Satan's Luau

Godsmack - Self-Titled: B

One of the things that stood out to me about 1998 was ... well, besides graduating from law school hell ... music from a little band from Boston known as Godsmack

In fact, I can remember hearing the strains of KEEP AWAY on some mediocre MTV reality program that I can no longer remember the name of ... the song was heavy and catchy sounding ... and some things never change, I needed to know who the hell was behind it

I would hear another track from this album called WHATEVER on some wrestling show ... and I liked it too, and figured that ok, I better get serious about finding out who the heck these guys are

Ok, let me say something about the way I acquired my GS collection ... the first two I got for FREE from BMG ... I actually paid 9 bucks for Faceless ... so maybe free makes me happier to listen, and pay makes me more of a critic

What you notice by listening to this album (even in 03) is that these guys are the product of their environment ... I mean, in the wake of the violent shakedown when the grunge sound just totally IMPLODED ... and yeah you can hear some of the old masters heavy guitar sound: Met and Sabb

Concisely, these guys sounded like the next big thing in hard rock, or so I thought at the time --- I will acknowledge it: I am a big fan of Alice In Chains Facelift and Dirt and Stone Temple Pilot's Core ... and I think that I thought GS sounded like the next step to this style of music ... AIC never sounded like that again, nor did STP for that matter

So needless to say, I was happy to see someone willing to play HEAVY, new sounding hard rock in a way that was pretty much straightforward and jam-oriented... Now that I think about it, its like a wing of the "new-metal" sound, I think this style stays clear of the new wave and rap influences ... but only GS seemed to play it this way (ed.note: yes RATM is equally as strong musically, but they have a tight rap component ... now I think Audioslave is the prime example of this style of nu-hard rock)

Ok so back to the debut, the first three tracks are just classic examples of great new hard rock: Moon Baby, Whatever, Keep Away ... Voodoo is another song that got push from radio and MTV, that track has a weird trippy progressive rock rather than heavy vibe ... the rest of the songs kind of show a willingness of the band to go and just jam some heavy music, including instrumental ... and some show big time homage to early AIC, track 8, is that Layne Staley????

So anyway, my analysis in 98 was --- I can't wait to hear more from these guys, its not a perfect album by any means, but it showed promise

Godsmack - Awake: C+

Ok, so multi-MULTI platinum debut in the bank ... GS quickly turns it around and in the year of wasted dread 2K ... we the American constituency of commercial music consumership get the sophomore effort

All I remember is getting a phone call one Sunday afternoon by a BMG sales rep ... I guess they were trying telemarketing ... so I drove the poor lady crazy ... she goes Ok Mr. Ca-moor-eh , I see you like alternative and hard rock as your choices ... she then goes through a LIST of 30 CDs and I had them all ... quite funny, but you also see some musicaholic tendencies on my part ... well, she got to one I didn't have... I was interested bc I was getting it for basically FREE ... it was AWAKE

I can remember popping this CD into the player of my dead Solara (... look in the archives if you want that story) ... and I was blasted away by the first track SICK OF LIFE ... I remember being so stoked, YEAH, this is some heavy fROCKen jam oriented stuff

The rest of the album is another story entirely ... may I be the first to say that Awake is very listenable, in many ways, very radio friendly ... in other words, the songs are nicely timed for MTV and radio play and PUSSHH ... I dread hearing the term because I don't think it's possible --- however this CD gets close to being hella OVERPRODUCED

Everything blends in with everything else like almost TOO NICELY ... the sound is really SAMEY ... not too much guitar crunch, not too much ARGHNESS from Sully, not too much feeling, EMO, passion, whatever you want to call it ... the ATTITUDE or INTENSE feel of the first CD is nicely MANUFACTURED but it doesn't come across ... its like Labsmack ... same but sterile

Nice songs to listen to, I mean I could easily drive from here to there in traffic listening to it ... the public was fed Awake, Greed, and Goin Down ... and these are nice songs --- I guess the basic impressions of this album I got were, front heavy ... in other words, the second half of the album is pretty DUD-ley with the exception of VAMPIRES which is one hell of an instrumental, HIGH QUALITY ... almost reminds me of that jam-oriented band I liked in 98

... and REPEAT OUR FORMULA ... heavy guitar and bass sound, and growly vocals (this time emotionally colder)

