Reviewed March 30, 1999
Here's a brief summary of Godsmack's debut self-titled album, which was released in August 1998: kick butt. Godsmack have a disc that seems destined for popularity, combining punk rock from Fuel and the sounds of Metallica's moderately mellow "Load" and "ReLoad". And yet, Godsmack also bring to the table the absolute heaviest metal that others have to offer, comparable to Metallica's "The Thing That Should Not Be" from their successful Master of Puppets  album. Next to Sevendust, this is one of the fiercest albums I have ever heard. It is chock-full of angst-driven tunes, such as the wildly popular "Whatever." The one thing that you would think would comprise most of the CD, based on the band's name, is anti-Christianity songs. This does not turn out to be the case, though. Only one song, "Bad Religion," deals with religion at all, and it demotes religion in general rather than just Christianity. Make no mistake, though, this is no goody-two-shoes disc; at least half the tracks use profanity and most are driven by anger against what seems to be a romantic relationship gone bad. Even so, the disc starts out with "Moon Baby," which could almost be called a love song by heavy metal standards.

The transitions between songs are quite good. Godsmack have a way of blending songs that are completely different into each other so that the listener doesn't even notice the changing of tracks. This effect is most prevalent between "Moon Baby" and "Whatever," and between "Someone in London" and "Get Up, Get Out."

I have just a few complaints about this disc. The songs tend to get old quicker than those on most albums, due to their simplicity, so don't overdo it when you first get the CD like I did. Also, the last song, "Voodoo," doesn't seem to belong with the rest, although it is a nice change of pace after surviving the rest of the onslaught from the disc.

Of all the music that Amazon.com sells, Godsmack is rated 196, as of 3/30/99. That is, for example, above all of Metallics's albums including the black album. The first three tracks are the best, but the quality drops off very little after that. On a 5-star scale, I give Godsmack a 4.5.

This review was originally published at the PHS Cardinals site.