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David Randall Blythe (, born February 21, 1971) is an American vocalist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of heavy metal band Lamb of God and Burn the Priest. He has also performed guest vocals for Cannabis Corpse, A Life Once Lost, Overkill, Gojira, Pitch Black Forecast, Eyehategod, Eluveitie, Bad Brains, Soulfly, Clutch, Body Count, DevilDriver, Suicide Silence, Doyle, Metal Allegiance, Voodoo Glow Skulls, and Lacuna Coil; and is the lead singer of side-project band Halo of Locusts.
Outside of music Blythe has released two books which both became Publishers Weekly non-fiction best sellers . He has also made multiple appearances in television and film. In 2016 Loudwire named him the #61 best Hard Rock / Metal Frontman of all time.
He provided additional vocals on the A Life Once Lost track "Vulture" as well as helped in the vocal processing of the track. He later worked with the band again in 2007 on "Iron Gag." He also appeared on the song "Skull and Bones" by the band Overkill and "Adoration for None" on Gojira's album The Way of All Flesh. He was also featured on Shadows Fall song, King of Nothing, on their 2009 release, Retribution. Blythe was featured in many of his peers' DVDs, such as Killswitch Engage's (Set This) World Ablaze and Machine Head's Elegies. Blythe was also featured in , Working Class Rock Star, Melissa Cross's The Zen of Screaming, and Suicide Silence's (2014).
He appears as Luke in the movie The Graves (2009), written and directed by Brian Pulido. Also in 2009 he and Lamb of god released their 6th studio album Wrath which is their highest performing album as it topped the charts in Canada and debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200. The record also took home album of the year at the 2009 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards. In 2011 Blythe was named to Revolver Magazines list of the 100 Greatest Living Rock Stars, as the magazine celebrated its 100th issue.
On January 5, 2012, Blythe announced that he would be running for President of the United States via a blog entry entitled "I want to be The Big Cheese". His official campaign slogan was "Fuck the dumb shit. Let's get real here." Blythe did not appear on the ballot in any of the fifty states or the District of Columbia.McKenna, Dave (January 29, 2012) "Lamb of God gives local blast before global tour", "Blythe – who announced recently via YouTube that he was bidding to become president in 2012...." The Washington Post, Retrieved February 8, 2013.Dörting, Torsten & Wigger, Jan (February 9, 2012) "The most important metal albums of the month: 4th Part: Lamb Of God – healing for hip-hop artists", "Statement: If you have even traced in part in the race for the Republican presidential nomination in the U.S., suspects that it is finally time to infiltrate the political system of the United States. This man is ready: LOG singer Blythe has recently announced his candidacy.", Spiegel Online; retrieved February 8, 2013. Shortly after Lamb of Gods 7th studio album Resolution was released. Blythe stated he recorded the album completely sober, as he had struggled with alcoholism in the past. He stated that his sobriety contributed to his "ferocious" and more controlled vocal performance on the album. The record won Metal Album of the year at the 2nd annual Loudwire Music Awards, individually Blythe was nominated for male vocalist of the year.
On November 20, 2014, was announced that Blythe is to star in an action movie being made by Taiwanese metal band Chthonic. The film was later released in 2017 titled Tshiong, with Blythe only making a cameo appearance. On July 14, 2015, Blythe's first book, Dark Days: A Memoir was released by Da Capo Press. During its first week of sales, it made the Publishers Weekly non-fiction National Best Sellers list. The book went over Blythe's trail and life after awards. He stated in an interview “My Tribulations and Trials, is being written and will start with the arrest day and end “on a porch, by the beach.” 10 days later on July 24th Lamb of Gods album was released. It was their first to be released following Blythe’s manslaughter case, despite this Blythe stated it would not be a prison record instead he would "write about things that affect me very deeply", such as going to prison in a foreign country and being charged with manslaughter. Blythe was once again nominated for male vocalist of the year at the 6th annual Loudwire Music Awards.
In February 2016, he joined Deafheaven on stage at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles with their song "Dream House". Seven months later, in September 2016, he was recruited by Eyehategod as a replacement for lead singer Mike Williams during their US tour.
In July 2018 he collaborated with DevilDriver on the covers of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" by Johnny Cash and "Whiskey River" by Willie Nelson from Devil Driver's . In October, his voice appeared in the Soulfly song "Dead Behind the Eyes" from Ritual. Also in 2018 he and the other members of Lamb of God decided to release a record under their old name Burn the Priest titled . On April 4, 2019, Blythe made a music video for the Black Queen song "The End Where We Start".
In November 2019, Blythe was a member of the supergroup, Pigface, during the group's first tour in fourteen years. Initially, Blythe had agreed to perform with the group for the first five dates of the twelve-date tour but due to his enjoyment of it, he agreed to stay on for the remaining seven dates. In April 2020, Blythe and Scottish brewery BrewDog announced a collaboration that yielded a non-alcoholic beer named "Ghost Walker". The name is taken from the Lamb of God song "Ghost Walking" which is on their 2012 album Resolution. Blythe wrote the lyrics to the song whilst beginning his journey to live an alcohol-free lifestyle. Blythe also made a cameo appearance in the 2020 film Hairmetal Shotgun Zombie Massacre: The Movie. In June of that year Lamb of God released their 10th studio album a self titled record, their most recent record Omens was released in 2022.
