Along with fronting certainly one of heavy metallic’s premier bands, Randy Blythe is changing into a prolific writer. Following his 2015 debut memoir, Darkish Days, the Lamb of God frontman is again with a brand new autobiographical e book, Simply Past the Mild (Making Peace with the Wars Inside Our Head).
Forward of its February 18th launch, Consequence is sharing an unique excerpt from Simply Past the Mild (order right here), together with making a gift of three hard-cover copies of the e book.
Whereas Darkish Days handled “probably the most harrowing episodes of his previous,” together with Blythe’s headline-making imprisonment in a Czech jail, Simply Past the Mild focuses on “how he works every day to keep up positivity in a world that appears like it’s spinning uncontrolled.”
Blythe says of the brand new e book, “For me, the only most gratifying facet of being an artist is studying that your work has been helpful to others not directly. I’ve been instructed by plenty of readers that my final e book, Darkish Days, helped them — I hope Simply Past the Mild does the identical.”
In promotion of Simply Past the Mild, Blythe will embark on a e book tour starting February nineteenth in Philadelphia, and wrapping up March 14th in San Diego (choose up tickets right here). Nonetheless, the metallic singer warns dad and mom to not carry their children, as “among the tales I shall be telling will contain heavy, HEAVY alcohol and drug utilization, in addition to the batshit insane conditions that occurred on account of mentioned substance consumption.”
Beneath, you may enter to win certainly one of three copies of Simply Past the Mild (contest ends March 14th at 11:59 PM ET), and skim an unique excerpt from Chapter 3 of the e book. You can even assure your self a duplicate of the e book by ordering it from Amazon.
Win Randy Blythe’s (Lamb of God) New E-book Simply Past the Mild
Simply Past the Mild e book excerpt:
Chapter Three: MY WAY
There’s a battle inside my head, an incessant battle ignited every day by my always shifting notion of actuality. This inner Ragnarok kicked off once I was round eight years outdated, the age I first turned conscious that adults weren’t infallible beings, that I couldn’t belief all grown-ups to behave in an upright method, that a few of them weren’t even worthy of my infantile respect. Earlier than then, I moved blissfully via life, strolling fortunately alongside within the feather-light footsteps of innocence. As a result of I used to be fortunate sufficient to be raised by ethical and loving dad and mom, I believed that everybody thought the identical manner that I had been taught to — we had been all equal, nobody higher than anybody else for any purpose. My dad and mom instructed me that we had been all kids of a loving and caring God, and as such we must always love each other equally in type.
This appeared a smart technique to reside, and the individuals inside my tiny speedy orbit gave me no purpose to assume in any other case. I used to be by no means abused in any method by any grownup, however at a sure level I turned conscious that not everybody or all the things was what it first appeared to be.
Most individuals usually wore a masks of decency in public, however in personal or below duress, typically cracks would seem within the facade of decorum. Adults would say they believed one factor after which do one other as offended and unguarded glimpses of true emotions peeped via the splintered face of their civility. Oddly to my younger thoughts, this appeared to occur extra freely round kids similar to me, as if these adults thought of us so dimwitted as to be beneath discover. However kids are nothing if not nice noticers, and as I cataloged incidents of the hypocrisy and sheer stupidity some adults displayed, my infantile illusions of their flawless benevolence had been ripped away. Regardless of this impolite awakening, a fantastic a part of me nonetheless noticed a lot magnificence on the planet, nonetheless felt a lot love for and from many alternative good those that I couldn’t robotically sink right into a prepubescent riot of nihilism and apathy. Life may very well be extraordinarily painful, sure, but it surely was additionally stuffed with unimaginable pleasure. At that time, the lengthy combat with myself started, a battle between hope and despair for the character of my soul.
