LAMB OF GOD Frontman On Division In America: 'The Whole Thing Is Mind-Blowing'

LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe has weighed in on the ever-increasing toxic environment in America, comparing the current situation to "a really loud game of clumsy chess."

Although many people believe that America was divided long before Donald Trump became president, some are convinced that he is part of the problem — by helping to create an environment of hate, intolerance and scapegoating, where people live in fear because of their race, ethnicity, religion, immigrant status or sexual orientation.

Blythe, whose band will hit the road this summer with SLAYER and BEHEMOTH, told Rolling Stone: "You know, I think we're living in Planet Of The Apes. My brother sent me some footage the other day from these Trump rallies in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and of course there were protestors. And there's this one anti-Trump protestor who decides to start disrupting the Trump-rally people by just screeching incoherently. And then the Trump people surround her and start making animal noises, and soon all of them are just screaming incoherently at each other. [Laughs] This is the state of modern political discourse in a nutshell. We are fucking living in Planet Of The Apes."

He continued: "The whole thing is mind-blowing. Trump has only been in office for, like, a month and a half. There's so much shit that's happened in the media.... I'm checking Fox News; I'm checking CNN; I'm checking the BBC to see what other people are saying. I'll go on these horrible binges of going down the rabbit hole and reading all the different viewpoints of what's going on. And, really, man, the reality of the situation, there's no clarity to it yet, because nobody really knows what exactly this administration will do, can do. What will get through Congress, what won't. Reality itself seems to become subjective at this point. So for me, you know, there's some horrifying things, but there's some shit that's also absolutely fucking hilarious to me.

"I have to look at it that way. People got really mad at SLAYER when I think [Tom] Araya posted some picture of SLAYER with Trump that said: 'Make America Great Again.' People went apeshit. They're, like, burning their SLAYER records and stuff, and it's like, don't you people think just for a second maybe he was just being an asshole, like trying to get your goat? This is the singer of SLAYER, you know? Come on, you know? So, it's like, the whole situation ... there's really vocal minorities all around that are refusing to talk to each other. I guess that's just like the last eight years of Congress refusing to talk to each other. The country has become completely bipartisan, and there's not a lot of discourse. And I think that the intensity of all this can only last so long before people are gonna have to be like, "Look, we've got to chill the fuck out and be human beings and talk to each other somehow."

Blythe added later in the interview: "Everything is so bizarre right now. Every day is some sort of new crazy shit is being blasted across the media airways. Someone's tweeting this and someone's doing that, and are the Russians involved? It's an overload. I think hopefully by the time of the summer, what the reality of the situation under this new administration is going to be will be a little bit more apparent because right now it seems — I don't know — like a really loud game of clumsy chess."

At the end of 2015, Blythe made it clear that he was not impressed with then-Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, saying that he would "leave America" if the the real estate magnate and former reality TV star became President Barack Obama's successor. He told Metal Insider: "I think [Trump] is going to burn himself out. I think he's going to say something so overarchingly stupid that people are finally going to be unable to accept what he's saying anymore. But I almost think he's a purposeful clown, a tool."