Godsmack – When Legends Rise (Album Review)

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Gareth Williams

Godsmack – When Legends Rise
Released: 27^th April 2018

Godsmack Line up:

Sully Erna | Vocals, Guitar
Tony Rombola | Guitar
Robbie Merril | Bass
Shannon Larkin | Drums

Before we get into the review I want to make a confession. I have an unstoppable urge to just jump into things feet first with no regard for the consequences. Although you won’t see me balls out running across the pitch trying to liven up a dreary Cricket Test match (they use sandpaper on balls these days) I will, usually fully clothed, tackle a challenge head on. This leads to uncovering hidden talents, meeting amazing people or discovering incredible music. So sometime in early April, the new Godsmack was thrown up for review I thought … “Gimme a shot at this” and boom! Here I am reviewing When Legends Rise

So where to start? How about the fact the Boston natives (who apparently hail from New Hampshire, but I guess saying you come from Boston is cooler…) have 7 albums under their belt culminating in 20 million album sales worldwide. They’ve been nominated 4 times for the GRAMMYs, and had a bunch of number 1 hits in the US. Pretty bloody impressive stats!

So after a 4-year hiatus, Sully Erna and co have risen from the ashes of 1000HP. A fairly well-received album in the US at least. Although it didn’t even trouble the top 50 in Australia. Normally I don’t give a rats about chart position when it comes to heavy music, but when you’re Godsmack who unashamedly write songs for the charts, not getting high rotation on the commercial FM “rock” stations means you probably missed the mark. Or maybe it’s just that Australians got sick of unoriginal alt-rock, soul patches, and urban angst…

But we’re not here to compare the two albums, they are vastly different. For example, although they both contain 11 tracks, the songs on When Legends Rise are on average 1 minute shorter than the previous album. There’s also more swearing on 1000HP. See they are different!

Where the band tried to do something a bit different with the previous album, on When Legends Rise the boys returned to safe familiar territory. Big riffs, strong hooks and infectious choruses. Infectious in The Walking Dead sense – just let your eyes glaze over and sing “woah oooh ohhh oh” ad nauseam. Where you’d expect to be afflicted by an earworm burrowing deep inside your head and taking up residence for days on end there is nothing. The formula is there, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge etc. There’s just no payoff. The songs just seem to mash together, leaving this listener for one drowning in a muddy soup of forgettable formulaic rock. Ironically there’s a song on the album called ‘Unforgettable’, I’ve already forgotten it. Having said that, if you’re a Godsmack fan you’ll probably eat this shit up, and who knows they may get another GRAMMY nod.

As I said in my opening, I just jump in feet first. Sometimes it’s a hit, sometimes a miss and sometimes I get shit on my shoe. I’ll let you decide what happened this time – but I think I need a new pair of sneakers.