Godsmack
Godsmack is an American band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band was founded in 1995 and is currently at Republic Records. Worldwide Godsmack have sold over 20 million albums. The band has so far been nominated four times for a Grammy Award. The band's music is a mixture of rifforientiertem, hard rock and metal.
History
Early years and debut album ( 1995-1999 )
In February 1995, Sully Erna decided to start a new band. Erna had previously played drums for 23 years in bands such as Strip Mind and Meliah Rage and wanted to perform in his new band as a singer. The first cast included, in addition Erna, guitarist Lee Richards, bassist Robby Merrill and the former Lillian Axe drummer Tommy Stewart. Initially named the group The Scam and played covers of bands like Alice in Chains. Later The Scam began to write her own songs. After the completion of the first demo, the band changed the name to Godsmack.
Richards was shortly afterwards replaced by Tony Rombola, while Stewart had to vacate his position on drums for Joe Darko. After a short time, Darko left the band. Of necessity, Erna played in the recordings for the debut album All Wound Up the drums one myself. The recordings took place over a weekend and cost $ 2,600. The money borrowed the tape from a friend. Through countless concerts in the Boston area to Godsmack earned a larger audience.
All Wound Up was released in 1997 as a private pressing. The radio station WAAF picked up the song " Keep Away " into the rotation, and the band has sold over 1,000 copies of the album per week. Also the song " Whatever" was added to the heavy rotation of the transmitter, which draws attention to the band Paul Geary. The former drummer of the band Extreme, the band for his management company PGE under contract. Meanwhile, Tommy Stewart returned as a drummer back in the band. Godsmack signed a recording contract with Republic Records, the only remixed the album again and with a new cover artwork titled Godsmack released again. The album reached number 22 in the U.S. album charts.
Due to personal differences had Darko left the band again and was replaced by his predecessor Tommy Stewart. Godsmack first played some gigs in clubs before they were invited to the Ozzfest tour and played at the Woodstock Festival III. Your first concerts in Europe, the band played as the opening act for Black Sabbath. To date, the debut album sold in the U.S. alone over four million copies and was awarded four times platinum.
Awake and Faceless (2000 to 2003)
During the tours in 1999 and 2000, the band wrote new songs. The second album Awake was released in fall 2000 and debuted at number five on the U.S. charts. In Germany and Austria, the band managed for the first time made it into the charts. In the U.S., the album sold about 2.5 million copies to date and was awarded double platinum. For the song " Vampires " Godsmack were nominated performance for a Grammy Award in the Best Rock Instrumental category, but the award went to Jeff Beck.
It was followed by a North American tour with the Deftones, as well as a European tour opening for Limp Bizkit. In summer 2002, the band split amicably by Tommy Stewart. He was replaced by Shannon Larkin, who had previously played with bands such as Amen, Ugly Kid Joe and Wrathchild America. The U.S. Navy used the songs " Sick of Life" and " Awake" as background music for their commercials.
Sully Erna was also in 2002 the offer to compose the soundtrack for the feature film The Scorpion King. His own band contributed the song " I Stand Alone ", which was 14 weeks, the most played rock song of all U.S. radio stations. Godsmack rented a house in Miami to prepare for their third studio album. Faceless was released in spring 2003 and was sold in the U.S. in the first week 269,000 times. Thus, the album debuted at number one on the U.S. charts. Furthermore, it was " I Stand Alone " and " Straight Out of Line" used in the video game "Prince of Persia Warrior Within " as background music.
A month after the release Faceless went platinum. " I Stand Alone " was nominated performance in 2003 for a Grammy Award in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Hard Rock. However, the awards went to Bruce Springsteen and the Foo Fighters. Godsmack was invited by Ozzy Osbourne as the opening act for his European tour. However, the band turned down the offer. The band toured in the summer of 2003 to Hawaii to prepare an acoustic album. In September 2003, Godsmack went with the band Adema headlining tour of North America. During this tour, the DVD Changes was recorded, which appears in the November 2004 and was certified gold.
The Other Side and IV (2004 to 2006)
The Acoustic EP The Other Side was released in March 2004. Besides three new songs, the EP rearranged versions of the songs " Keep Away ", " Spiral" and " Asleep " contains ( in the original " Awake" ). In the song " Touché ", the original guitarist Lee Richards is heard. The Other Side debuted at number five on the U.S. album charts and was recognized for more than 500,000 units sold with a gold record.
