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Godsmack at the Budweiser Events Center |
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Written by Glenn BurnSilver
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Thursday, 09 November 2006 |
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 B.B. King doesn’t have to worry about any new competition, even though Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin says that with “IV,” the band’s current release, “the sound of Godsmack has changed a bit in a more melodic, bluesy direction.”
Clearly, however, that is not the reason why Godsmack sold almost 240,000 copies on its release day in April, according to SoundScan.
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Breaking Benjamin is the opening act for Godsmack Saturday, Nov. 11, at the
Budweiser Events
Center in Loveland.
The quartet of Ben Burnley, vocalist/guitarist; Aaron Frank, guitar; Mark James, bass; and Chad Szeliga, drums, is touring in support of its recently released album “Phobia.” It’s the third album for the group.
Breaking Benjamin’s debut CD was 2002’s “Saturate.” The band followed that up with sophomore effort, “We Are Not Alone.”
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OK, so there is a harmonica riff kicking off “Shine Down,” the fourth track, but the album is typically filled with metal power riffing, bombastic drumming, a deep bottom end and Sully Erna’s rough growl that alternates between singing and shouting.
Still, it is a shift from the relentless pounding of “Faceless” and the chunka-chunka attack of “Awake.” The “directional change,” according to Larkin, is the result of Erna distancing himself from the rest of the band while working out some personal issues related to addiction and failed relationships.
“He had this dark cloud hanging over him,” Larkin said from Dayton, Ohio, where the band was gussying up for a Halloween show. “Sully was in this really crap head space and having all these problems with his life. Everything was f****d up in his life when we started writing this record. So he just stayed away from us.”
Larkin, guitarist Tony Rombola, and bassist Robbie Merrill were in much better places in their lives, so they entered the studio without Erna. Pretty soon the trio was creating seven to 10 tracks per week, that moved — if even slightly — away from the band’s core post-grunge sound.
“Tony is a very bluesy player, a passionate player. He just knows a million chords and plays his guitar all day long,” Larkin explained. “So with Tony, Robbie and myself writing so much of the material for ‘IV,’ the sound of Godsmack has changed a bit.”
The trio excitedly presented Erna the demos, but he was so uninspired he told the band to stop, and sent them away. Larkin returned home to Florida while Merrill and Rombola headed to Boston. A week later Erna called them back.
“That’s when the black cloud lifted and he got through these issues he was having in his life,” Larkin said. “Once that happened, the four of us came in and wrote another 15 songs together. It was great.”
But the new feeling also came with internal pressure from Erna to make an album equivalent to Metallica’s “Black Album” or AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” something Godsmack could consider their calling card, or “the greatest record of all time,” Larkin said.
“He shoved the expectations real, real high. We just wanted to make another great Godsmack album and have it go platinum (one million in sales). Sully was like, ‘I want it to go 10 times platinum.’ ”
 This forced the band to work a little harder and try some new things, like using vintage amps and guitars, compliments of engineer Andy Johns, who mixed the first four Led Zeppelin albums.
“We really tried to have some kind of improvisation with the songs, too,” Larkin said. “We purposely wrote songs and then moved on to the next one, and let that one lie.
“That way when we went to the studio there would be some freedom to improvise and let stuff happen, be more organic … It forced us to change up our sound and make us create in the studio, which the band has never done before.”
Is “IV” the greatest record of all time? Is it even equal to Led Zeppelin’s album of the same name, the one with “Stairway to Heaven?” Simply stated, no. But, it may just be the best album Godsmack has created, a team effort that fully utilizes group strength, and not just Erna’s singular vision.
“Sully’s in charge. He picks the songs and we try to make a well-rounded record. But,” Larkin added, “Sully wasn’t writing all the songs and that made a difference.”
Glenn BurnSilver is a freelance writer who lives in Fort Collins.
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TO GO TO THE SHOW
• Godsmack
• Doors 6 p.m., show 7 p.m.
• Saturday, Nov. 11
• Budweiser Events Center, 5290 Arena Circle, Loveland
• Tickets: $35 and $45
• 877.544.8499 or 619.4111
With Breaking Benjamin and Hourcast
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Godsmack band members
Godsmack discography
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