Twenty-five years into a music career that has seen five Grammy nominations, two RIAA certified Gold records and, most recently, the publication of ‘Desolation: A Heavy Metal Memoir’, an honest reflection on his life in music and beyond, Mark Morton’s creative energy is at an all-time high. Over the course of two decades spent building a worldwide audience as guitarist and songwriter for Lamb of God, Morton’s musical ambitions were steadily evolving. There were still elements of his songwriting that weren’t finding their way to the surface – the result being, first, 2019’s ‘Anesthetic’, and now ‘Without The Pain’, his second solo outing and a paean to his longstanding love of southern rock… As a young child in the ’70s and ’80s, southern rock music was a mainstay of Morton’s small town Virginia upbringing. The sounds of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers Band, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot and more helped to shape the fledgling musician’s understanding of what would eventually become his lifelong passion for rock guitar. ‘Without The Pain’ wasn’t a project Morton took on alone. The album features a world class list of contributors, including some of Americana, rock and country’s biggest names… Cody Jinks, Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke) & Jason Isbell, Jaren Johnston (The Cadillac Three), Travis Denning, Troy Sanders (Mastodon), Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown Neil Fallon (Clutch), Matt James (Blacktop Mojo), plus Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge & Jared James Nichols.