Following the publication of EP a headlining tour followed by North America with Ill Niño and Dropbox before Godsmack for the rest of 2004, played in North America and Europe opening for Metallica. The song " Straight Out of Line" in 2004 for a Grammy in the category " Best Hard Rock Performance " nomination, the award went to Evanescence.
On 1 May 2005 Godsmack played at the " Rockin ' the Corps " festival in front of more than 40,000 soldiers in the Marine Corps Air Station in Oceanside. The festival also Kiss, Destiny 's Child, Hootie and the Blowfish and Richie Sambora played. In addition, the band recorded the single " Bring it On " for the video game Madden NFL 2006.
In October 2005, the band began to record their fourth studio album. For the first time, the band was able to prepare in peace for a new album and had no songs while touring write. The simple IV titled album was released in April 2006 and rose like its predecessor, a number one in the U.S. charts and sold in the first week, approximately 211,000 times. The album was certified gold. IV reached number four in the Canadian and number 59 in the German album charts.
Godsmack appeared in the television shows The Tonight Show from Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel Live! on. In May 2006, the band played a medley as part of the television program " VH1 Rock Honors " on four Judas -Priest songs. After a co-headlining tour of North America with Rob Zombie was followed by another tour with Breaking Benjamin.
The Oracle (2007 to 2011)
During 2007, the band played individual concerts. Tony Rombola, Robbie Merrill, Shannon Larkin published with the former Godsmack guitarist Lee Richards and former Ugly Kid Joe singer Whitfield Crane an album under the name Another Animal and went on tour with Alter Bridge. In November 2007, 10 Years of Godsmack was with Good Times, Bad Times ... Posted a best-of album. With "Good Times, Bad Times ", the album includes a cover version of Led Zeppelin. The album sold in its first week in the U.S., about 40,000 times and reached number 35 of the U.S. album charts.
After the release of the best - of album, the band members took time for their own musical projects. Sully Erna went on solo tour and recorded a solo album not yet been posted. In the summer of 2009, Godsmack participated on the " Crüe Hard II " tour, in which even the bands Theory of a Deadman, Drowning Pool and Charm City Devils participated alongside the headliners Mötley Crüe. On 9 June 2009 the band "Whiskey Hangover" released a new single as a preview of the fifth album, The Oracle, which was released on May 4, 2010. Initially it had the production name Saints & Sinners, which was, however, later changed to The Oracle, as Sully Erna felt the previous name as too religious. Along with the album Godsmack also released a making-of, which continues even after the album's release and currently comprises eight episodes, the first of which seven are included in the limited edition version of the album.
Live and Inspired (since 2012)
2012 was on an extended tour with Staind and Halestorm. The live album called Live and Inspired was published on 25 May 2012. Purpose a concert in Detroit was recorded. The European tour was completely canceled later due to voice problems of the singer. After the band in 2013 largely paused the musicians began in November 2013 with preparations for a new studio album. The yet untitled work will be published in early 2014.
Style and influences
One of the main influences of the band include loud Erna, Larkin and Rombola grunge bands like Alice in Chains, Metal bands like Metallica, Judas Priest and Pantera, hard rock bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and progressive rock bands like Rush. For Sully Erna, the late Alice -in- Chains singer Layne Staley is his main influence as a singer. The texts of Sully Erna deal with personal experiences. In an interview he explained that the lyrics of " Voodoo" and " I Stand Alone " are the only ones that have not been written from his personal point of view.
Godsmack are classified pages of the trade press in musical genres such as hard rock, heavy metal, post- grunge, Nu Metal and Alternative Metal. Singer Sully Erna described his band in an interview as a modern hard rock band.
The band's name
In many cases, the song "God Smack " by the band Alice in Chains is known as the home of Godsmack band name. This version was rejected by Sully Erna and called in-band discussion about fever blisters as the source of the band name.
"What happened what we were rehearsing one day and our drummer came in with this huge cold sore on his lip. I teased him and really gave him a hard time about it. But then the next day, by this weird coincidence, I happened to get a cold sore on my lip. And so one of the guys in the band Said to me, 'See, God just smacked you on the head for all that [ teasing ]. ' We took it as a sign, so that's why we named the band Godsmack. "
"One day our drummer appeared with a large herpes blister on his lip. I teased him about it, so he had to go through a difficult time. The next day I had myself a herpes blister on the lip. One of my band mates said to me: "You see, God has given you for a scrubbed. " We took this as a sign and chose Godsmack as a band name. "
Discography
This list contains only the studio albums. For a full discography see: Godsmack / Discography