Godsmack: IV

[ZfrkS62]

Godsmack's fourth full length album hit the shelves today. simply titled IV, (Roman Numeral, not IntraVeinous).

They appeared on Headbanger's Ball on MTV2 a couple weeks ago talking about the album, and by Sully's own admittance, it's not as dark as the previous albums.

But not being as dark, in no way means they've lightened up.

Tony Rombola, Robbie Merrill and Shannon Larkin (who made his debut with the band with 2003's Faceless after Tommy Stewart mysteriously left) are still belting out angst and brutality through their instruments, and Sully, well, it's still Sully in front of the mic, but the content of the album itself is not as dark and angry as what Awake and Faceless were.

There is no denying this is Godsmack though.

11 tracks, 1 seriously satisfying album

8)

(one a quick side note: The anti-piracy note placed on the cd by the fbi seriously detracts from the artwork! please watch this cartoon for a rant that has been goign through my head for a long time: http://www.friendsoffoamy.com/index.php?id=312 )(no i didn't do this cartoon)

track listing:

1: Living in Sin
2: Speak
3: The Enemy
4: Shine Down
5: Hollow
6: No Rest For The Wicked
7: Bleeding Me
8: Voodoo Too [yes, this is a sequel to Voodoo]
9: Temptaion
10: Mama
11: One Rainy Day

Target and Best Buy both have exclusive hidden tracks attatched to number 11. Target's track is called I Thought, and Best Buy's is called Safe and Sound. I bought Target's first and was kind of pissed when i ripped it to my computer and saw that it tagged it as IV (Target Exclusive) :roll: so i got it from Best Buy later in the day and saw the Best Buy had it's own exclusive track. Fortunately, that one doesn't tag the album as Best Buy Exclusive, when you rip it. Don't ask why it pissed me off. It just did.

[nthfinity]

godsmack is good; but listening to any one of thier albums, is like listing to any one of thier other albums... and if you've seen them live once, you seen them live 10 times...

(dont get me wrong, they are talented... but after the acustic recordings, I was let down... what, was there one new song on that disc?...

[ZfrkS62]

Originally Posted by nthfinity godsmack is good; but listening to any one of thier albums, is like listing to any one of thier other albums... and if you've seen them live once, you seen them live 10 times... (dont get me wrong, they are talented... but after the acustic recordings, I was let down... what, was there one new song on that disc?...

There were three. Running Blind, Touche (with John Kosco of Dropbox) and Voices. Asleep was just a slower version of Awake.

However the point of Other Side wasn't to be a real album. It was kind of a distraction for the band to do it and sort of break away for bit from what they had been doing previously. Which is why this new one is titled 4. If they had intended Other Side to be a real album, it would have been titled 5. The band had actually scrapped the album at one point for unknown reasons, and redid it. It was supposed to have been released a few months before it was actually put out.

While yes, they do tend to sound similiar in their songs, it's the constant energy that i find to be refreshing. Whereas most rock bands that start out an album thrashing, usually lose energy by the end, Godsmack has always kept it going. Which is one of the things i like about them.

there are a few songs on this one though that are a bit mellower and sound as if they are carrying a more methodical approach to their compostition, but it's really Sully's lyrical approach that brings it to life. I'm not a huge fan of their instrumental songs, except for that live drum battle Sully and Shannon do. That just pwns. There aren't any instrumentals on this one though.

From what Sully said on Headbager's Ball, the band kind of went seperate ways last year. Sully was writing lyrics on his own, while Tony, Robbie and Shannon came up with some new riffs and such. When they got together to start putting the record together, they brought together everything they had worked on, which was a switch from how they have done the previous albums. They had about 40 songs written, most of which were done during the Faceless tour in 04.

So all in all, IV has a slightly different sound to it when compared to the others. But it's not so much that it's going to cause a riff in their fan base. I think they've managed to change without changing so to speak.

[Fleischmann]

I've listened through the album a few times and I'm slightly dissapointed. "IV" lacks energy, the music has softened down. The previus album "Faceless" is one of my all time favourites because the band managed to combine metal-like riffs with melody and rock solos. This album slightly went downhill IMO.

"Tempatation" is the best track on "IV" IMO.