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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Long-time MetalSucks readers know that Axl and I have an unnaturally high level of love for Sevendust. If you’ve got a problem with that kindly stop reading this post now and spare us your butthurt claims that Sevendust aren’t “metal enough” for a metal blog.

So, it seems as if Sevendust might be getting ready to hang up their cleats for good, or are at least considering it. This wouldn’t be surprising if I believed it were actually going to happen… which I do not.

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I get kinda bummed when we hafta write about tours with no dates yet, because it seems like kind of a cocktease — what’s the point of getting excited when you don’t even know if the trek is coming to your town yet? — but these two tours both seem pretty noteworthy. And so:

• Avenged Sevenfold will headline this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival. Sevendust are also on the tour. And I’m going to pretend that that’s the entire line-up. Yep, just A7X and Sevendust. Two of the best modern pop metal bands touring together, with no one else. What a great bill!
• Firewind are FINALLY gonna do a proper North American headlining tour, with Arsis, White Wizzard, and Nightrage in tow. Not only am I stoked that Firewind are actually touring, but I think it’s really cool of them to have a diverse range of acts as their support. I bet these shows will be a lotta fun.

And we’ll post dates for at least one of these tours as soon as we get ‘em.

-AR

Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week’s query was suggested by reader Yevgeniy Reznichenko:

IS ELITISM IN METAL A GOOD THING OR A BAD THING?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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I had a math tutor in high school who was, to put it mildly, way creepy. He spent as much time trying to get me to talk about the hot girls in my class (many of whom he was also tutoring) as he did teaching me anything, and he was always excited to attend events he was way too old for — like this one time he somehow wrangled a ticket to the MTV Video Music Awards, and it was like, “Dude, you are old, gray, and bald. You should not be at the fucking MTV Awards. I’m sixteen and I don’t wanna go to the MTV Awards.”

I mention it because the last time I saw Avenged Sevenfold, when they were touring behind their self-titled album, I felt like that dude. I freely admit to being an A7X fan, and the band put on a good show and I was happy to see them, but I looked around and Vince and I were the oldest people there by, like, a lot. It was fucking embarrassing. I could practically hear the scene kids whispering, “Hey, who invited the fucking olds?”

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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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See what I did there?

ANYWAY, I’m sitting here listening to said new DevilDriver song (which is available for download here for the low low cost of giving up your e-mail address’ cherry) for the second time now, my thought is basically this: it’s a good song, and I wonder if anyone besides the DevilDriver faithful will care.

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So, I’m giving you guys an open invite to my place in Quincy, MA for tonight’s matchup between the Pats and the Jets. We’re playing cards, probably the re-release of NBA Jams, getting some Lynwood’s pizza, and enjoying ourselves. Don’t worry about finding my place; if I seepeople roaming my street with wings and team jerseys, then I’ll assume it’s because of this post and invite them on up.

Steelers-Ravens battled it out for first this week. More important than seeing who was going to be king of the AFC North was to see who was a better shower product. The Ravens’ Ray Lewis and his Old Spice body wash in one corner and the Steelers’ Troy Palmolive… Paramore… Pinkerton… whatever his name is, representing Head and Shoulders in the other. Polamalu takes this one just as he took the game. His late-in-the-game sack caused QB Joe Flacco to fumble, which, in turn, led to the game-winning touchdown. No worries though, Baltimore – you may have lost, but you did break Big Ben’s nose and nearly killed TE Heath Miller. Not too shabby.

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When I fulfilled an adolescent dream and interviewed Jackyl’s Jesse James Dupree earlier this year, he told me that he was anticipating some controversy for the band’s cover of Mother’s Finest’s song “Just Like a Negro.” It’s obviously a little weird to have a bunch of white dudes doing a track with that title, and doubly so when you consider that Jackyl are southern and might be seen as, um, I think the correct terms are “crackers” and “honkeys.”

But Dupree felt confident that anyone who knew the facts behind the cover would realize Jackyl aren’t a bunch of redneck racists. He even re-wrote the lyrics with Mother’s Finest bassist Wyzard so that they’d make sense for a caucasian to sing:

“…the lyrics basically say that music makes all the colors run together and that it was the brothers who invented rock n’ roll – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino…  That’s all the song is – a tribute to that, and the fact that music breaks down the barriers.”

