No New GODSMACK Album Before 2018

GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna has told Billboard.com 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.

"I think the general plan is gonna be to try to get together and start writing and recording by late next year," Erna said.

"We could've done something this year and dropped it next year, but we thought it would be cooler to wait until [the 20th anniversary].

"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."

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's first release for BMG will be his sophomore solo album, "Hometown Life", which will arrive on Friday, September 30.

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.