What do you get when you take the two most talented dudes in Sevendust and put them in a brand new band? Call Me No One, a new project set to begin recording their debut this month and release it this spring. No disrespect to Lajon Witherspoon, who’s a great vocalist and performer, but I never got the impression he was too involved in writing Sevendust’s music. John Connelly does his fair share of writing in 7D, but the Sonny Mayo era stands as proof that he’s not nearly as dynamic a songwriter as Clint. As for bassist Vince Hornsby, well, dude makes the stage faces of anyone I’ve ever seen, but songwriting contributions = unknown. It’s not exactly a secret that Clint and Morgan are the talent axis of Sevendust.

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After years of waiting, Dark New Day fans finally got to hear the band’s second record, Hail Mary, this past August, along with an equally impressive B-sides collection. For those of us that had waited patiently the release of these two albums was heartily welcomed, but it also raised a number of questions: why’d it take so long, and why now? what went south with the record label? why do all of these songs sound so different?

There hasn’t been any press whatsoever surrounding Hail Mary‘s release — the band put it out quietly and independently through digital retailers (they’re on Amazon) — but bassist Corey Lowery, whose past bands also include Stuck Mojo and Stereomud, agreed to chat with me last week about all things Dark New Day. We also got to talking about Corey’s new band Eye Empire, an incredibly talented group who I cannot recommend enough to fans of Dark New Day and Sevendust.

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The long-awaited second Dark New Day record is finally out! Not only that, but the band has decided to reward fans — the few of us that remain, I suppose — for their long wait by releasing a second full album of B-sides along with it.

Both albums were released digitally via Amazon in late August with little or no to-do. We didn’t get any press releases or correspondence of any kind from anyone related to the band; one day it just appeared on Amazon, and that was that. Supposedly Clint Lowery tweeted about it; talk about a PR push! I’m gunning for a band interview to find out more about the situation that led to these albums being released — Warner Brothers stopped caring and gave the band back their masters? band bought them back? someone else bought the rights? none of the above? — but until then let’s all just be happy this music is FINALLY seeing the light of day.

I absolutely loved Dark New Day’s one and only album, 2005′s Twelve Year Silence, so I’ve been anticipating a second album for quite some time. I’ve been listening to both Hail Mary, the proper second album, and the B-sides release non-stop since I downloaded them. And if you’re like me, Hail Mary and B-sides are a bit of a mixed bag. There’s good, and there’s not-so-good:

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MS photographic queenpin Jacqueline Cheng was on-hand to shoot Sevendust at their January 21st performance in NYC, alongside Suck and Suckturbed on this year’s Music As A Weapon Tour. That she was happy to oblige our request to shoot Sevendust is proof that we found the right girl to shoot photos for MS; that she said “my soul died” while watching Suck and Suckturbed is even further proof. Her photos are up to the high standards we’ve come to expect from her and include some truly excellent shots like the one above of frontman Lajon Witherspoon giving it his all.

If you’re wondering who that weird long-haired blond man in some of these shots is, that’s fill-in guitarist B.C. Kochmit (Dark New Day, Switched and new #hardrock band Eye Empire [also feat. Corey Lowery]) who took the place of Clint Lowery while Clint went home to witness the birth of his first child. Congrats, Clint!

Pics after the jump.

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While news that Peter Wichers rejoined Soilwork a year and a half ago was met with widespread jubilation, any theories that his return to the fold would have a profound impact on their sound were just that, theories. But no longer do we have to speculate, as Soilwork just posted a brand new song called “Two Lives Worth of Reckoning” on their MySpace page.

