After months of speculation and delays, Godsmack has finally announced that they'll drop a new 2010 album within just a few months. For their devoted fans, who've had to wait for nearly four years for a new studio album, the news of the May 4th release date comes not a moment too soon. Although the group had originally aimed for a March release date for their fifth studio album, titled 'The Oracle,' they eventually decided to push it back a few months. Not only has the group enlisted a different producer for their upcoming album, calling upon Dave Fortman to put their sound together, but they've also taken a radically different technical approach to recording their songs. While working on 'The Oracle' in the studio, the band opted for laying down one track at a time, as opposed to recording composite parts and then assembling them in a piecewise manner. As Shannon Larkin tells AwayTeam, "It's so cool because we get to hear what everything is going to sound like almost immediately and I'm not just laying down my drum tracks and then sitting around for the rest of the time waiting for it all to be done before I get to hear anything finished. It makes it way more exciting to record like this."
As for the sound of the album, Larkin told UltimateGuitar back in September that their new, "aggressive" record will be "more simplistic" than their last album, 'IV,' which was released on April 25, 2006. As Larkin says, 'The Oracle' will be significantly "less bluesy," and "more heavy," than their previous work, and will strive to attain the "simple heavy rock" sound that the group was aiming for in the studio. Judging on the success of the album's recently released single, 'Cryin' Like a Bitch,' it seems that however different Godsmack's sound may be, fans are still eager to soak it up.
Interestingly enough, the Boston based alt-metal ensemble has decided against including their promotional single 'Whiskey Hangover' on the new album, despite its massive commercial success. They have, however, released a full tracklist ahead of their new 2010 album release, so check it out below.
Tracklisting:
1. 'Cryin' Like a Bitch'2. 'Saints and Sinners'
3. 'War and Peace'
4. 'Love Hate Sex Pain'
5. 'What If?'
6. 'Devil's Swing'
7. 'Good Day to Die'
8. 'Forever Shamed'
9. 'Shadow of a Soul'
10. 'The Oracle'