Blythe played the recurring character Dom, leader of a veteran band called Over It All, in the 2021 an American Musical film drama television Paradise City.
On February 18, 2025, Blythe released his second book Just Beyond the Light. Just like his first book, with its first week sales, it made the Publishers Weekly non-fiction National Best Sellers list. Blythe also narrated the audio book version of Just Beyond the Light. The book touches upon struggles in Blythe’s personal life while also touching upon his love of surfing, he has claimed “it's a collection of thoughtful and inspiring essays that explore the human condition.”
Blythe stated that when he first started learning how to scream, it was initially a joke. He recalled: "I thought it was stupid and funny, and so here I am. Never ever ever ever did I take it seriously... I never ever thought I would be in a heavy metal band either. I thought I was gonna be the south’s version of Johnny Rotten or Iggy Pop." Blythe cites early influence from Hardcore punk and Grindcore-style metal; he named Lee Dorrian (of Napalm Death) and Kevin Sharp (of Brutal Truth) as his 2 major vocal influences. He also acknowledged that while he's in a metal band, much of his musical foundation came from Punk rock and hardcore, not just traditional metal. He eventually began incorporating clean singing into Lamb of God's music as well.
According to a verdict delivered by the Municipal Court in Prague on March 5, 2013, it was proven that Blythe had shoved Nosek off the stage and Blythe thus has the moral responsibility for his death. Due to the circumstances, however, Blythe was held not criminally liable with most of the blame lying with the promoters and the security members. The State Attorney appealed the verdict, but the acquittal was upheld by the Prague High Court on June 5, 2013.
In his free time Blythe is an avid photographer and Surfing. In 2019 he teamed up with Dez Fafara to relaunch the SunCult Surfwear Brand.
In 2016 Blythe wrote a song titled “The Duke” (released in 2016) which was written about a fan he met that was named Wayne Ford, who died of leukemia in 2015. After the song's release and its association with the bone-marrow / stem-cell donor registration organisation Be the Match (run by the National Marrow Donor Program), a man named Todd Seaman from Arkansas, who had registered thanks in part to hearing “The Duke”, was matched with a 65-year-old leukemia patient and donated stem cells/plasma. Blythe later posted on his Instagram “To say that I am honored to have been a small part of this is a massive understatement. Yesterday Todd said, ‘Dude — Lamb of God saved someone’s life today.’ I said, ‘No, you saved someone’s life today. Lamb of God just helped you a little.”
In 2019 Blythe auctioned off his gold album plaque for Lamb Of God's 2006 album Sacrament along with hand-written lyrics to the band's hit song “Again We Rise”, in order to benefit Libby's Legacy, a charity working to fight breast cancer.
While surfing with his friend Carlos in Ecuador in 2020, Blythe and his friend decided to begin a project where the two bought a large piece of land in the country to help replant trees in the area to combat deforestation. In 2022 Blythe released a mini documentary titled Rewilding where he showed the progress that he made so far as well as raising awareness on the issue.
In 2024 Blythe auctioned off a framed photo that he had taken of Glenn Danzig, with all proceeds going to Hurricane Helene & Hurricane Milton Victims.
On July 5, 2025, Blythe and his band Lamb of God performed at Ozzy Osbourne farewell concert Back to the Beginning. The concert itself was a charity event however Blythe was given a special pair of shoes signed by Osbourne. Blythe then auctioned off the shoes to raise even more money.
Blythe also does work with the Living the Dream Foundation which works with terminally ill children and has granted multiple children wishes.
Blythe does not identify with any political ideology or party and has claimed that both Democrats and Republicans “play both side of the same coin” and don’t truly care about the American people. In a 2021 interview with Blabbermouth.net he commented on the subject stating "I don't define myself as liberal or conservative or Democratic or Republican," "Just because you speak on a certain issue... And that's a problem in our country today, on both the left and the right, is this knee-jerk reaction, that if you disagree with some sort of issue, because things are so polarized right now, then automatically you're painted as A or B, and that's idiotic; that's simply moronic.”
Blythe supports the environment protection, and has been critical of current U.S. President Donald Trump. He has also been critical of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling them "Fascism" in a 2026 blog post.
| +Film !Year !Title !Role !Notes | |||
| 2009 | The Graves | Deacon Luke | |
| 2017 | Tshiong | Himself | Cameo |
| 2020 | Hairmetal Shotgun Zombie Massacre: The Movie | Sound Guy |
| + Television | |||
| 2021 | Paradise City | Dom | 6 episodes (TV spinoff of American Satan) |
| + !Year !Title | |
| 2015 | Dark Days: A Memoir |
| 2025 | Just Beyond the Light |
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