Self-Congratulatory Godsmack Has Nothing Under The Hood

What's so macho about patting yourself on the back for being badass? If your handle is Godsmack and you've got a single out there in the open waters that calls itself "1000hp" the answer is absolutely nothing. True, they've got the fist pump aspect down cold. Now if they could only bring inspired hard rock back from the dead. The lyrics are amateurish, and that's likely the kindest description I have for them. How's about a little sample, hmmm? Stanza one merely transports us back to 1995, the year this Boston outfit set out to symbolize a lean, mean, metal churning machine. As they walked its streets nobody was listening to them. Their star was hardly getting off the ground. Ah, but there was that one day when EVERY...THING...CHANGED...FOREVER!!! Moving along to the chorus we get added self-admiration, what the crowds at the time the rocket took off where demanding of the band. "Turn that shit out louder! Make it all go faster! Playing through the witching hour! Take it to one thousand horsepower! Yeah!" So tell me guys, when you proceed to lay out this masturbatory schtick does it really make you feel warm and fuzzy at times or do you know you'll have to take a shower to wash away the filthiness. Do your necks get tired after reaching around to kiss your own butts so much. Godsmack more closely resembles ass smack to me. How is it lately I've been bombarded by songs where the explosions don't measure up to the lyrics they're supposed to shore up? Shannon Larkin merits better poetics than these to justify the belt it out hardcore beats he ladles out. Tony Rombola's superior strength with guitar is wasted gift. Robbie Merrill is similarly put in the unenviable position of being light years ahead artistically when compared to the lines lead singer Sully Erna is putting on the table. Is there a searing guitar solo from Tony? Most definitely. You and I don't get to savor it for long because we're quickly yanked back to Sully basking in the love of his public. Here's something taken from the province of "this isn't a characteristic to be proud of". "1000 hp" could've easily been knocked out by a high school freshman bunch of metalheads trying to impress the girls with how into their craft they really are. For that audience the song makes sense because it gives off prime youthful braggart traits. But when you're dealing with four grown men who should be past waxing nostalgic over the honeymoon phase of their careers the self love wears thin quickly. I know other rock bands such as Bon Jovi have flipped back to the past in an attempt to appreciate their journey. Johnny and Gina from "Livin' On a Prayer" get a shout out 14 years later. "1000hp" doesn't have that special veneer of knowing maturity that would make the trip to step one of memory line appropriate. Yes, maybe comparing something Bon Jovi can get away with with something I say Godsmack cannot is like comparing apples to oranges. In spite of that my contention is you wouldn't necessarily want to gobble up a paying audience's time showing the rock concert equivalent of those slide show home movies invited party guests cringe at. Godsmack's devotees need their metal poured out WD 40 style. "1000hp" doesn't lend itself well to the open road. A tune up here, a tweaked wire there would've made a sizable difference. Fumes don't work for a prized auto or a veteran metal group. Godsmack fails to rev up my engine and I'm not optimistic about its chances for doing that for anyone else.