Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
Surf City: the Very Best of Jan & Dean [Import]
Music: John Peel Session [Enhanced] [EP]
Studio 54: The Underground Classics
Turntables on the Hudson, Vol. 4
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
Styles of the Unexpected [Import]
The Howard Alden Trio Plus Special Guests Ken Peplowski & Warren Vache
Amazon.com
Godsmack play their ghoulish hard rock with such a straight face, they make Metallica look like the Insane Clown Posse. For proof, look no further than heavily pierced frontman Sully Erna, who is not only a practicing Wiccan but the author of melodramatic declarations such as "Can't you see what this pain has fucking done to me." It's too bad the follow-up to the Boston band's triple-platinum self-titled debut rarely delivers with the desired intensity. Instead, the disc offers anodyne takes on the same old themes of aggression ("Sick of Life"), alienation ("Bad Magick"), and hocus-pocus ("Vampires"), with the all-too-familiar buzzsaw of nu-metal guitars and elastic bass grooves tearing throughout. --Aidin Vaziri