He's added some muscular tones to Lamb of God's music over the years, but guitarist Mark Morton has been expanding his musical palette as a solo artist over the past year. Promoting his Anesthetic full-length and Ether EP, Morton dropped by to serve up some of the riffs that helped shaped him in this edition of Gear Factor.

The guitarist points to his older brother for helping shape his musical tastes at a young age. He recalls, “I have an older brother who is eight years older than me, so when I was six or seven he was 14 or 15 and this would’ve been the late ‘70s and all the great hard rock music of the day was coming out of my brother’s bedroom – Van Halen, AC/DC, Aerosmith – so much great classic rock like Lynyrd Skynyrd and all that stuff – I was hearing all that just by default. So that was kind of the groundwork for the guys that would later become my guitar heroes.”

Speaking of guitar heroes, Morton singles out Eddie Van Halen as one of his. "When I first started playing, the things he was doing and the things that band were doing were pretty unattainable for a beginner guitar player. I was aware enough to realize I really couldn’t do that yet, but his style of playing and the sounds he was making, he was definitely my first guitar hero,” he says, playing a bit of "Unchained" on his acoustic.

Morton says punk started seeping into his musical interests right as he began playing. He recalls the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go" as the first thing he learned, playing a little bit of the song. Morton also slips in some Black Flag as well.

Digging into his own works, he recalled his very first riff having a Jimmy Page influence, while also singling out Lamb of God's "Ghost Walking" as one of his favorite pieces he's written.

He also digs into his more recent solo work, revealing that the single "All I Had to Lose" initially had the working title "Pretty One," which is fitting after you hear him strum away. Morton closes this edition of Gear Factor taking viewers through another solo song, "The Fight," which appears on the Ether EP. Watch the full video above.

You can pick up the Anesthetic album here while Ether is available here. Meanwhile, Morton will be back on tour with Lamb of God in late March. See their upcoming dates here.

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