This may be comparing apples and oranges, but I’d say that Wichers’ return to the group has the same effect as that of Clint Lowery’s return to Sevendust. Both men just bring a sense of musicality, musicianship and production know-how to the table that the remaining members lack on their own; not that sole Wichers-less Soilwork album Sworn to a Great Divide was bad, but it was certainly lacking something. The new Soilwork song certainly demonstrates that sense of musicality up-front… I’d recognize those specific chord voicings as emanating from the mind of Wichers any time and place you played them to me, and those bluesy riffs and a scorching guitar solo? Oh my. Yes, this is very, very right. Of course it’s just one song, but it certainly bodes well. I’m not crazy about Bjorn Strid’s vocals in the choruses, though; they sound auto-tuned to me. What up with that?

The Panic Broadcast drops July 13th in America and July 2nd in Europe.

-VN

I agree with pretty much everything Vince said in his assessment of Cold Day Memory last week; it’s a really good pop metal record and having Clint Lowery back in the band obviously makes all the difference in the world. If I have a complaint about the record, it’s that at least half the songs – including the first three tracks – all feature ambient intros. It’s as though the band couldn’t decide which track should go first in the sequence, so they just kinda made them all the first in the sequence and decided to let the listener decide how the track list should go. That’s not a terrible thing – especially if, like me, you actually think that the penultimate tune, a surprisingly Swedecore-esque ditty called “Better Place,” should have kicked off the proceedings – but it is kinda weird.

ANYWAY, with that outta of the way, here’s the band’s video for the first single, “Unraveling.” It’s a pretty ho-hum clip, but I do really enjoy this song.

Meanwhile, Sevendust have just been announced as the best thing about an otherwise pretty terrible tour. (I didn’t even know Puddle of Mudd were still around.) So I guess I won’t be seeing them live until at least the fall. Bummer.

-AR

Axl and I were listening to a couple of tracks from the new Sevendust record Cold Day Memory last night. The gist of our conversation was “It’s amazing how much of a difference one person can make in the music of this band.” That person, of course, would be Clint Lowery, and his presence — absent for the past three albums — can be felt from the very first note. What Clint adds to the songwriting and production table has been pretty well-documented but he’s also an extremely talented vocalist, and his re-introduction to Sevendust makes the vocals on the album a whole lot stronger, a return to that patented “three voice” sound. In this exclusive clip of the DVD that accompanies Cold Day Memory we get a look into the vocal recording process of all three men who sing — Clint, drummer Morgan Rose and lead vocalist Lajon Witherspoon — as well as interviews with all of the band members.

Check out the interview I did with Clint a few weeks ago about his role in the recording and production process of Cold Day Memory. And of course, pick the album up; it just came out yesterday.

-VN

[This exclusive has now ended.]

The influence that Clint Lowery’s return to Sevendust has had on the band is evident just a few seconds into Cold Day Memory opening track “Splinter”; are those guitar harmonies? Yup. But it’s not just the added frills like guitar harmonies, vocal harmonies, and — egads — guitar solos that Lowery brings back to the Sevendust fold; it’s his extremely developed sense of songwriting, and his presence is felt from the very beginning to the very end of Cold Day Memory. Sevendust are just different — and better — with Clint back in the band. Even a song like “Forever” which garnered luke-warm reaction from both me and Axl upon its MySpace release a month or so ago fits well into the whole, which you can now stream in its entirety at TuneLab. His input as a producer is evident not just in the improved songwriting but in the re-introduction of ambient samples and the fact that Lajon Witherspoon has found his singing voice once again. Explains drummer Morgan Rose:

We were going, ‘Let’s bring back those other elements Clint brought in that made us what we were. So we sort of made a silent agreement that we were going to let Clint run wild. We said we’ll jump in when it’s time, but if you’ve got an idea let’s go with it.

I’m only a couple of listens in, but already it’s obvious that Cold Day Memory is a better, balanced, more complete and well-thought out album than any of the three albums Sevendust released while Lowery was away. Stream Cold Day Memory in full at TuneLab. It comes out tomorrow.

-VN

So Vince is now out of town. Again. Luckily, we really do take after our namesakes; he loves to be out there among the people, partying like he might die tomorrow, and I am a grumpy, mean-spirited recluse. So expect lots of Axl crankiness next week.