One man inside me is sort of unbearably sunny, a yammering, hippieish form of dude who not solely desires everybody to get alongside but in addition firmly believes that’s potential. Certainly, at instances Mister Relentless Optimism appears like we’re getting ready to a planet vast social satori, a mass realization that we’re nothing apart from one nice interconnected internet of sunshine. He believes that progress just isn’t solely potential but in addition really occurring — simply take a look at the advances in science, expertise, and medication! Evaluating our fashionable medical information to the ludicrous superstitions of the previous (“When individuals acted bizarre again within the day, they used to drill holes in their heads to let the demons out! Think about being that primitive — thank God we reside now!”), he sees irrefutable progress. If he ever turns into discouraged about ongoing social inequities, he rapidly reminds himself to contemplate life simply over 100 years in the past, when girls didn’t have the proper to vote and Jim Crow legal guidelines dominated the land. This cheerful dude believes that even the worst, most incorrigible criminal-minded sociopathic assholes might be rehabilitated if they’re simply given an opportunity, proven some compassion, and gently prodded in a constructive route. Mister Relentless Optimism’s coronary heart usually hurts, however solely as a result of it’s ripping aside on the seams with a wild and savage love for each atom within the universe.
Mister Relentless Optimism wakes up at daybreak, hums a verse or two of “Kumbaya,” then throws open his vintage French home windows to absorb all that superb sunshine. He smiles on the magnificence unfolding earlier than him and says to the world: “Cling in there, everybody — we’re all going to be okay!” Then he spins old-school seventies dub reggae albums and bounces round his well-lit condominium having encouraging conversations together with his houseplants.
Then there’s the opposite man.
The Darkish One seems to be round and sees a world stuffed with battle and strife. He is aware of that it has all the time been this manner and all the time shall be, as a result of historical past has confirmed that the urge to battle with others is an intrinsic and inescapable element of human nature. For every publicly celebrated altruistic motion and advance in our society, he scans the information and rapidly finds what he’s in search of: a mess of vile reactions and regressions within the title of self-interest and greed. The Darkish One is aware of that regardless of all our advances in expertise, we’re swiftly sinking to the underside of an terrible abyss of moronic, narcissistic self-destruction. As his eager and cynical eye notes, this downward ethical and mental trajectory is aided — nay, propelled — by the for-profit misuse of that very same expertise. On units and in boards made potential solely by the rigorous labor of scientifically minded people, the demonization of science and the rejection of purpose, information, and goal actuality itself will not be solely accepted but in addition celebrated and weaponized. The irony can be so judgmentally scrumptious if it wasn’t so goddamned pathetic. The Darkish One sees a willful, gleeful embrace of ignorance; a roiling human sea of hubris, stupidity, and hatred rising sooner every day, very like the degrees of our precise oceans. He is aware of that even when we come to some form of peace with one another and handle to not destroy Earth, it doesn’t actually matter as a result of in roughly 5 billion years the solar will burn out and our planet will die. The Darkish One sits writhing not a lot in an existential disaster (which suggests the potential for an answer) however within the continuous daybreak of an existential Armageddon.
The Darkish One wakes up at three within the afternoon with a splitting headache, groans, then stumbles off the sofa to ensure the deadbolts on his bolstered metal door are nonetheless locked. Via the peephole, he sees a slushy wintry combine falling on the soiled sidewalk exterior and mutters to himself: “It’s too late. Drop the bomb now — NOW! — and wipe ’em all out. Possibly one thing that deserves to reside will evolve subsequent.” Then, beneath the flickering gentle of a single bare bulb hanging by frayed wires from his nicotine-stained ceiling, he flips the early-nineties Norwegian black metallic album to listen to the opposite aspect and sharpens his knife.
In truth, each of those guys are undeniably proper about some issues. Equally as vital, each of them are useless flawed about much more issues. Very like our asinine two-party political system right here in America, each of them are blind to the precise actuality unfolding proper in entrance of them.
