Listen, if you are not a fan of Godsmack, don’t bother reading the rest of the article, because IV will not change your opinion of the band. The Boston band’s fourth album (titled “IV”. Clever, eh?) is the usual blend of dependable eerie mainstream hard rock, which has made the band one of the few big guns on rock radio.

But if you are a fan of the band, you will see this as another crowning moment in the band’s career, and perhaps a sign of the band diversifying their sound ever so slightly. On IV, the band maintains a balance between their accessible and menacing heavier moments, and semi-creepy mid-tempo territory.

The album starts off at a snail’s place with the opening track Livin’ In Sin, and does not display the intensity of starting tracks off other Godsmack albums. The first single Speak picks up the pace somewhat, but it’s one of those tracks that feels like you’ve already heard it many times before.

The album kicks into gear with tracks like The Enemy, and No Rest for The Wicked, where lead singer Sully Erna yells and growls with the best of them, over solid riffs. Shine Down incorporates a harmonica in the beginning of the bluesy song, which seems like the last thing to appear on this sort of album.

Drummer Shannon Larkin drives songs like Bleeding Me and Temptation , and tribal sounding drums help out the sequel song Voodoo Too. The latter track, which starts by cannibalizing the sound of the original song, improves and forms a solid transition between the two songs.

As you can probably tell, this reviewer has always been torn about Godsmack. It’s partly because the group isn’t that original, and rips off grunge groups like Alice In Chains, or even Metallica. But with angry lyrics and a heavy guitar and drum sound, Godsmack still entertains better than most of the groups that they share the radio with. IV provides a slight variation in that sound, in which the good outweighs the bad.

GRADE: B-

Is Metallica really the grandfather to Godsmack? Speak your mind on the Message board.