No New GODSMACK Album Before 2022

During a new appearance on "The Metal Teddy Bear Experience" podcast, GODSMACK drummer Shannon Larkin spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for its new studio album. Asked if GODSMACK will release the follow-up to 2018's "When Legends Rise" in 2021, Shannon said (see video below): "We will not. What we're doing is we've already begun the process of building our new studio in Florida. We're officially a Florida band. Everybody's moved here; everybody followed me here. Sully [Erna, GODSMACK frontman] just moved here. He was the last guy [from GODSMACK] to finally leave the Boston area, and his house is seven minutes from mine now. We're building, like I said, our new headquarters-slash-recording studio. We've done the last couple of records [in our previous headquarters] up in Boston. And our goal is to just write as much material as possible.

"We took basically this year off to move the studio and do all this kind of stuff," he continued. "And in the meantime, by the way, we've all been individually writing. And Tony [Rombola, GODSMACK guitarist] and I have probably six to 10 songs to feed to Sully and see if it's on the right path. 'Cause he has the vision. Every record in GODSMACK comes four years apart — every single one, if you do look at the history, exactly four years apart on each record — and so we're at three now. So it's gonna work out for us again.

"We have the rest of this year off basically to finish the studio," Larkin added. "We don't have hammers and nails — we're not building this [ourselves] — but we have people building this. We hope to have it done by the first week of January, [at] which [point] we will start getting together — the four of us — in that room and just start fleshing shit out, man, letting shit come out of the air and the universe to us and start to try writing songs, with the intent of getting into the studio by the fall and making the new record for a 2022 release and tour."

This past September, GODSMACK's "Bulletproof" single was certified platinum by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America) for accumulating one million certified units. According to the RIAA, one equivalent song unit is equal to a single digital song sale, or 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams.

"Bulletproof" was released February 28, 2018 as the first single from "When Legends Rise"; the track was previously certified gold in the U.S. and was also the most-played song at rock radio in 2018.

Originally released April 27, 2018 via BMG (the band's debut on the label),"When Legends Rise" marked GODSMACK's first album in four years. The album earned career milestones for the group: four No. 1 rock tracks (an accomplishment that makes GODSMACK one of only four rock acts to achieve this),and a record 11th No. 1 singles in the band's career with the album's fourth single "Unforgettable".

"Unforgettable" followed three previous No. 1 singles from "When Legends Rise": "Under Your Scars" and "When Legends Rise" plus "Bulletproof". "When Legends Rise" entered the Billboard Top 200 album chart in the top ten (No. 8),with four No. 1 placements on other charts: Top Rock Albums, Top Hard Music Albums, Top Independent Albums and Top Alternative Albums.

This past June, GODSMACK's music publishing catalog and master royalty stream was acquired by Primary Wave Music Publishing. The deal includes the Grammy nominee's publishing and master income stream for its compositions and masters across its entire career to date. Titles include their debut album "Godsmack", "When Legends Rise", "Awake" and "1000hp", as well as their Billboard No. 1 albums "The Oracle", "IV" and "Faceless", which features the Grammy-nominated single "I Stand Alone". Erna, who formed GODSMACK in 1995, wrote the single, which shot to No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart upon release. It went on to sell over a half million copies, helping "Faceless" to quickly go platinum. Also included in the deal are EPs and compilations, including "The Other Side" and "Good Times, Bad Times".