The Oracle (album)
| The Oracle | ||||
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| Studio album by Godsmack | ||||
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Publication |
2010 |
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| Label (s) | Universal Records | |||
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
44 min 24 s |
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Dave Fortman & Sully Erna |
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Studio (s) |
Serenity West Studio, Hollywood |
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The Oracle ( Engl. For The Oracle ) is the fifth studio album by American rock band Godsmack . It was released on May 7, 2010 via Universal Records and reached number one on the US album charts . In the United States, the album was awarded a gold record .
Emergence
After the release of the previous album IV , Godsmack were on tour for about two years. The members decided to take a year off to look after their families more and to advance other musical projects. Singer Sully Erna published his autobiography The Path We Choose and gave Unplugged concerts. In addition, he recorded a solo album, which has not yet been released. Erna's fellow musicians released an album called Another Animal with former Ugly Kid Joe singer Whitfield Crane and Dropbox guitarist Lee Richards . Rumors that the band Godsmack broke up were denied by the musicians.
In early 2009, the band began working on their new studio album. The musicians decided to record an album that would appeal to the fans rather than the musicians. In an interview, Sully Erna explained that while fans at concerts liked the quiet songs, they ultimately waited for the harder songs. Work on the album was interrupted after Godsmack received the offer to take part in the Crüe Fest 2 tour of the band Mötley Crüe . Godsmack hurriedly recorded the song Whiskey Hangover , which was released as a single in June 2009 .
In the fall of 2009, the recordings for The Oracle began . The band selected former Ugly Kid Joe guitarist Dave Fortman, who has previously worked with bands like Slipknot and Evanescence , as the producer . As a guest musician, Irina Chirkova appeared, who played the cello on the theme song . The album was mastered by Bob Ludwig. For the single Cryin 'Like a Bitch one was music video rotated.
The working title of the album was Saints and Sinners (English for saints and sinners ). According to singer Sully Erna, there were two reasons why another title was chosen. On the one hand, there have already been some music albums with this title, u. a. by Whitesnake . On the other hand, Erna was of the opinion that the album title in connection with the band name would sound too religious . Eventually the band titled The Oracle after the final instrumental .
background
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The song "Cryin 'Like a Bitch !!" was inspired by the events during the tour with Mötley Crüe. In an interview, Sully Erna complained that he and his band were treated badly and unfairly during the tour. A dispute broke out between Erna and the Mötley-Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx , so that Godsmack wrote a song about him and his arrogant behavior.
"Forever Shamed" is about how people lead themselves in situations they are not proud of. In “Shadow of a Soul” Erna describes his feelings when he wants to be a normal person and not a rock star.
“The song is about this normal guy being overshadowed by a huge rock star presence. This gigantic shadow is like a big brother that protects the little one from being exploited. But if you play this big brother too long, you will eventually long for the little boy again. I can't live in this rock star world all the time. "
reception
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The Oracle was largely positively received by the trade press. According to Conny Schiffbauer from the German magazine Rock Hard "Godsmack still know how to fuse modern, hard rock riffing with charismatic catchy melodies" and awarded 8.5 out of ten points. The reviewers of the German magazine Metal Hammer expressed themselves differently . While Matthias Mineur spoke of a “good rock record” and awarded five out of seven points, his colleague Jakob Kranz criticized the “stylistic stagnation” and gave only three points. Kai Wehmeier from the online magazine Plattentests.de expressed himself negatively , who described Godsmack as “a completely self-contained, self-referential system” and said that “every song on The Oracle is a direct descendant of a track on any other album by the band”. He gave four out of ten points.
The Oracle debuted at number 1 on the US album charts and sold 117,000 copies in the US in the first week. The previous albums IV and Faceless , which also went straight to number one in the charts, sold 217,000 and 267,000 copies respectively in the first week. After Metallica , Led Zeppelin , Van Halen , Disturbed and Staind, Godsmack is only the sixth hard rock / metal band to have made it to number one on the US album charts with three consecutive albums. In Germany the album reached number 72. The single Cryin 'Like a Bitch !! ranked 74th in the US singles charts.
The US online magazine Loudwire published a list of the ten best songs by Godsmack in April 2015. In that list, the song Cryin 'Like a Bitch !! Tenth place.
Versions
In addition to the regular CD version, a limited “Deluxe Edition” was released. In addition to the ten songs of the regular version, this also contains the songs Whiskey Hangover , I Blame You and The Departed and the making-of of the album as a bonus DVD . The Departed comes from Sully Erna's solo album Avalon and is also featured on the iTunes version of The Oracle as a bonus song.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Conny Schiffbauer: "A song for Nikki". In: Rock Hard , August 2010 issue, page 44
- ↑ Matthias Weckmann: "Rockers Without Limits". In: Metal Hammer , July 2010 issue, page 38
- ↑ Chart sources: DE / US albums
- ↑ US singles
- ↑ Rock Hard, July 2010 issue, page 98
- ^ Metal Hammer, July 2010 issue, page 88
- ↑ Kai Wehmeier: Greetings from marmots. Plate tests, accessed February 15, 2017 .
- ↑ GODSMACK's 'The Oracle' Tops BILLBOARD Chart. Blabbermouth.net , accessed February 15, 2017 .
- ↑ Jeff Cornell: 10 Best Godsmack Songs. Loudwire , accessed February 15, 2017 . Heff C