Hey! It's an album review again!
Mar. 10th, 2007 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dramacomicA particularly tumultuous decade has passed between the release of Sevendust's self-titled debut and their latest release, Alpha. While releasing six albums in ten years (not including the greatest hits and the liv acoustic outings) is an impressive accomplishment in itself, nothing could really prepare even the most devoted Sevendust fan for what they were about to hear.
Despite losing a band member in the middle of a tour, despite losses of friends and family through death and divorce, despite everything the band has had to undergo, they continued to work hard at their craft, perfecting their emotionally driven, bass heavy songs and continuing to deliver explosive and pulverizing live shows, and on Alpha, they have truly reached a summit.
Not since their debut have they released an album that is consistently heavy and without at least one soft song. Their previous work had some real scorchers which have since become staples of their live show such as "Rumble Fish" and "Face to Face", along with some loud but melodic forgotten gems that they almost never play live (to my knowledge) such as "Reconnect", "Damaged", and "Gone". If you own the old Sevendust albums, you owe it to yourself to go back and give those tracks a closer listen. However, aside from having a few favorites to take away from each album, none of their albums to date have left listeners completely and utterly satisfied from start to finish (although for me, Animosity and Seasons come close).
Alpha is an album that blows you away from start to finish.
The band wastes no time preparing you to brace yourself from the opening second of "Deathstar", and from that point onward, there is not a single track on the album that is devoid of Lajon's powerful melodies or Morgan's vicious screams, literally both vocalists are the stars of every track. Lyrically, they're treading through the same waters they always have, but they feel much more fresh in the delivery than they do on paper. To read them, especially amidst the bloodstained cover art, you'd think they were at the end of their rope, but when hearing them, you know they're not bogged down in the slightest.
Rhythmically speaking, Sevendust hits all kinds of strides in the first half of the album. "Driven" and "Suffer" have some of the stronger riffs, and echoing some of their other headbanging crowd pleasers such as "Bitch" or "Enemy". However it's the latter half of the album that features some very nice touches, such as the drowning vocals effect in the last five seconds of "Under" (it matches the lyric exceptionally well), the false endings of "Story of Your Life", and the piano beginning of "Aggression", a song that does end up living up to its name. Not to be overlooked of course is the longest and most ambitious Sevendust song ever to be recorded, "Burn". A nine-minute heavily layered monster with the album's only true "softer" moments, it provides a showcase for all of the band's talents; every the band can do well, they do well in "Burn".
From a hard working band that has been able to consistently release albums for a decade, it brings this reviewer a great deal of pride to listen to Alpha, an album which in and of itself has consistent quality. Any band can record something that is consistently heavy, but Sevendust have done so much more than that, and it's clear that after a decade, their hard work is not slowing down for even a moment, and that many albums in the future are well within the realm of possibility.
Despite losing a band member in the middle of a tour, despite losses of friends and family through death and divorce, despite everything the band has had to undergo, they continued to work hard at their craft, perfecting their emotionally driven, bass heavy songs and continuing to deliver explosive and pulverizing live shows, and on Alpha, they have truly reached a summit.
Not since their debut have they released an album that is consistently heavy and without at least one soft song. Their previous work had some real scorchers which have since become staples of their live show such as "Rumble Fish" and "Face to Face", along with some loud but melodic forgotten gems that they almost never play live (to my knowledge) such as "Reconnect", "Damaged", and "Gone". If you own the old Sevendust albums, you owe it to yourself to go back and give those tracks a closer listen. However, aside from having a few favorites to take away from each album, none of their albums to date have left listeners completely and utterly satisfied from start to finish (although for me, Animosity and Seasons come close).
Alpha is an album that blows you away from start to finish.
The band wastes no time preparing you to brace yourself from the opening second of "Deathstar", and from that point onward, there is not a single track on the album that is devoid of Lajon's powerful melodies or Morgan's vicious screams, literally both vocalists are the stars of every track. Lyrically, they're treading through the same waters they always have, but they feel much more fresh in the delivery than they do on paper. To read them, especially amidst the bloodstained cover art, you'd think they were at the end of their rope, but when hearing them, you know they're not bogged down in the slightest.
Rhythmically speaking, Sevendust hits all kinds of strides in the first half of the album. "Driven" and "Suffer" have some of the stronger riffs, and echoing some of their other headbanging crowd pleasers such as "Bitch" or "Enemy". However it's the latter half of the album that features some very nice touches, such as the drowning vocals effect in the last five seconds of "Under" (it matches the lyric exceptionally well), the false endings of "Story of Your Life", and the piano beginning of "Aggression", a song that does end up living up to its name. Not to be overlooked of course is the longest and most ambitious Sevendust song ever to be recorded, "Burn". A nine-minute heavily layered monster with the album's only true "softer" moments, it provides a showcase for all of the band's talents; every the band can do well, they do well in "Burn".
From a hard working band that has been able to consistently release albums for a decade, it brings this reviewer a great deal of pride to listen to Alpha, an album which in and of itself has consistent quality. Any band can record something that is consistently heavy, but Sevendust have done so much more than that, and it's clear that after a decade, their hard work is not slowing down for even a moment, and that many albums in the future are well within the realm of possibility.
