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Godsmack

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For the Alice in Chains song, see God Smack (song).
Godsmack

Godsmack are an American Grammy-nominated hard rock/heavy metal band from Massachusetts formed in 1996. They have sold over 10 million albums in the US alone,and have had two #1 albums ("Faceless" and "IV"). Along with minor success in albums they have had eleven top ten modern rock singles as well as four modern rock #1 singles,a debut album selling over 5 million copies in 2 years and have also been nominated for three Grammys.

History

In February 1995, Sully Erna decided to start a new band as a lead singer after being behind the drums in his previous band for 23 years.[10] In 1996, his new band Godsmack started playing small bars in their hometowns of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Salem, New Hampshire.

File:Godsmacklogo.gif
The Godsmack logo.

Early works

Robbie Merrill and Tony Rombola soon joined Godsmack and entered the studio, recording their first CD titled All Wound Up. The CD was recorded in just three days for $2,500.[citation needed] For the next two years, the band played throughout the Boston area with drummer Joe D'arco and earned a strong reputation and following. Eventually their CD landed in the hands of "Rocko", a DJ for Boston radio station WAAF. WAAF put Keep Away into heavy rotation and it quickly soared to the #1 spot at the station.[11] Newbury Comics, a New England record store chain, agreed to sell the CD on consignment. Shortly after the success of Keep Away, Godsmack went back into the studio and recorded a single titled Whatever, which became the new local favorite on WAAF.[citation needed]

Said Sully, "We had been selling maybe 50 copies a month at the time WAAF picked up the album. All of a sudden we started moving over a thousand records a week. It was insane. Even crazier, I was doing all this from my bedroom. After years of grinding away, things finally started taking off."[12]

Godsmack

In the summer of 1998, Republic/Universal Records signed the band. D'arco was replaced by Tommy Stewart, and All Wound Up was re-mastered. The finished self-titled debut CD Godsmack hit the shelves six weeks later, leading to the band's first headlining tour, "The Voodoo Tour". [13] After the CD's release the band hit the road playing club shows as well as playing Ozzfest and Woodstock '99 before a crowd of 250,000. They then supported Black Sabbath.

Awake

In 2000 Godsmack returned to the studio after the huge success of Godsmack to start recording Awake. The CD was a big success but not nearly as big as Godsmack, with the single, Awake. In 2002, Godsmack earned a Grammy nomination in Best Rock Instrumental Performance for the song "Vampires". [14]

With the release of Awake they toured Europe supporting Limp Bizkit

Sully said at the time "We've been touring nonstop since August of 1998, So most of Awake was written on tour while we were ping-ponging between America and Europe, building up the band. Ozzfest was actually the only big tour where we rode under someone else's wings; we did a lot of work on our own."[15]

Faceless

With Shannon Larkin (ex Ugly Kid Joe, Souls At Zero) replacing Tommy Stewart[16], Godsmack went back into the studio yet again to record a new album that was released in 2003 . Faceless debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 selling 211,000 copies [17] and later the CD would go on to sell over 1 million copies in the United States alone.

The lead single "Straight Out of Line" received a Grammy nomination for "Best Hard Rock Performance".

Cover of The Other Side

The Other Side EP

On March 16, 2004 The Other Side an acoustic low priced EP was released. It includes several previously released songs re-recorded as acoustic versions, as well as three new acoustic tracks: "Running Blind", "Touché" which featured Godsmack's first guitar player Lee Richards and John Kosco who where in the band Dropbox who are the first band signed by Sully's Realign Records/Universal label[18], and "Voices". The song "Asleep" is actually the acoustic version of "Awake" off the band's second album of the same name. [citation needed]

In 2004, they were opening for Metallica's Madly in Anger with the World Tour, [19] while headlining with Dropbox in the summer. Then they did acoustic shows for their newly released album The Other Side in the fall of 2004, while still opening for Metallica.

IV

Their first release from the album IV, "Speak" was released on February 14, 2006, and their album IV was released April 25, 2006. The band will continue performing on their IV tour in May and June 2007. IV debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 211,000 copies in its first week. IV has since gone platinum.[citation needed]

Best of

Later this year to celebrate 10 years as a band, Godsmack plan to release a "best of album". They plan to include one or two new songs as well as a DVD featuring live footage of the group's 2004 acoustic performance in Las Vegas.

Sully also stated that he will be taking some time off during 2008. Shannon Larkin, Robbie Merrill, Tony Rombola, and former Ugly Kid Joe frontman, Whitfield Crane, will be working on the band "Another Animal" and their debut album.

