A 10th anniversary box set and a side band will be rocking Godsmack’s world later this year.
The Boston headbangers — currently on a theater run continuing to promote their 2006 release “IV” — plan to commemorate the 10-year celebration of their first album with a package that gathers together its four studio albums, the acoustic EP “The Other Side” and a DVD featuring mini-documentaries about the making of each album. There will also be some live footage and possibly the group’s 2004 acoustic performance in Las Vegas.
“We’re just gonna try to make it really special,” drummer Shannon Larkin tells Billboard.com. “Basically Universal, who we’ve been with since day one, said to us, ‘You tell us what you need and we’ll write the check. We want this to be special, too.’ We wanted to make it a road case, but as we were doing some research we saw that Metallica made one of their box sets look like a road case, so that’s out. If anyone has any suggestions, we’re open…”
Larkin says Godsmack doesn’t have much in the way of unreleased material but has been taping all of its concerts since 2004, so it may expand some of the albums with appropriate live material. He hopes to put a version of the band’s nightly drum solo, which he plays together with frontman Sully Erna, in the collection as well.
Meanwhile Larkin, guitarist Tony Rombola and bassist Robbie Merrill are planning a summer launch for Another Animal, their side band with former Ugly Kid Joe singer Whitfield Crane. A single may come out in July or August as Godsmack finishes its tour, with an album following in the fall.
The impetus for the group, Larkin says, was an excess of material the instrumentalists wrote for “IV.” “Basically we caught fire and wrote almost 40 songs, about four or five of which got picked for the album” — including the No. 1 Rock track “Speak.” “So we were left with over 30 songs that we really, really love and still wanted to get out there, so we ended up starting another band.”
But Larkin hastens to add that Another Animal in no way threatens Godsmack’s future. “It’s simply a side project that has nothing to do with Sully,” he explains. “There’s no weirdness, no drama, no imminent break-up. We’d be foolish to end something that has such a nice history. Hopefully (Another Animal) is something the Smack fans will like, too.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news