GODSMACK drummer Shannon Larkin confirmed that the band’s follow-up to 2014’s “1000hp” album will likely arrive in 2018 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of GODSMACK‘s first LP. Speaking to “The Heavy Metal Happy Hour”, he said about the group’s current status (hear audio below): “We are very, very healthy. We are brothers, we love each other and we’re very creative. But, llke, Sully‘s [Erna, GODSMACK frontman] new [solo] record is coming out on the 30th of September. Check it out. It’s completely different than [Larkin’s side project] THE APOCALYPSE BLUES REVUE and GODSMACK. So our plan is to fire back up next summer and write and record by the end of the year and put it out first quarter of 2018 and then tour our asses off.”

GODSMACK‘s forthcoming album will be its first for BMG, following a split with the band’s label home of nearly two decades, Republic/Universal.

Erna recently told Billboard.com about GODSMACK‘s plans for the next studio LP: “We don’t know how much longer we’re gonna go for; we may do another five, ten records, or this may be the last one. But if we decided not to do it any more, I think a better way of being remembered is going out and doing a real theme-based show around the first album, play the whole first record front to back and then all the hits and the new stuff and the fun stuff. So that’s why we’re gonna wait.”

He added: “We’ll record late next year and do an early-2018 release and then do a world tour with that.”

Sully last year said that a disagreement over the launch of the “Something Different” single from “1000hp” fractured GODSMACK‘s relationship with its record label beyond repair.

GODSMACK originally wanted “Something Different” to be the lead single from “1000hp” but was talked out of it by Republic/Universal, which convinced the band to go with the title track first, a move that Erna said was a “mistake.”

The band in October 2015 released a new song called “Inside Yourself” as a free download at its official web site.

In addition to Larkin, THE APOCALYPSE BLUES REVUE includes GODSMACK guitarist Tony Rombola. The group’s self-titled debut album, arrived on August 26.

Fonte: Blabbermouth.net