Ashes of the Wake
album by Lamb of God
Ashes of the Wake is the third studio album and first major-label release by American heavy metal band Lamb of God, released in 2004 via Epic Records. The album debuted at number 27 on the Billboard 200, selling 35,000 copies in its first week and being rated by Guitar World as the 49th greatest Guitar Album of all Time. This album also was rated by Metal Hammer as the 5th greatest Metal Album of The 21st Century. As of August 2010, Ashes of the Wake has sold 398,000 copies in the United States. Ten years after its release, as of 2014, sales have topped 400,000 copies sold, making it Lamb of God’s best-selling record. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in February 2016.
Background and promotion
Ashes of the Wake marked Lamb of God’s major label debut. The band did not have much time in between their previous release, As the Places Burn, and Ashes of the Wake. This was due to Epic Records signing the band shortly after the release of As the Places Burn in 2003, and wanting the band to release a follow up soon after. Commenting on the quick turnaround between albums, guitarist Mark Morton stated:
We didn’t have a whole lot of time to write new songs, it felt like a lot of pressure to deliver what was going to be a very important record for us very quickly.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ashes of the Wake” is album by Lamb of God. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ashes, Wake and album, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q261009. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004, 2010, 2014 and 2016.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ashes of the Wake” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.