Godsmack Album: “Oracle”

I've listened to the album all the way through three times as of this review. To the reviewer that said nothing stands out, I beg to differ. Every track stands out. "Cryin' Like a B**ch" and "The Oracle" are two of the most stand out tracks I've ever heard from Godsmack. And "Love-Hate-Sex-Pain" has probably the catchiest guitar riff they've ever written. It flows better than any of their other albums due to it being their heaviest to date. It never lets up. They've never had a bad album and I actually can't even rank them because they're all amazing in their own way. This is no exception. If you like Godsmack, buy this album.

Just a note, "Whiskey Hangover" is not on the album. I'm guessing it's because Sully Erna wasn't satisfied with it due to it being rushed out for the Crue Fest 2 tour. It also isn't on the CD of the "Deluxe Edition", it's only on the DVD. Let me just say, this is the most falsely advertised item ever. On the sticker on the front of the album, it says you get two bonus tracks. So, you assume they're on the CD, right? Nope, they're on the DVD. Not only is the DVD just a 30 minute making of, but who's gonna put the DVD in just to hear the two bonus songs? And what if I wanna listen to them in the car? Not to mention, if you put together all of the webisodes they've been posting up on their official website, they're longer and they're not even done posting all of them up yet. I heard there's going to be a total of fifteen. So you're paying for something you can watch for free and it's not even as long. Simply put, do not buy the "Deluxe Edition". It's not worth the five extra dollars. Purchase the bonus songs separately on AmazonMP3 or iTunes. I never really liked "Whiskey Hangover", but "I Blame You" and "The Departed" are two of the best songs on The Oracle and should've been on the physical CD. So, the true fans go out and buy the album and don't get anything, but iTunes users just click their mouse and get the best songs?

A lot of folks online (not just amazon) and even Sully himself have been making comparisons to Faceless. This album is not Faceless, but it also isn't a bad album. Comparisons aside, when I look at an album, I consider my initial impressions, overall energy and re-listenability. In that order:

Initial Impression: Godsmack as a band has the tendency to lead in with toms and acoustic guitars even when the overall song is relatively aggressive. As a result I ended up skipping over some tracks which pick up in intensity after the lead in. But that's my own impatient fault. See Good Day to Die and Shadow of a Soul.

Overall Energy: There are only two tracks which feel like they're easing back on the throttle a little; similar to some of the lighter fare on previous albums. Overall vocals have a wider range, guitar has more complex riffs and more fingerpicking fills. Godsmack shows they're still evolving as a band. I wish Tony would have more extended guitar solos, but cest la vie.

Re-listenability: Started listening to it on Tuesday morning. Listened a full 8 hours at work and home in the car. Did it again today (the day after release) and I haven't gotten tired of it. For a comparison, I've tossed some CDs aside after three listens. Though it's early I think this one has staying power on my playlist.

Overall The Oracle is a strong album with many good songs. No qualms about recommending it. I do have the same complaint other reviewers have had about the Deluxe Edition; the bonus tracks are imbedded into the DVD and is impossible to play the audio on a standard CD player. Come on, I want to listen to "Whiskey Hangover" while I'm driving, not on a DVD player!

The second disc doesn't contain the bonus songs individually. they are embedded into the dvd content. product details misleading. amazon should give purchasers the ability to download these two songs for free.

I would have just purchase this album as mp3 downloads if i would have known beforehand.

It's been 4 years since Godsmack's last album, IV, which I think put off a few people. I thought it was still a very solid album, it was just a bit more alternative than what we were used to hearing from the group. Well here on "The Oracle," the boys from Boston are here to SMACK you upside the head with the crunchy guitar riffs and angsty lyrics that we love about them. The album opens with Cryin' Like A B*tch, their latest single which has already gained a lot of momentum on radio. This is a decent tune, but I wasn't particularly impressed by it, perhaps I'm still put off by the title (it sounds like something Limp Bizkit would come up with). The next single is Love-Hate-Sex-Pain, which again I wasn't totally impressed by. It's alright but it seems kind of generic, like something from the last album. However, everything else on the album is a real joy! The first thing I noticed on my first couple listens of this album is how much it reminded me of their self-titled album from 1998. Songs like Saints & Sinners, Devil's Swing, and Shadow Of A Soul have a style that takes me back to a time when the group was brand new. While this album is much heavier than their last, I still think Awake remains their heaviest album. This one has kind of a classic metal sound to it, with lots of fancy drumming and guitar solos. I think the group is really distancing themselves from the nu-metal genre that some people lumped them into years ago. War & Peace and What If are some of my favorite tunes on here, but the title track has got to be one of the major highlights. It's an instrumental (with a few audio clips) where the band fades in and out of more melodic parts, and just plain goes nuts in others. I guess my only real complaint with this album is that 10 tracks seems kind of weak, but I think the record labels are doing this with a lot of bands because they feel like most people are only downloading the hits anyway, so why bother making an extensive album. It's almost as though the labels are purposely trying to phase out CDs so that everyone will just download the albums from iTunes, thereby saving them all kinds of production costs. I got suckered into buying the deluxe version of this album. It wasn't for the bonus DVD, I wanted the 2 extra songs (Whiskey Hangover and I Blame You), which didn't even come on the CD! They come as audio tracks that can be played on a DVD player, which is lame because I can't really listen to that when I'm on the road. If you want them bad enough, you can download them from iTunes. The DVD isn't very interesting, it's about 15 minutes of random clips from the album playing while we see the band in the recording studio. You'd probably be just as happy with the standard version of the album. So if you're any kind of Godsmack fan, this album certainly has as much reason to be in your collection as anything else they've done!

After listening to previews and reading reviews for several days, I decided to purchase Godsmacks "The Oracle". Well, It wasnt all what I was expecting. The first song, "Cryin' Like a Bitch!!" really sets the tone for what should be a fist pumping, energetic album that makes you want to punch a hole through a wall. "Saints and Sinners" carries a more laid back sound, while "War and Peace" brings the energy back just a little. Then, "Love-Hate-Sex-Pain" raises the bar once again and puts the album on track for a 5-star rating. But, after the OK "What If", songs like "Devils Swing", "Good Day to Die", "Forever Ashamed", and "Shadow of a Soul" make it hard to stay awake and instead of being energetic, Godsmack got lazy with these and really overshadowed the solid first four songs. "The Oracle" is another OK song, and "I Blame You" is an upsetter along with the other lazy four songs. All of them have potential to be great pieces, but they come shy of the energy in songs like the first one. Overall I would recommend buying "The Oracle" from amazon since its ridiculously cheap, but if your buying from iTunes I would save your money or buy the two singles "Cryin' Like a Bitch!!" and "Love-Hate-Sex-Pain". Maybe even buy "Saints and Sinners", "War and Peace", and "What if" since those could go for an honorable mention. If youve followed Godsmack over the years, you may be a little disappointed in the lack of energy and creativeness with half of the songs, but hey, how many albums can Godsmack make that surpass the great "Faceless"?