2010
album from the Boston-based Alt-Metal band. Produced by Dave Fortman,
who has worked with Mudvayne, Evanescence, and Simple Plan, among
others, the Oracle is another lyrical and musical touchstone for the
four member band. The album revels in Godsmack's scorching
underpinnings, served up via frontman Sully Erna's monster vocals!
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Four long years after IV, Godsmack's last effort, fans perhaps had some reason for trepidation about the release of The Oracle. After all, since their 1998 debut, they had moved further afield of the
songwriting and recording formula that made it eventually a triple
platinum success. Godsmack had taken their post-grunge brand of heavy metal and brandished it into
a sound that fluctuated between straight-up riff-heavy plodding and
more dramatic sonic ambiences that thundered on Awake and Faceless (the former of these won a Grammy), then mutated on 2004’s The Other Side, which showcased them playing acoustically. Finally, on IV, they employed sound effects to such a degree that they used a vocoder.
Each album had diminishing returns of fortune and and enthusiasm from
listeners. The Oracle is, if nothing else, a return to the band’s signature sound of yore. It was produced by Dave Fortman, who has helmed sessions for Evanescene, Simple Plan, Slipknot, Mudvayne, and Otep. The album’s pre-release single, the aggressively roiling “Cryin' Like a
Bitch” -- aided by its video -- pushed it to the top of the metal
chart. (The controversy surrounding it, rumored to be about Motley Crue bassist Nikkie Sixx
and events of the Crüe Fest 2 tour, didn’t hurt either.) “What If?” and
“Love-Hate-Sex-Pain” followed it, creating greater anticipation for the
final product. Listening through the album, it seems as if Godsmack heard the cry of their dedicated hoard and went back to making the kind
of record that defined them. Check tracks like “Forever Shamed,” with
monstrous beats -- real and sampled -- by Shannon Larkin against Tony Rombola's churning, syncopated riffs and that timekeeping bass charge by Robbie Merrill. Frontman Sully Erna's vocals are right up front, half singing, half shouting, and channeling the late Layne Staley more than he ever has before -- and that’s saying something.
Interestingly, singles aside, the album picks up steam as it reaches its
nadir. “Shadow of a Soul,” with its military cadences and distorted
guitars and basslines, propels one of the hardest-rocking tracks here.
The title cut closes the album out, and at 6:23 clocks in as its
longest. It begins slowly and melodically, but begins to pick up real
steam at around the one-minute mark. Basically, it's an instrumental
suite with sampled vocals from a number of sources asking “What is
reality?” as it moves through various stages and phases before
whispering to a finish. Those fans seeking a return to Godsmack's roots will not be disappointed; for others, the sound may be a
retrenchment because there was no place else for them to go. The only
undebatable thing is that The Oracle is the most aggressive disc Godsmack have issued since their debut. ~ Thom Jurek, AllMusic