Lighting Up The Sky Godsmack

• 1 You And I 05:16
• 2 Red White & Blue 04:04
• 3 Surrender 03:40
• 4 What About Me 03:55
• 5 Truth 04:33
• 6 Hell's Not Dead 04:50
• 7 Soul On Fire 04:05
• 8 Let's Go 05:40
• 9 Best Of Times 03:36
• 10 Growing Old 05:01
• 11 Lighting Up The Sky 04:46
• Total Runtime 49:26

Info for Lighting Up The Sky

With "Surrender" and "Lighting up the Sky", Godsmack have released the first two singles from their upcoming album. Studio album number eight will be called "Lighting up the Sky" - as the title track, released as the second single, already announced. The follow-up to 2018's "When Legends rise" is set for release on 24 February 2023 via the BMG label.

"I like it when an album takes you on a journey from start to finish," says singer and guitarist Sully Erna about the album, which has a lot to say. "I quickly realised that this is about telling the complete story of one man, with all its ups and downs". The new album "Lighting up the Sky" joins the 20 million or so records that Erna, guitarist Tony Rombola, bassist Robbie Merrill and drummer Shannon Larkin have released so far.

The album tells of falling in love, obstacles in relationships and the polarised political climate, the state of the world, betrayal, connections, setbacks and more. It also explores the idea of legacy, of what we leave behind; fittingly, Erna has stressed several times that Lighting Up The Sky could be the band's last studio album.

Sully Erna, lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, production
Tony Rombola, lead guitar, backing vocals
Robbie Merrill, bass, backing vocals
Shannon Larkin, drums

Godsmack
has more Top 10 Rock Songs than Foo Fighters or their hometown heroes, Aerosmith. Stretching back to their four-times platinum self-titled debut, initially recorded in 1996 for $2500, the veteran band’s catalog of hits is enough to fill a marathon set without running out. Songs like “I Stand Alone,” “Awake,” and “Voodoo” are certified anthems deeply encoded into hard rock’s DNA.

Like the antiheroes of a heist movie planning one last score, the Lawrence, Massachusetts-bred quartet takes a victory lap with Lighting Up the Sky, dropping one more classic album as they ascend into the celebratory portion of their career. Sully Erna, Robbie Merrill, Tony Rombola, and Shannon Larkin climbed the creative mountain over and over. They are consummate rock fans themselves, so they refuse to finish as one of those bands where fans hit the beer line during “the new stuff”.

“Let’s look at Godsmack. This isn’t coming from an egotistical point of view. But we can play 15 songs a night and still not play all of our Top 10 singles,” Erna points out. “When most people go see their favorite band, they don’t care about the new records. We want to start our sunset years at some point and honor the ‘greatest hits’ portion of our career. Let’s create the biggest and best show we can.”

Lighting Up the Sky is undoubtedly a stunning swan song, should it truly prove to be the final studio album of new music from Godsmack. “Surrender,” the first new song in four years, earned well over a half million streams on Spotify alone in its first two weeks of release. Songs like “What About Me” and “Soul On Fire” stand up to anything in the band’s rich multi-platinum catalog. “Lighting Up the Sky is packed with melodies”, assures the frontman. The band’s body of work includes eight albums, four Grammy nominations, two iHeartRadio Music Awards noms, and a Billboard Music Award.

Godsmack self-released their debut album, All Wound Up…, in 1997. Republic/Universal Records signed the band to a multi-record deal and re-released a remixed version of the debut as 1998’s Godsmack. The sophomore set Awake (2000) debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and was later certified double platinum. Faceless (2003), Godsmack’s first with drummer Shannon Larkin, topped the Billboard 200 and went platinum the same year. Both IV (2006) and The Oracle (2010) debuted at No. 1 as well. 1000hp (2014) topped the Hard Rock Chart and opened at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.

When Legends Rise debuted atop Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart in May 2018. Two years later, Godsmack tied Van Halen and Shinedown for the second-most top ten singles in the 40-year history of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Songs airplay chart, with 26 songs. When Legends Rise produced three No. 1 singles back-to-back, including the title track, “Bulletproof,” and “Under Your Scars”.

The continued creative and commercial achievement with When Legends Rise accelerated the momentum into Lighting Up the Sky, even as the Covid-related lockdowns temporarily stopped live events.

“We knew nothing except grinding, sitting in a studio for months, then back on the road, and repeat”, Erna explains. “We wanted to make this one at a more relaxed pace, more about quality than speed. This will probably be the last full body of work you ever get from Godsmack, so we wanted it to be important, meaningful, and packed. We worked at it off and on for almost two years.”

As the compositions came together, a theme took shape organically. “I promised myself I wouldn’t give myself the stress of the workload, lyrically. I’d let the record come to me. I’m a fan of sequencing and how songs flow together. I like when a record takes you on a journey from front to back. I realized there’s a whole story here about one man’s journey, the ups, and downs. I believe it’s a story everyone will connect to, on a human level, because we’ve all gone through things in life.”

Erna arranged for a unique recording experience, combining veteran Godsmack collaborators. He produced the album together with Andrew Murdock aka “Mudrock” (Avenged Sevenfold, Alice Cooper), who produced the first two albums, Godsmack and Awake. Dave Fortman (Slipknot, Mudvayne), who previously produced The Oracle and 1000HP, mixed Lighting Up the Sky.

“Since the theme of this album was about reliving the entire journey, it just felt right to bring back the original team and get the best production we could”, Erna explains.

The powerful storytelling of Lighting Up the Sky covers boy-meets-girl, obstacles in relationships, the polarized political climate and the state of the world, betrayal, connection, rebounds, and more. It also gets into the idea of legacy, what we leave behind; fitting for what could be a “final” album.

“I don’t know if there’s another record after this. I feel this is very final for us”, Erna says. “All these stories came together, and when I put them in order, I realized it’s one whole story. It’s a very emotional album for all of us. And the people who won’t care about the intricacies of the story, the emotional depth, will still be able just to listen and enjoy. Because every song could be a single.”

Even if this turns out to be their last album, Erna emphasizes that this isn’t the end of Godsmack.

“We are in the best place we’ve ever been in our lives. Somehow, I feel like we were guided like the band was important enough to stay together. We learned to love each other as brothers. We climbed the highest mountains and got over them without breaking. It was an emotional moment when we got to that realization. We actually shed a few tears and gave each other big hugs. ‘Let’s go enjoy our lives.’ This isn’t the end. This is just a new beginning because the best of times is still to come.”

This album contains no booklet.