Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton says the band is awed. “It seems like every week there’s another great review,” he says from the road from the MTV 2 Headbanger’s Ball Tour, which hits the Norva in Norfolk Dec. 1. “We’re just kind of in awe of it all and doing our thing.”

Revolver, a hard rock magazine whose December cover features Tool and A Perfect Circle frontman Maynard James Keenan, is equally in awe of Lamb of God, says managing editor Brian Stillman. A first for the magazine, the award was a nomination process, he says. Revolver’s writers voted for their favorite album of the year and Lamb of God received the most votes. Revolver freelance writer Dan Epstein interviewed the band in Los Angeles last week, but Stillman says the magazine is still working out how it will feature the award in the March issue.

Morton says the band had gotten wind of it a few days earlier, when a crewmember on the Headbanger’s Ball tour leaked the news. “We’re kind of in the trenches of this tour right now,” he says, “so that kind thing just flies right by us. That’s not to belittle the award. We’re honored.”

The question such high praise from such a lofty source begs is not lost on Morton. “We really wanted to know who got second place,” he says, thinking of other favorite hard rock bands of his own. “If they call you album of the year, you end up scratching your head — how did we beat them?”

It’s been a busy year for Lamb of God. Style announced in October that the band had signed with Epic records. It recently completed its first project for the label, a DVD of music videos and other material. Morton, 30, has been with the band since the mid-’90s, when it was known as Burn the Priest.

“Sometimes,” he says of the recent successes, “it feels like the buzz of the band and the reception of the album, it takes on a life of its own. When you see the video on MTV you kind of realize what used to be our little band that tried to get a show — Wayne Melton