Sevendust - Next

Sevendust - Next

I have good news and bad news. First the good news: this follows consistently with most Sevendust releases going back to Home. The bad news: see Good news. The band has always offered the promise of something above what they have pushed, but to date have not realized that potential; they continue to have a few really good tracks per album and a lot of pedestrian nu-metal remnants with some Sevendust flavoring (Lajon Witherspoon and Morgan Rose's distinctive vocal interplay, and a durably concussive backbeat, also due to Rose). The riffing is beefy and offers some real precision, but still comes off sterile at times. When it comes together in Hero or Desertion, or in the intro to See and Beleive, its definitely above par, but often their production and often nondescript lyrical content, and quite a lot of cut-and-paste nu-metal applications of dropped tunings and dissonance.*

The token acoustic ballad Shadows in Red, is absolutely sophomoric and I am guessing is there as single fodder to capture the weeny "look a metal band with range" award of the week.

If you are interested in more of the same, you may as well go back and buy Home...again.

* Which I really do not take as truly dissonant, since the style has now come to equate dissonance in an way that often resolves cleanly (oh, let's just jam a few pinched harmonics and minor key noodles here and there repetitively), somewhat obviating the true concept of dissonance as practiced by bands like Vernon Reid & Masque, Gang of Four, early Helmet and in various avant-garde contexts.