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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Looking for subtlety in metal – especially mainstream metal – is like looking for real breasts amongst a group of Rock of Love contestants. Some might be polite and call it “a quixotic task;” I just call it “a fool’s errand.”

Sill, the cover art for Sevendust’s new album, Cold Day Memory, is about as unsubtle as you can get. I mean, it’s a semi-mechanical heart. Chained. To ice. The only way this cover could be any less subtle is if it were actually a picture of a dude with a thought bubble over his head in which there were an image of him shivering on a cold day.

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When it comes to music (and other things really), I tend to play devil’s advocate. If everyone is shitting on a certain band, for some reason, I become more attracted to that band and seek them out. I don’t know what it is about my personality, but I think it stems from the same perspective that inspired me to write the antagonistic blog about rethrash. It may be a character flaw, but I’m sure it has something to do with a need to be an individual. From what I gather, this website is inhabited mainly by “true” metal heads. What I define as “true” are people whom are purists in the realm of metal and usually scoff at any band or trend that reeks of premeditated commercialism or an overt play for popularity, and who usually demand a certain level of musicianship and underground credibility. These fans usually hate every Metallica record after …And Justice For All, and for that matter always prefer any particular band’s older releases, which usually have a more raw and unrefined recording quality, as well as more abstract, less traditional song writing. For example, they will prefer Carcass’s Necrotiscim to Heartwork, or Morbid Angel’s Blessed Are The Sick to Domination. Oh yeah, and these guys gave up on In Flames and Soilwork years ago.

I have a good deal of that purism in my bones, but it always seemed short sighted and close minded. You have no idea how many arguments the Adler brothers from Lamb of God and I have gotten into over the merits of a particluar Metallica or Megadeth record. If you even bring up Disturbed or Limp Bizkit on MetalSucks, it is mocked and disregarded 100% of the time. I think metal heads often have a sheep mentality because of the fear of being viewed by their peers as less credible for liking bands that aren’t considered “true” or “real” enough. We all have guilty pleasures, but the real question is “Why should we feel guilty about something we enjoy?”

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Earlier this week, I was pretty down on “Forever Dead,” the new Sevendust song from their forthcoming album, Cold Day Memory. But our pals over at SMN posted this other new Sevendust song, “Unraveling,” last night, and I gotta say, I’m really, really digging it. Maybe it’s because I’m a massive pussy and I’ve always enjoyed Sevendust’s melodic material more than their heavy stuff – “Xmas Day” makes me wanna run as I fast as I can for Lajon Witherspoon every time I hear it – but this song just hits me in the right spot.

Cold Day Memory drops April 20. And now I’m excited to hear it again!

-AR

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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A reader known only as “Jonas” sent us the below video of 55 Escape, a Norwegian band whose biggest influences seem to be Korn and Linkin Park, not Enslaved and Immortal.

Here’s why I find this band kind of interesting. (And moving forward, please be aware that “interesting” and “good” are not the same word.) When you think about it for a second, nu-metal seems to be a predominantly American phenomenon. Off the top of my head, I’m having a hard time even naming a nu-metal band from any part of Europe, never mind Norway. Jeff Killed John were British, but they didn’t get famous ’til they swapped the nu for core and rechristened themselves Bullet for My Valentine. Am I forgetting a really, really obvious band? Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Godsmack, Evanescence, Staind, Static-X, Creed, Hed P.E., Snot, P.O.D., Puddle of Mudd, Drowning Pool, Saliva, Coal Chamber, Methods of Mayhem, 40 Below Summer, Sevendust, Ill Nino, Dope, Papa Roach, Soil, The Union Undergound… ALL AMERICAN. What the hell? No wonder the terrorists hate us.

Anyway, thanks to these sperm clots for doing their part in making America look good. Hoo-rah.

-AR

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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I haven’t done a blog in a while because the last blog I did really got me thinking about the mentality of people in the metal scene. Most particularly, the mentality of shit talking. We’re all guilty of it. I admitted to shit talking Bring Me The Horizon in magazines over in Europe when I was in God Forbid. I never heard them at that point. But now, I dig them and I feel pretty stupid for slagging them.

In my last blog I mentioned my excitement for the band Eryn Non Dae and how I was going to “borrow” some of their ideas for my new project. First of all, my last blog was PACKED with information about band business, touring and juicy tidbits of amazing knowledge :) But, the funny thing about the last blog was this guy ‘Jamie.’ Out of a five hundred word blog, he took the phrase “borrow ideas” and accused me and God Forbid of riding the coat tails of other popular bands. Killswitch was his biggest gripe. Then it was Opeth.

He claimed Gone Forever (2004) was a Killswitch rip and Earthsblood (2009) was an Opeth rip. This type of thing usually doesn’t bother me. In this instance I was fucking bothered. Jamie and I entered into a written brawl about the history of God Forbid and the intentions of our song writing for the last ten fucking years. Why would I waste my time to defend myself from this sort of claim?