Mister Relentless Optimism is a schmuck. His cheerfully myopic imaginative and prescient fails to see the magnitude of the issues the world faces. He principally simply sits round blissfully hoping for one of the best. “Hoping for one of the best” with out motion to again it up is worse than ineffective. What if Martin Luther King Jr. had by no means gotten previous the “dream” a part of his well-known “I Have a Dream” speech? What if he had simply sat round dreaming concerning the day little black boys and black ladies would be capable of be part of fingers with little white boys and white ladies as sisters and brothers as an alternative of getting his ass handed to him by redneck cops throughout the South? I extremely doubt I’d have sat down at my favourite Mexican restaurant the opposite day for dinner and dialog with my buddy Puma, a black man I consult with as “brother” and not using a second thought. And sure, MLK paid for his dream together with his life— however typically that’s the price of progress.
The Darkish One isn’t any enjoyable at events. And regardless of how a lot I let different individuals twist my head into misanthropic knots, I’m nonetheless a human being and as such a social animal. Prefer it or not, I would like human connection to hold on with a point of psychological stability. James B. Stockdale was a US Navy fighter pilot and pupil of Stoic philosophy who was captured and stored prisoner within the notorious Hanoi Hilton through the Vietnam Warfare. Throughout his seven years as a POW, Stockdale was each repeatedly tortured and stored in isolation for prolonged intervals. Years after his brutal ordeal, he concluded that long-term erosion of human goal was extra successfully achieved via isolation than torture. Though I’m no scholar of seventeenth-century poetry, John Donne’s well-known “no man is an island” line rings irritatingly true to my ear— expertise has proven me that if I isolate myself an excessive amount of, issues get bizarre. And sure, it’s true, many, many individuals suck— however I can’t keep a wholesome existence with out them.
These two drastically totally different characters, whipping the ship of my emotional state forwards and backwards via the stormy seas of existence, resemble very carefully the highs and lows of my lively alcoholism. Whereas ingesting and drugging, at instances I reveled in states of ecstatic bliss, intervals when all was proper within the universe (at the least in my muddled perceptions), and I felt on prime of the world. Matching that grand and delusional mountain peak had been speedy descents right into a foul-smelling valley of self-pity and unhappiness, a wretched place the place all I noticed was darkness. Each little inconvenience was merely extra proof that life was a completely pointless train. This up-and-down emotional roller-coaster trip was exhausting, however individuals with expertise instructed me that if I acquired and stayed sober issues would begin to degree out and ultimately I’d discover some stability and be content material to stroll a center path.
“Strolling a center path” sounded so dreadfully boring to me, so . . . common. I’ve by no means actually been enthusiastic about “common” something. However after a long time of the best highs and lowest lows, I used to be simply too rattling drained to climb aboard the roller-coaster anymore, so I threw within the towel and stop ingesting. At first, the highs and lows had been nonetheless there (minus the hefty bar tab and attendant hangovers), however slowly I started to seek out my feelings extra on the beam. Now I’m simply content material to be sober, not annoyingly overjoyed on the truth I not drink nor morosely romanticizing the not-so-good outdated days. My sobriety is overwhelmingly pedestrian, and except I’m discussing it with another person, I don’t actually give it some thought a lot all through the day— it simply is. Being sober is my regular state today, and that’s ok for me.
Being a middle-of-the-road sober dude has helped my mentality generally, however I’m positively nonetheless a piece in progress, because the battle in my head always jogs my memory. My ingesting was, partially, a technique to cope with that battle. Alcohol muffled the always screaming voices . . . till it didn’t. In truth, ultimately it amplified these voices to a ridiculous degree, however they’re much quieter now that the booze is gone. Regrettably, they’re nonetheless current, and I nonetheless hearken to them with embarrassing regularity— and it nonetheless exhausts me.
Excerpted from JUST BEYOND THE LIGHT. Copyright © 2025 D. Randall Blythe. Revealed by Grand Central Publishing, a Hachette E-book Group firm. Reproduced by association with the Writer. All rights reserved.