Lighting Up the Sky Review

Band	Godsmack
Album	Lighting Up the Sky
Type	Album (Studio full-length)
Released	February 24, 2023
Genres	Hard Rock, Alternative Metal
Labels	BMG
Length	49:26

Reviewer :  Cosmicism         Rating :  65 / 100

The short story is that it's a bad album and I don't recommend it.

The long story is a lot more complicated, since there are some positive aspects to this album. for a couple of early songs there is a rather nice bluesy & bouncy groove. Though the singer doesn't have such a high level of vocal ability, the way he uses his voice on most of these songs is rather pleasant, and when echo and some other effects are added to the singing, it's done in a tasteful way. Even though the singing is one of the positive points, there are still some problems with it.

A few times here & there you'll find too much singing crammed into a chorus, but the bigger problem is what he's singing; there are some embarrassingly bad lyrics here. "I didn't realize that time alone meant time with him"? Ouch Godsmack guys. You were supposed to be past that middle school level of cringiness 25 years ago. Also, track 6 is Hell's Not Dead, but hell is a place, so what the hell are you talking about? There's more pain, but I'll move on to the instrumentation, which is kind of bad for about half of the album.

A lot of these song sound like The Foo Fighters, but edgier and not as well played and not as well written. The buildups to the choruses are mostly so corny and so dad rock, and it all reminds me of how commercial this album is. At it's worst it turns into butt rock, which unfortunately is a thing.

Overall, it's noticeably better than their hit self-titled album but it still has major flaws. On commercial albums like this, the well established bands walk into the studio and record anything they want, and no one tells them or explains to them why some choices they're making are just bad. Independent guys on bandcamp who record in their bedroom have a better track record, so why do record labels exist?