“Serenity” by Godsmack

"Serenity" came off Godsmack's 2003 album Faceless, and it's Sully Erna's salute to a childhood hero, Rush drummer Neil Peart. Erna wrote it after reading Ghost Rider, Peart's book about the long motorcycle ride he took after losing his daughter and his wife, a journey of 55,000 miles in 14 months, and he called the result a dark, tribal song.

Tribal is right. Shannon Larkin's drums and percussion roll and thunder like a war council, Robbie Merrill's bass rumbles underneath, and Tony Rombola, who shares the writing credit with Erna, weaves acoustic textures through the storm, all produced by David Bottrill. Erna even mailed Peart a demo, hoping he'd sit in. Touring kept Peart away, but he sent back a note with his blessing and kind words for the song.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.