Godsmack Faceless CD

Enhanced CD



This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Godsmack: Tony Rombola (vocals, guitar); Robbie Merrill (vocals, bass); Sully Erna (vocals); Shannon Larkin (drums, percussion).
"Straight Out Of Line" was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Personnel: Robbie Merrill (vocals, strings); Sully Erna (vocals); Shannon Larkin (drums, sound effects); "Viggy" Vignola (programming).
Audio Mixer: David Bottrill.
Recording information: Soundtracks Recording Studio, New York, NY; The Hit Factory Criteria, Miami, FL.
Photographer: P.R. Brown.
Godsmack's first, slow-burning success -- the self-titled debut from 1998 -- spent two years climbing charts and selling records as the witchy minstrels of alternative metal wound their way across the country on two consecutive Ozzfest tours. The sound was familiar enough, recalling Alice in Chains in both vocalist Sully Erna's tortured howls and their very name, taken from that band's excellent 1992 release, Dirt. And while it initially failed to impress critics, fans quickly picked up on the band's industrial touch to the post-grunge sound. Likewise, 2001's Awake was regarded by some as a sophomore slump, with only half of the sales of Godsmack's debut, but "slump" in this case equaled double-platinum. And though the sales did validate the band's effort to some extent, Awake was full of growing pains, as they tried in vain to shed their influences and ended up with a record that had successful moments, but its reliance on stop-start rhythms often left it sounding sorely underwritten. Faceless, Godsmack's third full-length, grooves more fluidly than Awake, but the band still hasn't managed to locate the pop hooks that made their debut a success. And while concentrating on texture can be just as interesting as hooks, lyrics as misanthropic as Erna's only sink Faceless further into the mire. ~ Wade Kergan
Godsmack first came to fame with a seamless blend of Metallica-like vocals and hooks and seemingly Tool-inspired prog-metal sensibilities all combined into an unrelentingly aggressive sonic attack. FACELESS continues in that tradition, delivering blow after aural blow via hellfire guitar riffs, devil's-anvil drums, and a gut-wrenching sense of dynamics. As implied above, singer Sully Erna alternates handily between James Hetfield-style lion growl and more vulnerable Maynard James Keenan tones, singing of all that's gone wrong both in himself and in the world that surrounds him, while the rest of the band does a fine job of representing the mayhem of modern society.
Unlike many other nu-metal types, Godsmack doesn't feel the need to leaven their attack with crossover-potential ballads and orchestral/electronic interludes. FACELESS provides one breathless bash after another without fail, never giving an inch until the very end, when the percussion-and-chanting strains of "The Awakening" give way to the largely acoustic, rather Alice in Chains-sounding closing tune "Serenity."