In the meantime, here are some things that happened this week:

• Genetic’s Dallas Coyle discussed the importance of positive thinking, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa pondered the various timelines on L O S T, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable listed the five raddest sets of teeth in metal, Eyal Levi from Daath and Levi/Werstler wondered if anyone cares about guitar solos, and adult film actress Bobbi Starr told us the ten metal bands she wishes would gangbang her.
• We debuted new music by The Dillinger Escape Plan, Landmine Marathon, and Jucifer.
• MetalSucks readers interviewed Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne and Vince interviewed Sevendust’s Clint Lowery.
• Sammy O’Hagar reviewed Ov Hell’s The Underworld Regime.
• Is Nergal from Behemoth going to jail for destroying a Bible?
• The singer from DragonForce is available for a White Lion reunion.
• We raged against “Rage.”

And that’s it! Next week will see the debut of our irritating new list, as well as some other fun shit. Have a nice weekend…

-AR

Though Clint Lowery rejoined Sevendust two years ago, the group’s new album Cold Day Memory — out April 20th — will be the first Sevendust record to feature his writing contributions since 2004′s Butch Walker-produced affair Seasons. Most folks agree that the last three Lowery-less Sevendust records seemed to be missing something, an idea that Lowery acknowledges in our brief chat, but Lowery couldn’t be happier to be back writing new music with his brothers again.

I recently called up Clint to talk about the new album, the writing process, any pressure that he may be feeling now that he’s back in the band, what’s changed since the last time, and what he and the band were trying to accomplish with the new record.

Our chat, after the jump.

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2003′s Seasons, the last Sevendust album to feature co-guitarist Clint Lowery, was also the last really good Sevendust album. During Lowery’s absence, the band released three offerings, all of which had a few good tracks but none of which were really satisfying overall. The natural conclusion, then, was that Lowery played a really, really key role in Sevendust’s songwriting process, and his return to the fold should ensure that the band’s forthcoming Cold Day Memory will be a return to form for the band. Right?

Wrong, if the group’s new single, “Forever Dead,” is any indication.

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So apparently Ozzfest is coming back this summer, and is coming back as a traveling tour again (as opposed to the one-off fest it was in 2008). And that’s all well and good, only… who’s gonna be on the bill?

Mayhem, which is basically Ozzfest 2.0, has already scooped up a lot of big-name bands for the summer, including many who have played multiple past Ozzfests – namely Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God, Atreyu, Shadows Fall and Hatebreed, the latter of whom I think have been on something like 90% of all Ozzfests ever.

Add to that other Ozzfest alum like Chimaira, In This Moment and Norma Jean, and some bands the kids today all seem to like, such as Winds of Plague and They Who Shall Not Be Named, and, well, that’s a whole bunch of potential mainstage and second stage draws right there.

Then there’s the mini-fests like Summer Slaughter. I can’t tell you which bands we already know are booked for some of these tours without betraying a lot of people’s confidence, but I can tell you that some great bands are now no longer available for Ozzfest.

And, oh yeah, Megadeth, Slayer, and Testament are now doing their American Carnage tour in the summer, so they’re out.

So who’s left? After the jump, I’m going to play my favorite game: it’s called “over-think about something incredibly unimportant.”

Before we proceed, it’s worth noting that I’m going to try and be semi-realistic when moving forward with some barely-educated guesses about who’ll be playing Ozzfest. If a band already has summer tour dates booked, I’m going to assume they’re not avail, although I acknowledge that they could cancel those dates in favor of playing for a bigger crowd. And I’m not even going to bother with bands like Pig Destroyer, Sigh, and Salome – bands that will play Ozzfest right around the time Joey Belladonna’s solo band plays four sold-out headlining shows at Giants Stadium. Also, obviously not all of these bands are gonna end up on the bill – these are just bands I think could end up there.