So my final take on sophomore effort, CONSERVATIVE ... very very conservo ... yes, easier to listen to -- but selfishly, I wanted them to take nu-hard rock somewhere ... perhaps in their third album ... or at least that is what I hoped two some odd years ago

Godsmack - Faceless: D-

Oh, you're still here ... boy, you sure have a long attention span ... maybe you like trainwrecks, carwrecks, and rubbernecking ... because there's no happy ending today

Ok, so why am I disgruntled here ... I PAID FOR THIS ONE?!?!?!?!? ... yes, part question, part indignant statement ... sheesh lucky it was on sale at Circuit City

It is very listenable, very accessible ... yet very deja vu

From its opener STRAIGHT OUT OF LINE and all the way through, yes oh yes ... this is GS album ... ok, now I don't know if I'm right for saying this ... but this is how I feel about my music and the bands I like ... EVOLVE!!!, show me something that indicates creativity and life

I believe I read in a review somewhere that unlike a lot of bands that have been out for a while, Godsmack's sound hasn't changed ... that for me equals band that will soon lose my support ... I think it was Lars Ulrich who once said it best ... WE DID MASTER OF PUPPETS ALREADY, WHY SHOULD WE DO IT AGAIN

Well Godsmack ... I have your other stuff ... get my meaning?!?!??!

Ok, so I was trying to coin my own term five years ago and call it nu-hardrock and proudly say that GS was this great example of it ... well, NO, they're not!!!

In fact these are fighting words to me, GS now goes into the NU-METAL bin ... their seemingly mindless and pointless apeing of their sound over and over now for THREE albums straight indicates brain damage .. and well, GS simply doesn't have the horses to be a vital band over the long term

Enough with the vitriol, let's get on to the review:

The opener "Straight out of Line" is the song getting the push from radio and MTV, and hey did you know 1 million morons ... Luau owner included ... have bought this CD ... stop the madness NOW! ... S.O.O.L is classic GS, it will go down as one of their greatest hits, no matter what I think

"Faceless" and "Changes", the second and third tracks are far and away better ... why? because much like some songs on AWAKE ... it teases you that GS is actually a talented jam-oriented band that can create compelling songs ... these are the ONLY two compelling new songs on this CD

The rest of the album, you have this feeling of DEJA VU about ... didn't I hear "Make Me Believe" somewhere before, listenable yes but deja vu

"I Stand Alone" ... now, I've been teetering on the fence of belief in GS ... when I heard this song from Scorpion King, I was very pleasantly surprised bc it was the most creative HEAVY sound out of this band since what, 1997???? ... after being overplayed for the past 2 years, this song still stands as perhaps their best song of all time ... but its not NEW, now is it?!?!?!

"Re-Align" ... Godsmack goes totally listener friendly --- its like POPSmack, yeah it "rocks" in a very loose form of the meaning ... washed out cliched 80s sound

For all the things you do (this Buds for you????) .... hahahaha, the for all line is the level of quality lyrics of "I FrocKING Hate You" ... again catchy as hell, maybe some angst-filled privileged mall rats will play this loud and annoy their suburban parents who will piss their pants thinking their child listens to Godsmack

"Releasing the Demons" ... wow, who let Korn into the studio ... well, I shouldn't insult KORN too much ... GS now does nu-metal! ... BADLY ... someone stop me from going YAYY in total glee ... nott

"Dead and Broken" ... typical GS filler song ... consult any of these three CDs

"I Am" ... wow, Korn took a break for lunch, I suppose ... GS does nu-metal AGAIN ... BADLY!!! ... Korn should beat the crap out of them for adding to the WRECK and RUIN of their quickly dying out genre

"The Awakening" - oh wow, the CHAOS A.D. Kaiowas drummers ... Sepultura is next in line to beat the crap out of them ... not an original idea to be found

"Serenity" - the new VOODOOOO VOODOOOO ... ha ... so lame, no more words ... I need Serenityyyyy .. in a place without Godsmack ... no joke

Put it simply, what remained of the novelty their sound had five years is now totally and completely gone

I think that this band will be an interesting historical footnote of a seriously mediocre era of hard rock music from 1996-2000, and yes this also includes the KISS reunion ... %$#@#!!!!!! ... a big FU to Gene who seems to have forgotten that it is the FANS that line your pockets with green you greedy F--K!!

And as for us at the Luau, we leave GS for the others to cover, sorry we don't believe in you any more