Rock ’n’ roll has a way of pigeonholing an artist, and sometimes stymies a musician’s desire to try to move in different directions. That’s a lesson Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin and guitarist Tony Rombola learned on their side project, The Apocalypse Blues Revue, which performs Sept. 29 at the Cove Music Hall in Worcester. While Godsmack has no problem filling large venues across the country, the newer band has, in its Northeast tour, been playing to sparse audiences in smaller clubs. Which is curious, in some ways, as the band offers a rough-and-ready form of blues that’s both muscular and engaging.

Larkin, in a phone conversation, says that he and Rombola both live in Florida, and the rest of Godsmack live in Massachusetts, which results in the musicians writing music separately, and then “putting the pieces in a pot to make a new Godsmack album. Tony and I had written out material, but we had a few weeks, so we just started jamming the blues. We’ve been playing together for a decade, but I never knew he could play blues like that. I had the crazy notion we could start a blues band.”

To that effect, the pair recruited vocalist Ray “Rafer John” Cerbone and bassist Brian Carpenter, with an intent to just play bars in Florida. In short order, they had written 25 songs and quickly had a record deal, which led to the band’s eponymous album, released earlier this year.

Larkin says that, in a lot of ways, he sees the band as more “classic rock” than blues, more directly influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix than Robert Johnson, although the songs feature blues' telltale chords and song structures. But questions of genre purity aside, it’s clear that Larkin’s having fun with the band, and that it’s letting him cut loose creatively after a long stretch working on metal.

“I’ve been doing this rock and metal thing for a long, long time,” he says, “and what I’ve noticed about this blues thing is, it’s not as physically demanding, but it’s harder to play really slow than it is really fast as a drummer. It’s hard to keep perfect time with a lot of time and space between each beat when you’re simmering the slow blues.” He also notes that it’s been incredible watching Rombola play, saying that most of his fans have only seen a fraction of what he can do.

But Larkin says he’s finding the challenge invigorating, and that the Apocalypse Blues Revue experience has been almost like going back to the beginning of his career.

“It’s so refreshing, playing small clubs,” he says. “Fifty people in a club … This is the complete opposite of Godsmack, exactly what Tony and I needed. This is where we started. It’s coming full circle.”

That said, the reason the band launched its tour in New England was because of Godsmack’s connection to it, and he was surprised not to see more Godsmack fans at the band’s show at Wally's Pub in Hampton, New Hampshire, or even at a show at the Highline Ballroom in New York City, where the band played with Doors guitarist Robby Krieger. He’s philosophical about that, noting that the audience that did show up was great, but he expected more of a reaction in New England.

“I’ve been in Godsmack 15 years,” said Larkin, “and when I joined this band, everyone said ‘wait until you play New England. Our fans are the most loyal, dedicated, baddass fans on the planet. That’s where the Godsmack fans are. So we come here, and none of our fans showed up. We booked another show (at the Cove), and we’ll see if anybody shows up. Hopefully, they will, because we love this (expletive) band, and we love this record. We’re doing this for our hearts.”

Email Victor D. Infante at Victor.Infante@Telegram.com and follow him on Twitter @ocvictor.