And so, without further bullshit…

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I don’t know whether this is actually the case, but before I met Clint Lowery (we interviewed him right after he rejoined Sevendust in early 2008) he always struck me a super-serious dude. He always just looked so fucking serious up there on stage, counter to 7D bassist Vinnie Hornsby’s class-clown stage antics. But he was super chill and affable in person. And he always responds to my emails, no matter how annoying they may be (“Hey dude, wanna send me that unreleased Dark New Day album?” “Sorry man, I wish, but I can’t.”) Maybe it’s that whole newfound sobriety thing (congrats on two years, dude!).

Anyway I’ve really been enjoying these Sevendust video diaries from the studio. They’re updated several times daily and show a whole other side of the band, especially Mr. Lowery, who’s been handling the lion’s share of the camera work. Every time the camera clicks off he makes a silly face. It’s cute. Here we see him goofing off while Lajon tracks vocals. Wonder what song it is that they’re working on?

-VN

Or at least we hope. As Axl pointed out to me one time, it’s not that Sevendust have managed to outlast their nu-metal peers and persevere through hard times; even terrible bands like Static X and Dope have done that. It’s that Sevendust have somehow managed to avoid the critical backlash that was bestowed upon nearly everyone else from their era of metal. Maybe it’s because they’re a cut above most of those bands, because they’re so fucking great live, or because they never reached the level of popularity and/or ridiculousness of many of those bands; I think it’s all of the above. Even after a string of 3 very mediocre and rushed albums written without musical mastermind Clint Lowery in the band, Sevendust have somehow managed to retain their integrity through it all.

But now Clint is back in the band, and they’re recording their first album since early 2007′s Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow, with producer Johnny K behind the boards. There’s a lot of anticipation, but there’s also a ton of pressure.

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• FORMER MEMBER OF GN’R NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT DELIVERS HIS REACTION TO CHINESE DEMOCRACY TO A MIRROR: “Yes, I listened to it on a long drive to Phoenix, Arizona,” ex-GN’R rhythm guitarist Gilby ‘I Swear I’m Not Izzy’ Clarke allegedly told “a fan” (actually his reflection). “But there was [sic] too many slow-to-midtempo songs on it for my taste and some of the solos are a little overdone; they don’t match the song.” When the “fan” flattered Clarke by saying the album’s solos would have been vastly superior had Clarke played them, he chuckled modestly: “You’re too kind. Too kind.”
• CLINT LOWERY SAYS DARK NEW DAY’S FUTURE “DOESN’T LOOK GOOD.” Also: water is wet.
• MEMBERS OF SHADOWS FALL AND FATES WARNING JOIN FORCES IN 80′S METAL COVER BAND NAMED AFTER THE “BAD” DOJO IN THE KARATE KID: Still less fucktarded than being named after the dude from The Neverending Story.

-AR

We can’t listen to metal all the time, but whatwith the massive amount of CDs and press packs we receive it’s hard to find time to get to anything else. Usually if I’m not listening to metal it’s ’70s soul/r&b/funk with some classic reggae or dub thrown in for the more “festive” occasions, but there were a few non-metal records releases in 2008 that snuck their way into my iPod rotation this year. (And if you missed it… check out all of the MetalSucks staffers’ picks for Best Metal Albums of 2008).

My picks, after the fold…

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Recently re-united with his brothers, Sevendust co-founder / guitarist / background singer / musical genius Clint Lowery just released a record of his own, Chills, under the moniker Hello Demons..Meet Skeletons. The mostly acoustic record — on which Clint plays all the instruments and sings all the vocals — is a deep, dark, haunting album that reflects an equally dark time in his life. Written in spurts over the past year or so, the music on Chills stands on its own as a creative work in his own distinct style but is far different from anything Sevendust have ever done.

