I like to
think of Sevendust as one of the few bands that I grew with. Most of my musical taste is of bands with
massive back catalogs, much of it from the seventies. Therefore, a lot of my musical collecting was going through back catalogs and picking up music that was older than I was. This is fine, but it doesn't beat finding and cultivating a "relationship" with a band as they went through their peaks and valleys to really cement ones fandom. For example, KISS, another band I am quite fond of, had already been through their original lineup, their 80's lineup(s), their "no-makeup" phase, their grunge phase, and back around to getting the old band back together before I had even heard the opening guitar lick on their Alive album. I “found” Sevendust in my first year of
college. They had just released their
third album Animosity and I saw a
music video online (I believe it was for their song “Praise”, but can’t
remember) and I was hooked. Since then I
have eagerly awaited every release by the band, and I saw them live around
seven years ago.
From
1997-2009, Sevendust was fairly regular in
terms of releasing a new album, generally every two years, but in the
case of the last three (Alpha, Chapter
VII: Hope & Sorrow, Cold Day Memory) they came in rapid succession (one
a year from ’07-’09). This practice of oversaturation
of the market with their unique sound was great while it lasted, but it left
the last three years with an empty feeling.
No new music from Sevendust year after year felt odd, but being a fan of
older bands, it would be safe to say that I am used to a bit of a wait between
albums. With a longer wait, comes higher
expectations however, and with a band like Sevendust that has, up to this
point, avoided a profound weakness in their discography, the expectations were
even higher.
It’s not
really news that the life of Sevendust as a band has been a tumultuous
one. Between band issues, such as
financial trouble as well as the departure and return of founding member Clint
Lowry, to personal issues that are common with anyone and everyone, Sevendust
has had a lot of fodder for their music over the years. This has led to a distinctly heavy and
unforgiving brand of metal that can be both brutal and beautiful at the same
time. The lyrics are vicious and the
music is destructive in its intensity.
Anticipating more of the same with a slight tweak here and there would
not be uncommon given the consistency of the band to date. In fact, I read a review on Amazon before I
bought the album, stating that this was a mix between Home, Animosity and Alpha
(a second review compared it to a mix between Home, Animosity and Cold Day
Memory). Unfortunately this could
not be further from the truth.
Yes, the sound is similar. It is still created by the same instruments,
by the same band members. There is still
Lajon Witherspoon singing with background vocals by drummer Morgan Rose. In essence, it is just another Sevendust
album. If you take a closer listen
however, you will notice that it lacks that visceral quality that defined every
Sevendust release up until now (and especially the first three albums). I can think of a couple reasons for this
departure off the top of my head.
1. The
music on the first three Sevendust albums was raw, and heavy, and it felt like
an extension of the person playing the instrument. This was also a time that albums were coming
out fast and furious combined with tours in order to build and keep
momentum. There wasn’t a lot of time to
overanalyze and/or overproduce the record.
While I do not know what the timetable was for the actual production of Black Out the Sun from start to finish,
the fact that there was the longest gap between Sevendust albums in the band’s
history tells me that they may have over thought this one a little too
much. This may not have been on purpose,
but in trying to get something “perfect”, they made it imperfect.
2. All
(or at least many) of the distractions and negative energy swirling around the
band during its heyday may have dissipated.
In other words, the guys may have better lives now than they did in the
early years of the band. If that is the
case, great for them! You can’t fault
people for being happy, but I can tell you that if that is the case, it doesn’t
make for a Sevendust album that keeps in the tradition of its forebears.
The songs on the album are not even
that bad (though “Got a Feeling” with its references to God and its general
tempo are as throwaway a track as I have ever heard from this band), it’s just
that they are not what I expected. They
feel a bit too “radio-friendly” to be a Sevendust album. *On a side note, Nonpoint had this problem
with their previous albums Vengeance
and Miracle (though not to this
degree) but they rebounded in a big way with their latest self-titled release,
so there is still hope.* “Decay”, which
I believe is the first single off the record is the most Sevendust-ish sounding
track, but that was buried as the ninth track, and you have to wade through a
lot of so-so music before you reach it.
4/10 – The problem with this album is not entirely with the
album itself. It is the fact that the
standard was set so high given the layoff and the previous works, that anything
short of perfection would have been a downgrade. Someone in their freshman year of college that
is just finding Sevendust now (like I did twelve long years ago) may think that
this album is excellent, but for someone that has seen the progression of the
band from (nearly) the beginning, this can’t help but feel like a step back.
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