Godsmack – Sully Erna Quits Smoking/Drinking, Gets Over “Worst Year” – Finish 4th LP

Sully Erna isn’t going to miss 2005 at all: The Godsmack frontman characterized the year as “the worst of my life.” Along with a whole host of relationship woes, Erna quit drinking, put the cigarettes down and exorcised several “negative” individuals. Speaking to MTV, Erna quips, “The results are so amazing,” he said of the album Godsmack plan to release in late April. Although Erna had served as a co-producer on the band’s three previous outings, for this one he rode solo in the producer chair. In about a month, he’ll be finished with the final mix, at around the same time the album’s first single will hit rock radio.

“It’s a killer record, and I’m really curious to see what the public’s going to think of it,” Erna said, noting that he feels the album is his band’s first true attempt at sonic experimentation. “It’s still Godsmack – I don’t think it’s lost the integrity of what Godsmack has built our career off. The toughness of the sound is still there. But we’ve expanded a little bit more. After [2003's] Faceless, we started to spread our wings a bit and reintroduce guitar solos and stuff like that. The acoustic record [2004's The Other Side] was a departure and it was very well received. It opened up a new audience for us – a lot more adults were coming to the shows, bringing their kids and having a glass of wine. That gave us a permission slip to take it to the next level.”

“It will perk people’s eyebrows up again,” he said. “The first couple of records were kind of the same record, in a sense. They were sort of bordering that metal sound and then the third record had more rock mixed into it. [The Other Side] really softened up the sound. This one is more rock and roll, and some songs are very epic, in a Tool[-ish] sense. Some songs are like old-school Godsmack, like ‘Bad Religion.’
It’s going to service the core fans and introduce some new music to those fans. It’s also going to recruit a bigger and broader audience, because the songwriting has matured so much.”

Erna said the band wrote 35 tracks for the album and recorded 17.
Between 11 and 13 of those will make the cut, including “Speak,” which he said will probably wind up being the first single.

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