Godsmack

From Lawrence to four million shipped

Godsmack came together in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1995, and spent only a short time calling themselves The Scam. Erna's account of the name they kept is unglamorous: he had mocked the band's then drummer for a cold sore, woke up with one himself, and someone told him it was a god smack.

The first record, All Wound Up..., appeared on 15 February 1997 and went nowhere nationally. Reworked and put out as the self-titled Godsmack through Universal/Republic on 25 August 1998, it peaked at number 22 on the Billboard 200 and kept selling for years, shipping four million copies in the United States and certifying five-times platinum. Awake followed on 31 October 2000, reaching number five and double platinum. Two songs from that early period, 'Keep Away' and 'Whatever', are still played every night nearly thirty years later.

Three number ones, then a declared ending

Faceless, released on 8 April 2003, was the first of three consecutive Godsmack albums to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, followed by IV on 25 April 2006 and The Oracle on 4 May 2010 — a run of consecutive chart-topping debuts shared with a very short list of rock acts. 1000hp reached number three on 5 August 2014; When Legends Rise hit number eight on 27 April 2018 and certified gold; Lighting Up the Sky reached number 19 on 24 February 2023. Across that stretch the band accumulated 12 number-one rock radio singles and 25 top-ten rock radio entries.

When Lighting Up the Sky came out in February 2023, Erna said plainly that it would be the band's last album, pointing to almost thirty years together and the radio tally as a career already finished. He has since narrowed that statement rather than repeated it: what ended, on his later telling, was the recording career of the original members.

The lineup that signed off, and the one that replaced it

Guitarist Tony Rombola and drummer Shannon Larkin retired from touring, and their last performance with the band was the sold-out show at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, on 26 October 2024. Announcing the 2026 tour, Erna framed it carefully: 'Their departure marks the end of an era, but it also opens the door for new and exciting possibilities.' Elsewhere he has called Larkin the GOAT and said replacing him demanded someone of comparable standing.

The replacement process ran in stages and not smoothly. Evanescence's Will Hunt and guitarist Sam 'Bam' Koltun, also of Dorothy, covered a European run in April 2025, after which Godsmack took close to a year off the road. Wade Murff played more than a dozen shows between 8 and 30 May 2026, then left abruptly on 6 June to join Black Veil Brides; hours before his final Houston show he had been posting about upcoming dates. Mike Mangini — thirteen years in Dream Theater until Mike Portnoy's 2023 return — stepped in six days later, debuting on 12 June 2026 at the Morton Amphitheater in Riverside, Missouri, and thanking the band on Instagram 'for trusting me with no rehearsal'.

On 9 September 2026 Erna confirmed Mangini as a permanent member, with the hedge of a man who has learned not to over-promise: 'I can never predict the future, but I can't see him going anywhere.' On the pair now flanking him and bassist Robbie Merrill, he was blunter: 'We got two monsters in the band now — Mike Mangini and Sam Bam Koltun. And the band's just as strong now, if not stronger than ever.'

Live at Mohegan Sun: the old band's last night, pressed to vinyl

The only Godsmack release of 2026 is a live one. Live at Mohegan Sun came out on 1 May 2026 through Primary Wave in digital, double vinyl, CD and Blu-ray formats, fifteen songs taken from that sold-out 26 October 2024 arena show — the final performance by the long-standing lineup, captured before anyone outside the band knew it was the last.

Erna has described watching the film back as an emotional business: 'I've cried several times watching this thing, but it's a happy emotion, filled with a sense of accomplishment.' On what the night actually represented, he said it was 'just closing one chapter and welcoming whatever the new version of our career may be'. Releasing it as the new touring band launched gave the transition a clean seam.

On new studio material, the position has softened. In a December 2025 interview on the podcast Life in Six Strings with Kylie Olsson, asked whether there would be another Godsmack album, Erna said: 'I think there will. I said there wasn't going to be, and at least I know there won't be with the original members.' He added that the band had plans for 2026 it was excited about. Nothing has been dated or titled.

Standing in autumn 2026

The Rise of Rock World Tour 2026 was announced on 2 February 2026 and went on general sale through Ticketmaster on 6 February: a Live Nation amphitheatre run across the United States and Toronto with Stone Temple Pilots and Dorothy as special guests, opening on 10 May at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia and closing the main leg on 26 September at the Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater in Nampa, Idaho, with festival stops at Welcome to Rockville and Sonic Temple folded in. Erna's pitch for the billing was about company rather than nostalgia: 'I haven't been this excited about a tour in a really long time, simply because the bands that we chose to take out with us are real rock bands.'

Europe came first in the announcing order, revealed on 2 December 2025 — around a dozen summer shows, mixing headline dates with festivals. The run took in Lycabettus Hill in Athens on 23 July, Hills of Rock in Plovdiv, Novi Hangar in Belgrade, Rockstadt Extreme Fest in Ghimbav, Leyendas del Rock in Villena on 6 August, Vagos Metal Festival in Portugal, Sala Riviera in Madrid, Razzmatazz 1 in Barcelona, Motocultor in Brittany, Reload in Sulingen and Dynamo Metal Fest in Eindhoven on 16 August, with Nothing More and Thundermother supporting on some dates.

Then on 29 July the band added ten more North American shows for October, with Dorothy as direct support and general sale from 31 July: 9 October at Northern Quest Resort & Casino in Airway Heights, Washington, through Idaho Falls, Lincoln, Minneapolis, La Crosse, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Atlantic City, finishing on 24 October at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville — the same room where the previous lineup played its last note. That arena date and the Atlantic City show on 23 October are the final two of the year.

What the current show actually does

The set has stayed remarkably stable across the tour: 45 of 46 logged setlists resolve to the same sixteen-song shape, opening with 'When Legends Rise' and closing, without exception, on 'I Stand Alone'. The Bristow opener on 10 May ran sixteen songs after eleven from Stone Temple Pilots and eight from Dorothy, with AC/DC's 'For Those About to Rock' as the walk-on tape and a logo curtain dropping on the first song.

Reviewers have been more interested in whether the new band holds up than in the production, and the verdict has been consistent. Covering the Lincoln show at Pinnacle Bank Arena on 13 October, Go Venue Magazine called what it saw 'Godsmack 2.0' and noted that Erna delivered despite telling the crowd he was not having a good day — a sign, in the reviewer's reading, of how far the live floor has been rebuilt rather than patched.