Godsmack Celebrates ‘Awake’ 25th Anniversary With Expanded Edition
Releasing on limited edition vinyl and CD, Godsmack’s sophomore album comes with five bonus tracks.
Godsmack’s sophomore album Awake was a turning point in the band’s career, and fans now have the opportunity to take the album home and hear it with extra songs. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Awake will be reissued on vinyl and CD, both with five bonus tracks and a special holographic lithograph. The 25th anniversary Awake vinyl will be issued on limited edition smoky green vinyl. Both versions are available for pre-order now.
Released in 2000, Godsmack exceeded fans expectations with their sophomore album. Containing hit songs like “Bad Magick,” “Awake,” and “Greed,” Awake was certified two-times platinum, and earned the band their first Grammy nomination for the song “Vampires.” Despite achieving massing fame and fortune with their self-titled debut album in 1998, the band made a point to preserve the harder, rawer sound that put them on the map.
Instead of recording it at Long View studios, where the band had recorded a track for Any Given Sunday, it was recorded at River’s Edge—a former warehouse above a boxing gym in Haverhill, Massachusetts. “I felt that we would be too comfortable; I didn’t want to be surrounded by luxury,” singer Sully Erna explained to ABC News when the album was released. “We had to stay close to the streets — I had to, at least. I couldn’t get too far away from what got us there in the first place.”
The strategy paid off and set the band up for 25 more years of success. “It was released at a time of change in our country and was a dark and heavy record that fit well with the times,” longtime drummer Shannon Larkin told It’s Psychedelic Baby magazine in 2024. “Its main impact for the band was that radio played it, and after the first record, you never know if they’ll embrace your sophomore release. So, when it started getting lots of play, it definitely had a major impact for the band.” All these years later, fans of all ages still embrace Awake.
Shop for Godsmack’s 25th anniversary of Awake on vinyl or CD now.
