Godsmack, “Lighting Up the Sky.”

If the eighth album from Godsmack is, as vocalist Sully Erna suggests, the band’s last, then the Boston quartet picked a heck of a way to go out. While the band isn’t retiring, Erna has said it’s permanently leaving the studio to do more things the members have wanted to do for a long time, while the band is happy with the hits it already has at shows. While the merits of the decision can be debated, the band delivers on a powerful swan song on Lighting Up the Sky, if indeed it turns out to the end of the line for new recordings.

Over nearly three decades, Godsmack has built its reputation on a core sound. Akin to contemporaries like Disturbed or Nickelback, the hard rockers have thrived on riff-heavy machismo anthems. While Lighting Up the Sky isn’t a dramatic departure from that blueprint, the album presents it in a different way. For starters, the record has a much more organic sound. The guitars are raw and biting, the drumming powerful but spacious and the bass playing warms the rhythm section. It sounds like a musicians playing together.

With most of the tracks clocking in upward of four or five minutes, the record also gives space for the musicians to flex their muscles. Case in point, the bluesy hard rock swagger of opener “You and I” is built around a heavy riff, but guitarist Tony Rombola gets ample time to deliver a compelling and lyrical solo.

“Red, White, and Blue” is maybe the most Godsmack-sounding track on the record, built on American bravado and a fighting spirit.

“I stand in the trenches/ Side by side for the free/ Snd I’ll fight for you/ Just don’t you tread on me,” Erna growls.

On the other hand, single “Surrender”absolutely soars, maybe the band’s best lead release in years. Mixing a classic rock sensibility with jumpy urgency, Erna tops it off with a cutting, aggressive vocal that explodes when the song moves into its melodic and fist-pumping chorus. The dynamic “What About Me” keeps up the pace, building from a whisper to a scream.

“What if I never loved?/ What if I stayed the same?/ What am I worth if I can make that change?” Erna asks.

Lighting Up the Sky is a concept album of sorts, documenting a journey through a variety of interpersonal relationships, from love and loss to politics.

For as much as Godsmack is known for heaviness, the band’s ballads may be just as impressive. The first of the album arrives with “Truth,” a piano-driven tale of heartbreak and betrayal. The chorus mixes Alice-in-Chains-like harmonies with a heavy dose of strings and other orchestral touches. Rombola’s solo is triumphant, elevating it to another level, before Erna carries it home with a tight vocal.

“Hell’s Not Dead” manages to toe the line between the authentic Godsmack sound and the album’s classic rock aesthetic. Rombola shines again with a blistering bluesy solo that does everything right. “Soul On Fire” has a punk/thrash drive and infectious melody. “Let’s Go!” digs even deeper into a sound that mixes blues rock with Black Sabbath. The track jumps back and forth between half speed and regular tempo, Erna belting aggressively.

The anthemic “Best Of Times” is a thank you card of sorts to fans and anyone else that’s helped the band along the way. Enra offers thanks for the patience and an apology for his behavior in the early days, when he wasn’t easy to work with. “Growing Old” is Erna’s shining moment on the album. The song flies high with some of his most compelling vocals on the record. The song builds on piano early on but grows to fill a massive soundscape.

Godsmack then closes things out with a jumping title track, Erna even mixing in lyrics from some of the band’s past hits like “Stay Away” and “Voodoo” as the album fades. Will this be the last new material we hear from Godsmack? Only time will tell, but for now there’s plenty for fans to gravitate toward on this (potentially) final relrease.

Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald.