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The producer of MTV's Godsmack interview is having a minor problem with frontman Sully Erna. The singer is alert and in a good mood, but he's wearing a baseball cap that covers his eyes.
"Would you mind taking off your hat so we can film your whole face?" the producer asks.
"I bet you would never say that to Fred f---in' Durst," Erna snaps, flashing a cocky grin.
When he's told that the Limp Bizkit frontman also refused to doff his cap during an interview, Erna replies, "That's because he has bad f---in' hair. I got hair. He's bald."
For Erna, a simple request to remove his hat is a challenge, and when he's challenged he gets defensive. Though it looked like he might come out swinging, he quickly composes himself and settles back into his chair. He may ride a motorcycle, wear a giant pentagram belt buckle and bare his bruised knuckles at naysayers from time to time, but Erna insists his bark is worse than his fight.
"I definitely don't walk around with a chip on my shoulder," he says. "I just look scary. The outer shell is tough, but the inside is pudding.
"So eat me!" he adds after a pause.
Erna's past has been mired with hardships and confrontations. His dad walked out on the family when Erna was growing up in Lawrence, Massachusetts. When he was 15, gang members stormed his house to beat him up, causing the family to uproot to North Carolina. Shortly after Godsmack formed, Erna was evicted from his place and lived in his van. And just three years ago, he and some friends were attacked by a man with a hammer.
His experiences have effectively oiled the attitude and aggression of Godsmack, which includes guitarist Tony Rombola, drummer Shannon Larkin and bassist Robbie Merrill in addition to Erna. Faceless, the follow-up to 2000's Awake, is a stomping, straightforward metal album that pulls no punches. Sure, Godsmack uncompromisingly batter the same aggressive turf they've successfully pounded since their 1998 self-titled debut, but they reap rewards for their single-mindedness. In an age when hugely successful hard rockers like Creed, Nickelback and Puddle of Mudd sand the roughest edges off their anger to reach a larger audience, Godsmack stick to the grit and intensity upon which they were founded.
"I call bands like Creed and Nickelback 'Pledge bands' because they're glossy and they shine," Erna says. "They're lemony fresh and I'm not a big fan of that stuff. I don't think it should be considered rock music. Where rock originated from and what people call rock music today are definitely two different things."
There's no lemon-fresh scent on Faceless. After opening with the sounds of machine-gun fire, circling choppers and battlefield explosions, the album kicks into high gear, where it remains for most of the next 47 minutes.
"Straight Out of Line" is dark and moody, building from a tense, taut guitar barrage to a shout-along chorus, then dropping for one of the band's trademark gurgling, mystical bridges. The title track combines surging wah-wah guitars, a staccato rhythm, and raspy melodic Hetfield-esque vocals.
"I don't intentionally try to rip off James Hetfield," Erna snarls when the similarity is pointed out. "If people say I sound like the guy from Metallica, it's not like I'm forcing my voice to sound that way. My vocal cords is what I was born with. God gave me these and that's the way I sing."
"Dead and Broken" chugs merrily along with Rombola using eerie minor-key flourishes to accent muted power chords. Like the first album, which ended with the broody, tribal "Voodoo," Faceless winds down with the percussive instrumental "The Awakening" and the acoustic "Serenity."
"We just write what's in our hearts and our souls, and I think because most of us have a heavy background being raised on bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, what's inside of us is a little bit more aggressive than people who were raised on classical or jazz," Erna says. "So when better hooks or melodies come, it's a blessing. A lot of bands that write really heavy stuff don't have the opportunity to shine because their music isn't radio-friendly most of the time, and ours is."
Which brings us to "I F---ing Hate You."
NEXT: Godsmack indulge in rock clichés, replacing their drummer and diving naked from the roof of a house ...
Did we say Faceless is entirely radio ready? It's not. On the cut "I F---ing Hate You," Erna harnesses a mother lode of venom into a roiling song of betrayal. The abundance of animosity wasn't directed at the usual suspects, such as an unfaithful girlfriend or a duplicitous manager. No, Erna f---ing hates the man he hired to construct his New Hampshire house.
"That's probably the most aggressive song we've ever written," he says, his heavy Boston accent sounding a bit like something from a "Saturday Night Live" sketch. "I was finally in a position where I was able to build what I figured would be my dream house, and it was supposed to be such a joyful experience but it was a f---ing nightmare.
"From the day they laid a brick into the ground, they really took advantage of me. And the bad part about it was that I knew the guy for like 12 years and have been really good friends with his son. So here I thought I was reaching out to help someone who could cut me a little bit of a deal, and instead he puts me through the f---ing shredder. But the cool thing is that I bet that will be the number one answering machine song in the nation for anyone who breaks up with their boyfriend or girlfriend."
The day Faceless hit stores, Erna exhibited nary a hint of resentment or distrust. The album's first single "Straight Out of Line" was doing well at rock radio and the months of writing, rehearsing and recording were about to pay off. Waiting for it was like Christmas Eve, he says.
"I was tossing and turning all night. First thing [in the] morning, we took showers and jumped in the van and ran to the store to buy the record. I bought five copies. We've been talking about this day for six months because we put a lot of hard work into this album, and now it's finally here."
The basic direction of Faceless was guided by the vibe of "I Stand Alone," the song Erna wrote for "The Scorpion King" soundtrack (and which appears on the new disc as well). Though Faceless isn't a big departure for the group, it's not without changes — the biggest being the loss of original bandmember Tommy Stewart on drums.
In June, the band and Stewart parted ways and Erna recruited longtime friend Shannon Larkin, who formerly played with Wrathchild America and Amen. The singer says he's thrilled at the development because, as a former drummer in various Boston bands including Strip Mind and Meliah Rage, he was influenced by Larkin's playing growing up.
"Shannon brings that last piece of the puzzle we were missing. Over the years, I evolved a certain style from what I learned off him. So when he came in, it was easy for him to learn our older songs because this is what he would played as a writer anyway. We were definitely separated at birth."
"This is what I've always dreamed of doing," Larkin says. "I've known Sully since '88, so I knew we'd get along, but when I first tried out, I didn't know how the other guys would be. And it's just been awesome. I feel like I've got a new family."
Apparently the family that plays together swims naked together. Godsmack rented a house in Miami for five months while working on Faceless, and while most of their hours were spent agonizing over the new tunes, there was also time to get into trouble.
"One night me and Shannon went out and got really drunk," Erna recalls. "So at about 8 in the morning we decided to test out the roof, which overlapped the pool. So we stripped and jumped from the roof into the pool."
"Sully and I were standing up for one more jump," Larkin interjects. "We're both there buck-naked, and I look over to the left and there's some woman who had just opened the blinds standing there with her mouth wide open."
"She was just waking up," Erna continues. "We go, 'Sorry,' and them boom, right into the pool. The next thing we know the cops are banging on the door."
No doubt the neighbor didn't recognize the members of Godsmack, and that's sort of the point of calling the record Faceless. Despite all they've accomplished, Erna still feels a little unappreciated.
"Even though we've had success and we're doing well, we're kind of slowly climbing up that ladder. And we remain a little bit under the radar, so the band is still a bit faceless compared to the 'NSYNCs and super-pop bands out there," he explains.
"We built our career and reputation more from the street, and we work really hard to keep the band going. Hopefully we'll follow the steps of great bands like Aerosmith and Metallica that built their army over the years and had stability and didn't shoot up the charts and go away after an album. We're in it for the long haul."