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One of the most popular clichés in rock is that the third record is the crucial studio project in an act’s career.
Assuming there’s not a sophomore slump with the second record, a successful the third CD proves a band has what it takes to be a career act that will continue to grow with each successive album.
For Godsmack, facing their third CD presented an even more critical question: survival.
"We went into it very aware of saying this experience is going to make us tighter than we’ve ever been or it’s going to break us up," said Sully Erna, front man for the Boston-based band.
Godsmack, which is touring in support of its top 10 album, "Faceless," performs Sunday, May 18, at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena. Breaking Benjamin and Hed (PE) will be the evening’s special guests. Godsmack previously stopped in Huntington in March of 2001 as part of a nearly sold out date with Staind, Cold, and Static-X.
It didn’t take long for Erna and his bandmates, to get their answer after moving into a rented house in Miami to begin writing and rehearsing for the CD, which eventually came to be titled "Faceless."
"We woke up every day and we had breakfast, and we’d hit the gym together and we’d go to the studio and just write until we couldn’t think of anything anymore," Erna said. "Then we’d go home and play video games or watch a movie, or some of us would go out to a club and have a few drinks or whatever. Then we’d get up the next day, and we’d do it all over again. It was really a beautiful experience. I will cherish that experience for the rest of my life. It was one of the best memories I’ve ever had."
Three years ago the idea of Godsmack living in a house together, much less getting along well enough to be productive for the six months it took to write and demo "Faceless," would have seemed unlikely at best.
During the making of their second CD -- the 2000 release "Awake" -- life in the band was anything but peaceful -- a fact that Erna said was reflected in the dark and agitated mood of the second CD.
"The band was being a bit rough with each other as a matter of fact, at the time," he said. "So, we were going through that after-the-honeymoon fact, where you’ve been married for a few years now and arguments would happen and just things were getting rough with us. And they were really working us to death out there. So between drinking and hangovers and arguing and being overworked, we became like robots and we were just on auto-pilot."
The band survived the tour behind "Awake" -- although not unscathed. After coming off the road, Godsmack (which formed in 1995 and enjoyed triple platinum success with their 1998 debut CD), parted ways with drummer Tommy Stewart.
Shannon Larkin, who previously played with Ugly Kid Joe and later the band Amen, was chosen as Stewart’s replacement.
After the turmoil that surrounded the "Awake" project, the band members realized time off was needed before work could begin on "Faceless."
"We went home to our families and friends, and we got to spend some time and straighten our lives out," Erna said.
Good fortune, though, also smiled on the band in the time between "Awake" and "Faceless." During that period, Erna was picked to produce the soundtrack for the movie "The Scorpion King." A Godsmack song recorded for the soundtrack, "I Stand Alone," became a major hit last year, giving fans a popular song to hold them over until the third CD could be recorded.
The song served as commercial a springboard into the "Faceless" CD. When the band released a lead single, "Straight Out Of Line," ahead of the early April release of the full CD, the song quickly shot up the charts and enabled "Faceless" to debut at number one on Billboard magazine’s album chart.
On a creative level, "I Stand Alone" (which also appears on the "Faceless" CD) also opened some new musical avenues for Godsmack to explore on the "Faceless" CD.
To be sure, "Faceless" retains much of Godsmack’s signature sound, as rockers such as "Straight Out of Line," "I F****** Hate You" and "Releasing the Demons" retain the gritty, bottom-heavy, riff-filled metal sound of the first two CDs. But Erna and his bandmates also inject a larger dose of melody into songs such as "Make Me Believe," "Re-align" and "Faceless," particularly in the expansive choruses Erna sings on these songs.
" ‘I Stand Alone,’ this just broke open a new vein for us, and it’s a new way to go with this record," Erna said. "I wanted to be a little bit more musical and a little bit more melodic. That’s kind of what came out. And the other thing is I thought it was really important that I wasn’t influenced by anything that was out today. So we really isolated ourselves in a house we rented in Miami. And for six months, we just wrote music and recorded and demoed off stuff. I didn’t listen to MTV or the radio or whatever, because I wanted this record to be as pure as possible to our souls."