### Godsmack: IV

#### 29/04/06 || Statik Majik

Godsmack is one of those bands that I tried to follow, but for one reason or another always forgot to. I do have the “Awake”-album by these bozos and I think it’s a good disc though it’s been a while since I listened to it. I gave “Faceless”, the latest effort prior to “IV”, a few listens and thought it was boring. So, they have new album out. And what an intelligent and original name they invented for their fourth album…

“Livin’ in sin” is probably the worst possible track for an opener. Seriously. It takes loads of guts to start with the slowest track of the album and guess what: that’s all the “guts” this album has. Sure, the 2nd track is much faster and heavier than the opener, but so are my farts. You heard me. It means that “IV” bores the living shit out of me. And on top of that, it gets me fucken pissed. I don’t wanna listen to crap like this. Take “Hollow” for instance… Want to do a slow track but still keep the heaviness in it? “Hollow” by Pantera would be perfect example how to do it correctly.

I have a feeling that “Awake” could be considered at least remotely metal, but “IV” is as far from metal as it gets. Sure, the overall sound of the album is almost heavy and there’s a few nice, heavier, riffs in some songs… But sugarcoat is as much as you want, it ain’t metal. Well-performed hard rock maybe. Rather boring hard rock even. Elvis had more groove than Godsmack. He would fucken kick Godsmack’s virgin-ass with his blue suede shoes. At least “IV” is well-produced, so listening to this crap was “only” a few steps from being excruciating. Yes, emphasis on the “was”, because I’m sure as hell won’t be listening to this shit again.

Ok, this album doesn’t totally suck, there’s three tracks that are kind of ok; “Temptation”, “No rest for the wicked” and “Speak”. They are at least somewhat similar to the shit they released on “Awake”. But even if these tracks can be considered the heaviest parts of this album, they’re pretty much lightweight-material. Honestly, the whole band sounds like they were on sedatives in studio. Could anything be more phlegmatic than this? I honestly don’t think so. There’s shitloads of more action in the canteens of old people’s homes. Very, very old people’s homes even.

I regret spending the 40 or so minutes listening to this crap. Thank Satan I didn’t get to hear he version with the bonus tracks.

Boredom De Luxe.

I recommend you stay as far away from this release as possible.

4 /10. And out of those 4 points, there’s 3 points just out of sheer politeness.

- Information
- Released: 2006
- Label: Republic
- Website: www.godsmack.com
- Band
- Sully Erna: vocals
- Tony Rombola: guitar
- Robbie Merrill: bass
- Shannon Larkin: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Livin’ in sin
- 02. Speak
- 03. The enemy
- 04. Shine down
- 05. Hollow
- 06. No rest for the wicked
- 07. Bleeding me
- 08. Voodoo too
- 09. Temptation
- 10. Mama
- 11. One rainy day