Information AboutGodsmack |
Godsmack are an American Grammy -nominated Hard Rock / Heavy Metal band from Massachusetts formed in 1996. They have sold over 10 million albums in the US alone, have had two #1 albums (" Faceless " and " IV "), and have had eleven top ten singles as well as four #1 singles,a debut album selling over 5 million copies in 2 years and have also been nominated for three Grammys . HISTORY In February 1995, , and Salem, New Hampshire . Early works Robbie Merrill and Tony Rombola soon joined Godsmack and entered the studio, recording their first CD titled '' All Wound Up ''. The CD was recorded in just three days for $2,500. For the next two years, the band played throughout the Boston area with drummer Joe D'arco and earned a strong reputation and following. Eventually their CD landed in the hands of "Rocko", a DJ for Boston radio station WAAF . WAAF put ''Keep Away'' into heavy rotation and it quickly soared to the #1 spot at the station.http://www.godsmack.com/bio/bio.asp Newbury Comics, a New England record store chain, agreed to sell the CD on consignment. Shortly after the success of ''Keep Away'', Godsmack went back into the studio and recorded a single titled ''Whatever'', which became the new local favorite on WAAF. Said Sully, "We had been selling maybe 50 copies a month at the time WAAF picked up the album. All of a sudden we started moving over a thousand records a week. It was insane. Even crazier, I was doing all this from my bedroom. After years of grinding away, things finally started taking off."http://smackfans.com/biography ''Godsmack'' In the summer of 1998, Republic/Universal Records signed the band. D'arco was replaced by Tommy Stewart , and ''All Wound Up'' was re-mastered. The finished self-titled debut CD '' Godsmack '' hit the shelves six weeks later, leading to the band's first headlining tour, "The Voodoo Tour". http://www.godsmack.com/bio/bio.asp After the CD's release the band hit the road playing club shows as well as playing Ozzfest and Woodstock '99 before a crowd of 250,000. They then supported Black Sabbath. ''Awake'' In 2000 Godsmack returned to the studio after the huge success of '' Godsmack '' to start recording '' Awake ''. The CD was a big success but not nearly as big as Godsmack , with the single, Awake . In 2002, Godsmack earned a Grammy nomination in Best Rock Instrumental Performance for the song "Vampires". http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2002/grammys.htm With the release of Awake they toured Europe supporting Limp Bizkit Sully said at the time "We've been touring nonstop since August of 1998, So most of Awake was written on tour while we were ping-ponging between America and Europe, building up the band. Ozzfest was actually the only big tour where we rode under someone else's wings; we did a lot of work on our own."http://www.godsmack.com ''Faceless'' With '' debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 selling 211,000 copies http://ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/godsmack_iv_hit_charts_at_number_i.html and later the CD would go on to sell over 1 million copies in the United States alone. The lead single "Straight Out Of Line" received a Grammy nomination for "Best Hard Rock Performance". ''The Other Side EP'' On March 16, 2004 who are the first band signed by Sully's Realign Records/Universal labelhttp://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1488133/20040603/dropbox.jhtml, and "Voices". The song "Asleep" is actually the acoustic version of "Awake" off the band's second album of the same name. In 2004, they were opening for in the summer. Then they did acoustic shows for their newly released album ''The Other Side'' in the fall of 2004, while still opening for Metallica. ''IV'' Their first release from the album '' IV '', " Speak " was released on February 14, 2006, and their album '' IV '' was released April 25, 2006. The band will continue performing on their ''IV'' tour in May and June 2007. ''IV'' debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 , selling 211,000 copies in its first week. ''IV'' has since gone platinum. ''Best of'' Later this year to celebrate 10 years as a band, Godsmack plan to release a "best of album". They plan to include one or two new songs as well as a DVD featuring live footage of the group's 2004 acoustic performance in Las Vegas. Sully also stated that he will be taking some time off during 2008. Shannon Larkin, Robbie Merrill, Tony Rombola, and former Ugly Kid Joe frontman, Whitfield Crane, will be working on the band "Another Animal" and their debut album. The "best of album" was originally planned to be a boxed set including all of the bands previous studio albums, the acoustic EP, and a DVD documentary of each album. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=78961 INFLUENCES 2006 Other bands cited by Godsmack members as their primary influences typically include Aerosmith , The Doors , Sepultura , Pearl Jam , Led Zeppelin , Rush , Metallica , Judas Priest and Black Sabbath . Comparisons to Alice in Chains Godsmack has been frequently compared to , being God Smack. The sun logo of Godsmack is similar to the sun logo of Alice in Chains. The band even transcended from their heavy sound to a more mellow acoustic sound on their album '' The Other Side '' in the same manner Alice in Chains did in '' Sap '' and '' Jar Of Flies ''. {Link without Title} More recently, Godsmack have attempted to distance themselves from the Alice in Chains comparison with Erna stating in an interview with Matt Ashare, "I've just never really heard that in our music." BAND NAME There has been much debate to how the band obtained their name. It has been believed that Godsmack took their name from the Alice in Chains song " God Smack " from the album '' Dirt ''. However, Erna has claimed otherwise: "That's where we picked the name from. I was making fun of somebody who had a cold sore on his lip and the next day I had one myself and somebody said, 'It's a godsmack.' The name stuck. We were aware of the Alice in Chains song but didn't really think much about it. It's a cool song and the name had meaning for us".http://www.nyrock.com/interviews/1999/godsmack_int.asp However, many believe that this was part of Godsmack's attempt to distinguish themselves from the band that they have been compared to most frequently.''article on Godsmack'' at Subvulture.com ;retrieved on October 27 2006 . Robbie Merril, the bassist for Godsmack, in the home video DVD "Smack This" stated "we stole it from Alice in Chains". VH1 ROCK HONORS On May 25, 2006, Judas Priest (along with Kiss , Queen and Def Leppard ) was inducted into the " VH1 Rock Honors." Televised on May 31, their presentation was preceded by Godsmack (whose album "IV" debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart), performing a medley of the Priest classics Electric Eye, Victim of Changes and Hell Bent for Leather. BAND MEMBERS Current members
Former members
DISCOGRAPHY ''See: Godsmack Discography '' REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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