In honor of the band's success and the release of their sixth studio album, 1000hp, Mayor Marty Walsh declared August 6 as "Godsmack Day" in the city of Boston.

[3] His new band, The Scam, formed with Erna on vocals, Robbie Merrill on bass, local guitarist and friend Lee Richards on guitar, and Tommy Stewart on drums.

"I was making fun of [our drummer at the time][5] who had a cold sore on his lip and the next day I had one myself and somebody said, 'It's a god smack.'

[10] Eventually, Godsmack's CD landed in the hands of Rocko, the night-time DJ for Boston radio station WAAF (FM).

[3] Newbury Comics, a New England record store chain, agreed to sell the CD on consignment.

Shortly after the success of "Keep Away", Godsmack went back into the studio and recorded a single titled "Whatever", which became the new local favorite on WAAF (FM).

[3][5][9] In an interview Sully Erna stated, "We had been selling maybe 50 copies a month at the time WAAF picked up the album.

[3] Roxanne Blanford from Allmusic gave the album three out of five stars, stating, "Godsmack confidently brought metal into the technological age".

[16] "Vampires", a song on the album, also earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 2002.

[24] Two of the songs on the album were used in United States Navy commercials ("Sick of Life" and "Awake") as background music.

[28] With Shannon Larkin (ex Ugly Kid Joe, Souls at Zero, Wrathchild America, MF Pitbulls) replacing Tommy Stewart, who left due to personal differences for the second time,[3][29] Godsmack went back into the studio later that year to record a new album that was released in 2003.

The lead single "Straight Out of Line" received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Hard Rock Performance".

[34] However, in a later interview Merrill stated otherwise, making it unclear of how the album's title came to be, "It came from the band's feeling that, despite our radio and sales success, we still flew a bit under the radar".

One new song, "Touché", featured Godsmack's first guitar player, Lee Richards, as well as John Kosco, who were at that time in the now defunct band Dropbox,[36] The other two new acoustic tracks were "Running Blind" and "Voices".

Afterwards, in autumn 2004, the band played several acoustic shows to promote The Other Side, while at the same time continuing to open for Metallica.

[49] Despite rumors of the band going on hiatus as a result of releasing a greatest hits album, Erna was quoted as saying, "we're not going away, we are just gonna take a break and enjoy our 10th year anniversary and kind of recharge our batteries.

[56][57] The band entered the studio in January 2012 to mix a live album plus record several covers for an upcoming release.

[64][65] In February 2014, Erna tweeted that the band had made progress in the songwriting process for its next studio album, tentatively scheduled for a late 2014 release.

[75] In July 2015, the band revealed dates for an upcoming North American fall headline tour.

[76][77] Also in August 2015 Godsmack announced a new leg of North American dates that would keep the band busy through mid-November.

[78][79] On October 14, 2015, Godsmack released a digital single called "Inside Yourself" available for a limited free download.

[92] However, On October 17, 2018, it was announced that the band postponed their fall 2018 Europe tour, following death of Tony Rombola's son and plan to reschedule in early 2019.

The band invited 400 aspiring musicians from middle school students across New England to take part in the video.

The video, directed by Noah Berlow, again sent the song to the top of the charts for five weeks, setting a new record most constitutive at number 1 in its category.

[105] Shortly after the release of the new single, Sully Erna revealed in an interview with 93X Radio's Pablo that the title of the album would be Lighting Up the Sky and that it would indeed be the band's last record.

[119][120][121] The band's primary influences include Aerosmith, Alice in Chains, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Pantera and Rush according to Erna, Larkin, and Rombola.

[125] However, Godsmack has attempted to distance themselves from the Alice in Chains comparison with Erna stating in an interview with Matt Ashare, "I've just never really heard that in our music.

[127][128] Adrien Begrand of PopMatters states, "Erna perfectly mimics the late Layne Staley's low, guttural, sinister singing and snarly, metal-inspired growls" and, "The band's music is a faithful retread of Jerry Cantrell's churning, tuned-down hard rock".

[127] Erna's singing style has been stated as "the snarl of James Hetfield", and "composed of dark harmony that sounds a lot like Alice in Chains".

[130] Larkin's drumming is thought to "worship at the twin altars of Neil Peart and John Bonham".