GODSMACK Frontman Says Response To 'When Legends Rise' Album Is 'Exactly' What Band Hoped It Would Be

GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna and drummer Shannon Larkin were recently interviewed by 95 WIIL ROCK's "Tom & Emily Morning Show". You can now listen to the chat using the SoundCloud widget below.

Asked about the response to GODSMACK's latest album, "When Legends Rise", Sully said: "We're getting some really positive reactions so far. It's reacting exactly the way we hoped for it to. It's been a little bit of a departure in the sense of just introducing some new textures and colors on the record that we haven't really worked with yet. Obviously, we put out first ballad on there that we just felt was a really strong song. It kind of evolved into being that — somewhat of a hybrid of a 'Dream On'/'November Rain'-style epic-y ballad. But the record is so deep, it's so packed with newer kind of sounds, more melodic kind of hooks, but it also has a lot of the core integrity that GODSMACK has built our fanbase off of. So the record was really kind of set up like it used to be back in the day when we had vinyl. And we did put this out on vinyl, by the way. But there was a side A and a side B, and side A is really geared more towards a bit of an evolution and side B is a little bit more of what the core, I think, is going to be able to respond to."

"When Legends Rise" was released on April 27. The first single is called "Bulletproof".

Erna told Detroit's WRIF radio station that "When Legends Rise" is different from the band's previous efforts. "The record has a lot of power to it still," he said. "But there's a little bit of everything on this record for everybody. There's certainly GODSMACK songs that are gonna cater to the core audience, and there's stuff that just kind of pulled us in a little bit of a new direction. It's a real eclectic mix of stuff, but, again, it all ties together and it makes sense. It's not so departed from what we've done in the past that it's gonna make people be, like, 'Wow!' I think 'Bulletproof' is probably the biggest departure, but there's certainly some other textures and songs on here that people are gonna be going, like,'Wow! That's new GODSMACK? That's crazy.' But it's set up kind of with a Side A and Side B, like vinyl would be. The first side is certainly the newer, more unique side of our writing, and then the back half of the record is a little bit more traditional."

The new disc follows up 2014's "1000hp" and is the band's first release through BMG after splitting with its longtime home, Republic/Universal.

GODSMACK will perform at several music festivals this spring and summer, before launching a tour with SHINEDOWN on July 22 in Clarkston, Michigan.