Well, whether or not they are trying to be Alice In Chains (because there are major similarities), or whether they are in that genre, there is little doubt about where the root of Godsmack’s music lays. The question is – does it work?
I decided to look up Godsmack after their exceptional Judas Priest medley performance at the VH1 Rock Honours show a couple of years ago. Obviously their own material is different from that. Like everyone else, though, I guess I picked up on the similarities (in some areas anyway) that they have with the late great Alice In Chains. That’s not to take away from their music – they aren’t a cover band. The grunge/nu-metal scene has dozens of bands that sound the same as each other, and that doesn’t (necessarily) make them bad.
As it stands, I do enjoy most of this album. Sure, by the end of the album you sometimes feel you’ve been listening to the same song a few times over, and the guitars are probably not as powerful as they could be given the progression of some of the material. To me, they could have really amped it up – but most of them stay in that same tempo as (again with the comparison) Alice In Chains. “Bad Religion” has a great guitar/drum riff to get into the start of the song, but doesn’t advance past that. “Now Or Never” feels as though it is building to something, and then never quite arrives. “Stress” feels like it is going to explode, but it only has an incendiary burn. These songs are enjoyable enough, but it just feels unfulfilled, as if the next stage of evolution doesn’t arrive.
Having heard these guys do stunning versions of the Judas Priest songs, as well as of Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf” on the Nativity in Black II: A Tribute to Black Sabbath album, I guess I expected a whole lot more. I’m not sure if that is unfair or not.
Rating: I believe they could have extended themselves more. 2.5/5
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