Lowery’s patience has been tested in recent years — after writing an entire new Dark New Day album that will seemingly never see the light of day, Lowery left the band to re-join Sevendust on the eve of a new album release he had no part in writing. Anxious to get some music of his own to the masses, Lowery elected to record a solo album on his own between Sevendust tours — with production, engineering and mixing help from his brother Corey [also of Dark New Day, Stereomud and Stuck Mojo fame] — and to self-release it on the Internet. After an online ordering snafu that was entirely my fault, I ended up on the other end of an email string with Mr. Lowery himself and he agreed to answer a few questions via email, making him the only person ever in the history of MetalSucks to be interviewed twice — about two separate bands, no less. Read the 7D interview from this past April here, and the new solo EP interview after the jump.

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Every time we think Dark New Day is dead, caught between quitting guitarists and a label that doesn’t give a shit, they pop up with new songs or newslike a proverbial defibrillator. In a blog posted earlier today by drummer Will Hunt, the band revealed they’ve added a new guitarist (BC Kochmit, ex-Switched, Rikets) to replace Clint Lowery; interestingly, second guitarist Troy McLawhorn’s name is absent from the roster of members on the band’s MySpace page, perhaps because he’s busy with Evanescence.

Dark New Day has also posted two new tracks on their MySpace page. The band also revealed they have approximately three albums worth of material recorded, and that they plan on releasing a series of online-only albums featuring those cuts that won’t make it onto their eventual second album starting 6-8 weeks from now. Knock on wood. Hunt also promises the final record will come out soon.

The two new songs they’ve posted, “Fiend” and “I Don’t Need You,” are good songs consistent with the Dark New Day sound, no doubt benefiting from Lowery’s penmanship. How ironic is it that DND benefits from his writing while he’s back in Sevendust touring a mediocre album he didn’t even help write?

If anyone has mp3 rips of these new Dark New Day tracks please send to news [at] metalsucks.net.

-VN

When we interviewed Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery last month, he made it pretty clear that he reads our site on a regular basis. And he was a super nice dude. And much, much bigger than I am. So I hate to think that he might be reading this, because I’m about to say something rude about the video for Sevendust’s new single, “Prodigal Son.”

This video sucks. It’s lame, it’s boring, it’s ugly, it’s cheap looking, it’s way too literal, it’s everything that gives videos a bad name. I mean there’s some side boob so that makes my inner Butt-head happy, but mostly, I just wish this video didn’t suck so bad. Check it out for yourself below; if you’re really, really lucky, Vimeo’s crappy stream will keep stopping and starting at random intervals as you try to watch it, before freezing your computer.

Clint, if you’re reading this, drop me a line. We’ll hook you up with a decent director for your next video, and all will be good in the hood.

-AR

“MetalSucks.net! I look at you guys all the time!” These are the first words out of Clint Lowery’s mouth when he greets MetalSucks on his tour bus. Our intrepid reporters quickly burst into semi-nervous laughter before Lowery admits that a statement he released on Dark New Day’s MySpace page was a direct response to an editorial our own Vince Neilstein had written about that band just days prior (he’ll also make reference to at least one other piece Vince has written during the course of our interview).

“I hope no one was pissed,” the surprisingly tall Lowery says apologetically in his thick Georgia drawl before he takes a seat on the nearby couch. It’s kind of a surprising to hear Lowery ask us if we’re cool with something he said, since we’re pretty much accustomed to being the proverbial Assholes. But it illustrates what a genuinely nice dude Lowery is, and how legitimately happy he seems to be back in Sevendust after a three album absence.

The fans are happy, too. Later that night, at the band’s gig at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey, they create huge pits as violent as anything you’d ever see at a Hatebreed show, seemingly in Clint’s honor. This loyal and rabid fanbase is the reason Sevendust has survived while so many of their peers have fallen by the wayside. And with Lowery back in the band, it seems that they’re now poised to be more powerful than ever before.

After the jump, read Clint’s thoughts on leaving Dark New Day, returning to Sevendust, and what lies ahead for him and his bandmates.

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