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It is hard enough for any Rock band to manage even the slightest degree of success let alone to ride a wave of popularity for the better part of four years yet Godsmack has done just that. One of a very precious few groups that has managed the miracle of longevity Godsmack is in 2003 issuing a blunt statement of intent via their new disc, "Faceless," the synopsis of which can be read, "We are here to stay!"

If you had scanned the rock scene five years ago you wouldn't find very many bands like Godsmack but all that has changed. Now you have scads of former turntabling goofies trying to hip-hop their way onto the Godsmack bandwagon but why buy the off-brand when the real thing is still able to crack your ear open with a track as heavy as "Straight out of Line?" Yeah, Godsmack has a whole lot of miles left to burn before they are done.

Poised to re-inject some solid Hard-Rock into the music world Godsmack gathered its four members in New York for the beginning of a massive press blitz to launch the new album. Bassist Robbie Merrill lumbered through the post blizzard snowdrifts that still encase Manhattan in order to blow in his first call to Electric Basement and below is a bit of Robbie's own forecast for the future.

DAVID LEE So, you have a third record ready for shipping to the stores, who would have thought such a thing could happen with out FUBU or a turntable involved?(laughs)

ROBBIE MERRILL Yeah, it is kind of surprising when you stop to think that not too long ago nobody even wanted to talk to us in this business. It is a killer record though!(laughs)

DL Well Universal obviously had some faith in you otherwise they wouldn't be picking up this phone bill!(laughs)

RM Yeah, they are right there with us but wait 'till they get the tour budget!(laughs)

DL I know that you are all artists and that this is what you do but it has to be a major pain in the ass to know that there are some heavy expectations put on you after the success of the first and second record?

RM Yeah, this is the only business in the world where you can sell three million records and people will say it bombed because the first one sold ten million. It's fucked but that is how they think. Like they say, you have your whole life to write your first record whereas on the second one we wrote that completely on the road while we were touring and it was done in six weeks so it was a different kind of thing there. On this one we had some time off after finishing the last tour and we were a lot more rested. Then we have the new drummer, Shannon Larkin now so that changed things a little.

DL Right, I am sure you have told the story a million times but what would really be so hard to deal with for your last drummer, (Tommy Stewart), that he felt like he had to jump ship, especially after achieving all that you achieved in so short a time?

RM Well, it was just trying to make two different styles mesh really. You know Sully is a drummer and he really does the drums when he is writing and Tommy was a different kind of drummer than Sully. I guess he (Tommy) just wanted to go and do his own thing but we are kickin' Ass with Shannon in here.

DL Yeah, he is a great drummer and I think that I have seen him with at least three or four different bands now, do you think he will stick with you guys for a while?

RM Absolutely! He is our bro now and he is here to stay whether he likes it or not!(laughs)

DL Being that Godsmack made its career on some very heavy music are you all able to get past the fact that Shannon was in a novelty/joke band like Ugly Kid Joe? Do you bust his balls about that at all?(laughs)

RM (Laughing) Yeah but you know we all took jobs to keep us going in our lives you know. We don't even talk about it to be honest with you. Some of the bands I was in before Godsmack, there were some funny ones there too!(laughs)

DL Yeah? Hit me with the funniest one?

RM Oh shit, there were a bunch of 'em in the early days. I had to play in a Reggae band for a while and then a Country & Western band, all that shit! It is really embarrassing!(laughs)

DL (Laughing) That's OK man, everyone has some secret shame in their past that they want to keep under the rug, good thing you didn't just admit that to some journalist who is going to throw it up on the internet or something!(laughs)

RM Oh fuck, yeah, you guys love the embarrassing shit!(laughs)

DL Still, both you and Larkin found a happy home here with the Hard and the Heavy?

RM You betcha!

DL Godsmack has kind of filled a very cool niche in Rock music by being able to draw fans from an extreme range of age groups, did you expect to see so many older fans mixed in with the younger kids?

RM No, we really just kind of concentrated on the music and doing what we wanted to do and didn't worry about who would be into us or not. It is kind of easy to understand though because we all were fans of seventies music and some of the stuff from the eighties, like a lot of people are. That is probably why there is such a big difference in ages of the people who listen to us or come to the shows. It is definitely cool that so many people get into it though. When we did our first album we couldn't get anybody to listen to us especially at labels. We just kept pushing it and pushing it until we found some people who believed in us and put our music out. It is funny because we couldn't give away the first record before we got signed but then everybody loved it. I don't even have a copy of it for myself, I gave them all away to people asking me for them after we got signed! Go figure!

DL The last tour was kind of like the big payoff from the first album because you could bring out that massive stage production with pyro and giant screens and all this, will you be doing the big production this time around as well?

RM Yeah, oh yeah! We can't cut back on that. It is going to be totally different but it is going to be just as big. It'll be a different look with all the pyro and plasma screens with a few new gadgets. We probably won't do the percussion thing this time and will do something else. We are already fighting about what we are going to play because we have so many songs from the first two records and then we all like this record so much that we want to play the whole thing but we can't!(laughs) We might try and switch some songs around from night to night, who knows. We will do all the hits, I can't imagine ever not doing some songs just because the people would kill us!(laughs)

DL Do you know who you are taking out with you as a support act yet?

RM Not yet. Every day is different but we should know pretty soon here. It will definitely be some up and coming act though. I mean, we have always had great bands come play with us, Saliva, Staind, you know, groups like that.

DL I know that you are off to Europe to do a press tour there but when does the real tour start?

RM I think it starts in Miami at the end of April for a few shows and we ride that until late June and then go to Europe and will be back in September or October for more in the States.

DL Are you hitting Japan this time, I hear you guys are like gods there now?

RM Yeah, we have played there a few times but it was a long way from being gods.(laughs). We didn't get to go over there for the first album at all and on the second album we played in like 500 seat places and it was awesome. I am sure that we will be back there after this summer.

DL You said that you had some time off from the road to sit and write this disc does that mean that you started completely from scratch or did you have some things left from the last record's sessions to start you off?

RM This one was all, pretty much, done from scratch. We did the second album while we were on the road and then when we got off the road we were asked to do the soundtrack to the "Scorpion King" and by the end of all that it was time to start writing this record so it has been non-stop really but we were off the road for this whole record which made it a lot easier to do. Kind of like the first one in a lot of ways.

DL Did you save some bits and pieces from these sessions for soundtracks and whatnot?

RM There are like two or three tracks, or maybe even four that didn't get finished or for some reason didn't make it on this album that we will probably get together and use for soundtracks or B-sides or whatever.

DL Soundtracks have been really good to you, I mean, you got so much mileage out of the "Scorpion King" soundtrack. . .

RM Yeah, that was like the perfect situation for us, man, the Grammy's and everything, it was crazy but you can't plan on that type of shit.

DL Yeah, the Grammy's, I know everyone loves them but they are kind of like medals to and from the "establishment," are you feeling part of the establishment at this point?

RM Frankly, I don't care about any of this shit, I just want to go out and play and have fun!(laughs) I don't feel like we have been around long enough to be part of the establishment.