The "best of album" was originally planned to be a boxed set including all of the bands previous studio albums, the acoustic EP, and a DVD documentary of each album. [20]

Influences

Alice in Chains is believed to be the primary influence upon Godsmack and it is speculated that the band got their name from an Alice in Chains song of the same name. Tony was previously in the New Hampshire based cover band 'Crushed Tomatoes' which kept up on the latest music from bands of the early 90's such as Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, as well as classics from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Ozzy Osbourne.[1] In an interview with MTV upon the death of Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley, Godsmack frontman Sully Erna stated that Staley "was single-handedly the guy that got me to start singing."[21] [citation needed] Other bands cited by Godsmack members as their primary influences typically include Aerosmith, The Doors,Sepultura, Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Metallica, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath.[citation needed]

Comparisons to Alice in Chains

Godsmack has been frequently compared to Alice in Chains throughout their history. Erna has cited Staley as his primary influence. [2] [3] The band's name is identical to the title of an Alice in Chains song from the album Dirt, being God Smack. The sun logo of Godsmack is similar to the sun logo of Alice in Chains. The band even transcended from their heavy sound to a more mellow acoustic sound on their album The Other Side in the same manner that Alice in Chains and so many other bands have done.[4] More recently, Godsmack have attempted to distance themselves from the Alice in Chains comparison with Erna stating in an interview with Matt Ashare, "I've just never really heard that in our music."

Band name

There has been much debate to how the band obtained their name. It has been believed that Godsmack took their name from the Alice in Chains song "God Smack" from the album Dirt. However, Erna has claimed otherwise: "That's where we picked the name from. I was making fun of somebody who had a cold sore on his lip and the next day I had one myself and somebody said, 'It's a godsmack.' The name stuck. We were aware of the Alice in Chains song but didn't really think much about it. It's a cool song and the name had meaning for us".[22] However, many believe that this was part of Godsmack's attempt to distinguish themselves from the band that they have been compared to most frequently.[23]. Robbie Merril, the bassist for Godsmack, in the home video DVD "Smack This" stated "we stole it from Alice in Chains".

VH1 Rock Honors

On May 25, 2006, Judas Priest (along with Kiss, Queen and Def Leppard ) was inducted into the "VH1 Rock Honors." Televised on May 31, their presentation was preceded by Godsmack (whose album "IV" debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart), performing a medley of the Priest classics The Hellion, Electric Eye, Victim of Changes and Hell Bent for Leather.

Band members

Current members

Former members

  • Tommy Stewart - drums (1997-2002)
  • Lee Richards - lead & rhythm guitars (1996-1997)
  • Joe D'arco - drums (1996-1997)

Discography

Main article: Godsmack discography

Studio albums

Date of Release Title Label US Billboard Peak US sales
August 25, 1998 Godsmack Universal #22 5x Platinum
October 31, 2000 Awake Universal #5 2x Platinum
April 8, 2003 Faceless Universal #1 Platinum
April 25, 2006 IV Universal #1 Gold [citation needed]

References

  1. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jbfrxqwjldfe
  2. ^ http://music.aol.com/artist/godsmack/308309/main
  3. ^ http://www.rhapsody.com/godsmack
  4. ^ http://www.myspace.com/godsmack
  5. ^ http://www.answers.com/topic/godsmack?cat=entertainment
  6. ^ http://www.rhapsody.com/godsmack
  7. ^ http://www.myspace.com/godsmack
  8. ^ http://www.mp3.com/albums/321643/reviews.html
  9. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jbfrxqwjldfe
  10. ^ http://www.godsmack.com/bio/bio.asp
  11. ^ http://www.godsmack.com/bio/bio.asp
  12. ^ http://smackfans.com/biography
  13. ^ http://www.godsmack.com/bio/bio.asp
  14. ^ http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2002/grammys.htm
  15. ^ http://www.godsmack.com
  16. ^ http://www.godsmack.com/bio/bio.asp
  17. ^ http://ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/godsmack_iv_hit_charts_at_number_i.html
  18. ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1488133/20040603/dropbox.jhtml
  19. ^ http://www.metallica.com/timeline.asp?page=tour&n_categoryid=3644&year=2004
  20. ^ http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=78961
  21. ^ He Got Me To Start Singing MTV.com;retrieved on October 27 2006
  22. ^ http://www.nyrock.com/interviews/1999/godsmack_int.asp
  23. ^ article on Godsmack at Subvulture.com;retrieved on October 27 2006
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