What can you say about a band that proudly calls its latest album "Faceless"? Well, in Godsmack's case, you can say the boys lived up to their album title in concert.
Oh, Sully Erna & Co. were entertaining enough, especially to the mosh-pit crazies who were part of the 3,875 fans at the Roanoke Civic Center on Friday night. Erna, the tattooed lead singer, maintained a superhuman energy level, pounding the skins in an unexpected drum solo, punishing a guitar and wailing like a banshee.
Still, after 90 minutes of eardrum-bashing "new metal," it was pretty obvious that Boston-bred Godsmack isn't much different from all the other "new metal" bands who once dominated rock radio in the 1990s.
In fact, the Godsmackers' defining characteristic may be that they sound almost like Alice In Chains, Metallica and Korn. You'll notice none of those bands is lighting it up these days.
For all the amplified cacophony they engineered with such songs as "Keep Away," "Realign," "Awake" and the show-closing "I Stand Alone," Godsmack couldn't shake the fact that its crunching sound isn't as powerful or frightening as it might have been a decade ago.
And another thing. If you're ever at a show in, say, Roanoke, and the lead singer keeps saying Virginia this and Virginia that and never mentions your town's name, then rest assured, his heart ain't in it.
Face it, "Faceless" is vanishing from the public view faster than the Iraqi Republican Guard. For all the fury it provides, Godsmack's metal could stand a little polishing.