The band Godsmack came into existence years ago. Its first major CD, which is self-titled, became an instant hit. The band was exposed to MTV it was a major part of Ozzfest for two years of the tour. It has since released another major CD and a few songs on some soundtracks. To understand where Godsmack comes from, we shall look back to its first CD, which is a delight for any fan of hard rock music.

The first track, “Moon Baby” starts with an eerie opening, but then goes into what should be expected for the rest of the CD: blazing guitar riffs, hard drum beats and tons of bass. “Moon Baby” is a perfect lead into the song that gave Godsmack some recognition, “Whatever.”

“Whatever” marked the first time Godsmack had appeared on MTV, even if it was during the two to six a.m. hours of the week. The song starts out with a lot of static, as if you were tuning into a obscure radio station that is out of your reach, sort of like the Villanova Radio station, which does not have a strong signal. Then, all of a sudden, the static starts to break and hard fast beats break through taking the listener by surprise. This is in the same way Godsmack took the music world by surprise. No one would have ever expected them to be popular and now, it is a major headliner and getting a lot of MTV time with it’s newest song “I stand alone” on “The Scorpion King” Soundtrack.

However, it’s first CD remains their best. It also features songs like “Keep Away,” “Time Bomb” and “Bad Religion.” All of the aforementioned songs, as well as most on the CD, follow the same pattern: hard songs with deep lyrics that make a person think.

The last song on the CD, “Voodoo,” keeps you thinking about the lyrics, but it is a slow mystical style song. It’s sort of like a tale from some ancient folklore. It proves that Godsmack isn’t a one trick pony, only able to sell the hard rock image and lifestyle. It was able to play something that could still be considered hard, but at the same time gave off an eerie mysterious feeling.

Even though some may refer to Godsmack as selling out the hard rock image or even calling the band “the pretty boys of rock,” the music stays unchanged. The music is aimed to get the body moving, providing life to a person and motivating him to jump around and go crazy without a care in the world. Sure you may not like Godsmack, but no one can deny its staying power as one of the better hard rock bands of our day and age. Besides, to call the band bad just might be sacreligious.