SULLY ERNA Discusses GODSMACK's Near-Breakup (Video)

GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna recently spoke to Loudwire about why the band needed to take some time off following the tour cycle for 2010's "The Oracle" before beginning work on its new album, "1000hp" (One Thousand Horsepower). Check out the clip below.

"You know, it was getting rough," Erna told The Pulse Of Radio about GODSMACK's decision to take a break. "You know, I'm not gonna lie — the band was getting into a funky place and there was talks about breaking up and, you know, not really staying a band anymore. But you know, I think it was just some time we needed, some time to really reassess the thing and really appreciate what we have as a band. We've always been kind of level-headed about things and eventually we just needed to let a little time pass and let the dust settle."

Erna added that bad blood over the GODSMACK offshoot ANOTHER ANIMAL, as well as his satisfaction with his own solo album "Avalon", led GODSMACK to the brink before they reconsidered.

"1000hp" will be released on August 5 via Republic Records.

The "1000hp" title track and GODSMACK's first all-new single since 2011 arrived at rock radio stations on June 9 and can be streamed in the YouTube clip below. Erna told The Pulse Of Radio that his original title for the song took things to the next level. "Actually, the original title I wanted to put on the song was '100,000 Horsepower'," he said. "But unfortunately, rhythmically, it was too many syllables and I couldn't make it fit the way I wanted to creatively, so I trimmed it back to '1000 Horsepower', which is still pretty fuckin' powerful, by the way."

The "1000hp" digital single was made available on June 10. Erna told The Pulse Of Radio how the track came together: "It's one of those songs that surprisingly came out and was written from back to front in, like, an hour. I started putting one thing together with the next, and then Shannon [Larkin, drummer] started jumping in and then we arranged the whole song, and literally within an hour, maybe 90 minutes, this whole song was written and it was one of the last songs that we wrote, and it ended up becoming the first single."

Erna described the sound of the "1000hp" album to The Pulse Of Radio as "a little bit more raw, a little bit more open. The writing was a little freer. The production is really kind of raw and in your face, and the songs, man — I'm really, really excited about these songs. And I have to tell you honestly, I wasn't that excited about writing this record at first."

GODSMACK is among the confirmed bands for the 2014 Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival, set to kick off on August 15 in Clarkston, Michigan and run through September 21.