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This live footage of Morgan Rose filling in for the injured Tommy Lee on drums with Motley Crue this past weekend is really entertaining. I mean, you get to see Vince Neil, who still can’t remember all the words to his own songs / gets winded after about two lines, and that in itself is always funny. And you get to see Mick Mars, who despite his status as the walking dead can still wail out those solos pretty well. But best of all, you get to see Morgan Rose, one of the greatest drummers on the planet in terms of pure, raw talent, rock through a set of songs he hadn’t heard in years for which he had zero time to prepare.

It seems that Tommy Lee burned his hand and couldn’t play. There’s video floating around of Tommy coming out on stage at this show and explaining the situation to the audience; as usual, he sounds like a total idiot. So the band flew out Sevendust’s Morgan Rose from Atlanta last minute, day of the fucking show, to fill in on drums. I know what you’re thinking… Motley songs ain’t too complicated drum-wise and they just play all the hits anyway. VRONG. This is the Dr. Feelgood tour in which the band plays the entire album start to finish, deep cuts and all, plus the usual smattering of greatest hits. Rose comes out and fucking nails it all. I love how in these clips you can see Nikki Sixx communicating with Rose about when the changes happen in the song, or when to end, or when to begin. THAT is fucking pure musicianship that can’t be taught. You either have it or you don’t. And Rose most certainly has it.

Check out “Same ol’ Situation” below and “Dr. Feelgood” after the jump.

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As a part of goth metal OGs Type O Negative, drummer Johnny Kelley’s talents are often overshadowed by the low end sultriness and antics of bassist/frontman/nude model Peter Steele. But his graceful stickwork has been holding the band together since 1995′s October Rust, and the string of Type O albums that have come out since have stood shoulder to shoulder with the band’s prior material. Along with being Danzig’s drummer, Kelly plays in Seventh Void, a stoner/trad metal outfit with Type O Negative guitarist Kenny Hickey. The latter band released their debut on Vinnie Paul’s Big Vin Records in April. In an interview with MetalSucks, Kelly discusses Type O Negative’s future, working with Glenn Danzig, and his thoughts on modern drummers.

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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

I had the displeasure of seeing Dope live once (don’t ask). They were playing at Don Hill’s, a club here in NYC that holds about 300 people, and, to my surprise, they actually managed to pack the place pretty full. So after the band before them concluded their set, Dope kept the crowd waiting for 45 minutes while their roadies set up elaborate stage dressing fit for an arena show: extra platforms and a new PA system and lighting rig (I guess the house systems weren’t good enough for the band) and giant wooden backdrops and a chain link fence (!) and who the fuck knows what else. This kind of shit really isn’t necessary for a small club gig, but it might have been forgivable had the band come out and rocked the kids’ faces off; instead, they came out and played for… 45 minutes. To repeat: the band played for as long as they kept the crowd waiting for them to play. In hindsight, it seems clear that all the rigmarole was really because without the fancy lights and props, the band knew they didn’t have much to offer.

I’m telling you this story because Dope will be opening for Black Label Society and Sevendust on their upcoming tour, which still strikes me as an odd package – that Zakk Wylde, who once proclaimed “Fred Durst can eat a dick” on his band’s DVD, would share a stage with not one but two nu-metal bands just seems weird.

Weirder still: Wylde has now recorded a track with Dope. Let me type that again, lest you think your eyes are failing you: DOPE HAVE A SONG ON THEIR NEW ALBUM WITH ZAKK WYLDE ON GUITAR.

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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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Several weeks ago marked a momentous occasion: metalGF’s first ever metal show. The show in question was Sevendust at Irving Plaza; I figured what better introduction to the world of metal shows than one of the best live bands on the planet, even if not the most brutal? She had lots of fun, methinks, and made some funny observations (among them a fascination with mosh-pit culture).

After the show, metalgf remarked on drummer Morgan Rose — whom I’d told her to pay attention to because, ya know, he’s awesome — “He’s jewish, right? He has such a familiar face.” And this is a question I’ve myself often wondered. After the jump we take a look at this burning question and examine the physical evidence.

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Vince Neilstein isn’t at the MetalSucks Mansion today. He told me he had to rush to Washington to save America from our financial crisis, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find him blogging for the guys over at Metal Injection instead. He’s a slippery one, that Vince.

ANYWAY, some cool tours have been announced over the past couple of weeks, and yesterday came the announcement of a tour that strikes me as especially odd, and I feel like discussing, so let’s discuss.

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While we were busy paying homage to the world’s biggest metal band yesterday, turns out some other kind of important stuff actually happened too. Who’d've thunk it?

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Back in April, I bemoaned the inevitably of a Snot reunion, and a whole bunch of you came to the group’s defense. So while I weep, you can all rejoice: guitarists Mikey Doling and Sonny Mayo (who is in need of some cash after getting his Sevendust pink slip), drummer Jamie Miller and bassist John “Tumor” Fahnestock (worst nickname this side of “Shit Stain”) are reuniting under the Snot moniker for two shows later this year, presumably with more to follow. I’d tell you about those two announced shows, but I don’t want you to go. I’m petty like that. Click to read more…