He also told me that he had hoped to get Sevendust’s Lajon Witherspoon to do some guest vocals on the track, but it didn’t work out for whatever reason. What he didn’t tell me, and what I didn’t know at that time ’cause I hadn’t heard the album yet, was that he did end up getting a guest for the track — the “DMC” from Run DMC, Darryl Matthews McDaniels.

And, honestly, this song is still pretty awful. I mean, watching Dupree try to dance while DMC raps is kinda funny, but I’d never actively listen to this track. That being said, I’d still argue that it’s the least worst rap metal song of the century so far. I’ll take Jackyl over Limp Bizkit and their ilk any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Jackyl’s latest, When Moonshine and Dynamite Collide, is out now.

-AR

It’s always heart-breaking when an artist you admire associates him or herself with an “artist” who pretty much stands against eveything in which you believe. Thus is the case with Sevendust’s Lajon Witherspoon, who appears on the new (Hed) p.e. track, “Stand Up,” which is now streaming over at Noisecreep. We always try to defend Sevendust as the “good” nu-metal band here at MetalSucks, but then Witherspoon goes and does something like this and all we can really do is shrug and say, “Hey, but Cold Day Memory is really fun!” and hope you still believe us.

I guess the silver lining, really, is that Witherspoon’s vocals instantly elevate this song above all other (Hed) p.e. releases. But that’s a little like saying that a three-legged dog beat a two-legged dog in a race — Well no duh-skis, y’know? And my understanding is that Witherspoon is a really nice dude. So maybe he was just too kind to tell (Hed) p.e. to suck it. Or maybe he’s legitimately a fan of that band. I dunno. I read somewhere recently that Christopher Nolan likes Michael Bay movies, so I guess you can’t assume someone has great taste just ’cause you like their work.

Side note about the song: In the interview that accompanies the track debut, (Hed) p.e. is referred to as “the leaders of the Truth Movement,” whatever the fuck that is, and then front man Jared Gomes declares that he is “worried about all the anti-government sentiment that I find in the youth.” Because that’s what metal is really all about, dude: Trusting The Man. Thank God (Hed) p.e. are here to teach young headbangers to respect authority.

-AR

It was interesting reading through the comments of Axl’s post about Sevendust’s new song a while back; out of those of you who didn’t predictably slam Sevendust outright, most of you seemed to think that of the three Sonny Mayo-era albums 2007′s Alpha was the best. And I’d have to agree. But furthermore, if Alpha were a record or a tape Side B would be the best thing the band did in their Clint Lowery-less years. Though the proverbial Side B starts with much of the stock Sevendust songage present on the rest of this album (and Next and Chapter VII), things start to take a turn for the better with “Confessions of Hatred,” a catchy up-tempo rocker with a vintage 7D feel. “Aggression” follows in the same vein. But it’s really “Burn,” the 9-minute long epic that’s the piece de resistance.

“Burn” is easily is the best track Sevendust ever wrote without Clint Lowery in the band; it would’ve been interesting to see how the band could’ve used this track as a jumping-off point for more experimental music with their next album, but unfortunately Chapter VII just brought more of the same old same old. Now that Cold Day Memory has brought the band back from the doldrums (bless you, Clint Lowery!) it’s a moot point, but I still enjoy this song.

-VN

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

April 20th was circled in my calendar well in advance, and not just because it’s holiday we at the MS Mansion take very seriously — April 20th marked the biggest release date of the year thus far for metal releases with new offerings from Periphery, Ratt, Sevendust, another greatest hits repacking from AC/DC, Circa Survive, Airbourne and more. Let’s see how those releases fared in their first week out, as well as how other metal and hard rock records are performing after the jump.

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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

It doesn’t feel like spring out today – it feels like summer. The sun has been going down later and later and the weather has been getting nicer and nicer, and now, all of sudden, it’s 90 (!) degrees out. I don’t think it will last all that long – the East Coast often gets one last snowstorm in April before the nice weather begins in earnest – but it has made for some very relaxing, long walks as of late. (Not hurting: that the ladies of NYC have wasted no time adjusting their wardrobes appropriately. It’s like a Rock of Love casting call out there, except, mercifully, with fewer surgical “enhancements.”)

The problem is, when the doom n’ gloom of metal is your music of choice, it can be hard to find an appropriate soundtrack for such a beautiful day.

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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