal history of music and addiction. Growing up in the 1970s and ’80s, Morton spent his childhood in suburban Virginia skateboarding, watching MTV, and grappling with body image anxieties that drove him to start using drugs and drinking to fit in. He found punk rock music in his early teens and began playing in bands. In the mid-1990s, he formed Lamb of God (initially known as Burn the Priest), a heavy metal group known for its chaotic musical style (“We were a burning car crash: jarring, unhinged, and impossible not to watch”). Rising fame led to world tours and the author’s descent into a “black hole of drugs and alcohol,” which accelerated after the death of his newborn daughter in 2009. Morton spent years seesawing between addiction and sobriety as he tried to “blot out... reality” while contending with suicidal thoughts, agonizing withdrawals, and a strained marriage. Realizing he’d begun to feel “spiritually and emotionally dead,” he hit rock bottom in 2018 and got sober. Morton writes movingly of the way pain and art are intimately linked, and has a sharp eye for the gifts afforded by sobriety, including more fully experiencing “fans’ connections to our music” at live shows. It’s a raw yet hopeful portrait of a tumultuous life. (June)