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Seeing as Clint Lowery just rejoined Sevendust, really, who cares? Can we please just skip this album and go to the next one? Mmmkay, thanks guys.
[Read Vince's long review here]
-VN
(two out of five horns)
[Sevendust announced yesterday that founding member and key songwriter Clint Lowery has rejoined the band after a four-year absence. The following is my best attempt at writing a review of their new album without having heard that news, which, in certain ways, is really difficult to do given Lowery's past influence on the band. -Ed.]
Almost exactly a year ago in a review of the then-new Sevendust album Alpha, I wrote the following line:
“Songs like ‘Deathstar’ feel like a cop-out to me; this is a mediocre song, and I feel like guitarist John Connolly could easily shit riffs like this for days and days.”
Unfortunately the band hasn’t done much to disprove me with their latest offering Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow, out next Tuesday, April 1st on 7 Bros. / Asylum Records. For their third album without founding member and key songwriter Clint Lowery, essentially Sevendust have gone and written the same album for the third time in a row. Though there are a few nuggets on this album, Sevendust have failed to push themselves forward as a band and have, once again, failed to live up the potential that I have hoped — that I know — they have somewhere inside themselves.
Head over to Sevendust’s MySpace page and you’ll find the message “Clint is back! More details to come…” Needless to say, this signals the return of guitarist Clint Lowery to the fold. Presumably this would mean that Sonny Mayo, who replaced Lowery, is out of the group… except both his photo and that of co-guitarist John Connolly are now missing from the “members” listing on the page. So for all we know, Mayo is still in and Connolly is out, or both of ‘em are out and Lowery is back in… we imagine this will get cleared up soon.
I guess this is good news, and I guess it was inevitable that Lowery would someday return to the fold – but the timing strikes me as odd. Sevendust are about to start promoting their new album, Hope and Sorrow, which comes out next week with and which features no contributions whatsoever from Lowery; meanwhile, the band Lowery left Sevendust to form, Dark New Day, just posted a new a song on their own MySpace page over the weekend (ironically titled “Goodbye”). Dark New Day’s MySpace page makes no mention of Lowery quitting the band, and the fact that his brother is also in the band would make you think he’s not gonna leave anytime soon; so is Lowery gonna be in two bands now? Even though they both sound nearly identical?
ANYWAY, if Lowery IS back, this would seem to make the band’s mysterious decision to drop off the Rockstar Energy Mayhem whatever the fuck its called tour even stupider; why reunite, get all that hype, and then waste it on a tour with fucking Saliva?
Hopefully someone will be wise enough to put out an official press release soon and clear up all the confusion. Color us intrigued…
-AR
Might we see a new Dark New Day release this year? Maybe so. After label problems and scheduling snafus due band members’ other touring commitments, it appears that the Clint Lowery-led (ex-Sevendust) machine might finally be ready to offer a follow-up to 2005’s Twelve Year Silence. In addition to posting a full, new track called “Goodbye” on their MySpace page this weekend, the band (in the form of drummer Will Hunt) had this to say:
“So, rumor, speculation, anticipation, etc., seems to be on a lot of peoples minds. I will not say anything accept this……………………Happy Easter! O.K., not really, I mean Happy Easter, no doubt, but let me just say this- there will be an announcemnt, I mean announcements, over the next couple of weeks that I really believe will make any Dark new Day fiends very happy- this I promise… Because after the rumors, speculation, labels, lawyers, he said, she said, blah, blah, fucking BLAH, its about the music, and you, the loyal DnD tribe that have never lost sight of that!”
What can we say? We sure hope the new record does see release this year. The new song is both heavy and artfully melodic, as could be expected from anything Clint Lowery puts his name on. While Sevendust may have written three albums in the time it took DnD to write one, the former seems content to write the same album three times in a row (Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow out next Tuesday; trust us, we’ve heard it) but every bit of new Dark New Day material we’ve heard reassures us that Clint was the most progressive thinker in his old band.
-VN
Sevendust’s seventh album — Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow — due for release April 1, has hit the leak wire. Down Mining has the album available for download; it features three guest appearances on three different songs — Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge, and Chris Daughtry of American Idol fame. This is the band who dropped off the mega-lineup of Rockstar Mayhem Energy Tour and joined forces with… wait for it… Saliva. Yes, the band who brought us such brain cell-killing duds greats as “Click, Click, Boom.” A little part of me just died inside.
It pains me to say these harsh words. This band has so much potential. Sigh.
-VN
After years of mis-management, losing a key songwriter / founding member, and a string of mediocre but decent enough albums, things were looking up for Sevendust. They weathered the storm of the nu-metal fallout to emerge unscathed by the critical backlash to beset pretty much every other band to whom that term ever applied. They’re set with their own label imprint through WMG’s Independent Label Group, they have a new album coming out a mere year after the last one, and they signed on to headline one of the side-stages at this Summer’s Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour. Yes, Sevendust were poised for a new start; and now they go and fuck it it all up.
[Welcome to the fifth installment of our exclusive blog series from the new thrash supergroup Iron Steel, featuring Morgan Rose (Sevendust) on drums; Jim LaMarca (Chimaira), Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) all on bass; along with vocalist and guitarist Fran Strine and guitarist Tommy Redd. Each week a different member will be posting a blog entry at MetalSucks. This week Sevendust skinsman Morgan Rose talks about the trials and tribulations of being the band's de-facto tour manager. (Check out Fran Strine’s, Jim LaMarca’s, Tommy Redd’s and Dave Ellefson's previous entries.]
If you asked me a year ago if I would be the only island of sanity in an otherwise raucous, insane metal super-group, I would tell you that you were NUTS. The fact is, they need SOMEONE around here who is realistic, grounded and sensible, so here I am!
At NAMM Ellefson and Fran were having flashbacks, LaMarca got out of control at our release party and Tommy… well, Tommy is just a dangerous dude on the whole. Rachel Bolan only speaks to us via morse code transmissions and I recently heard that we were bringing even more people into this psychotic mess of a band – scary!
I’ve become the de-facto tour manager for the band lately because all our tour managers wind up either quitting, getting killed in one of Tommy’s ill-planned maneuvers or disappearing on their way to take the groupies home. The last one went to bring Tommy one of his bags and brought the wrong one up from under the bus – it was his stash of grenades – and it exploded as the tour manager swung it over his shoulder. We found the poor guy, headless, hanging from a tree on the outskirts of the parking lot we were in.
[Welcome to the fourth entry of our exclusive blog series from the new thrash supergroup Iron Steel, featuring Morgan Rose (Sevendust) on drums; Jim LaMarca (Chimaira), Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) all on bass; along with vocalist and guitarist Fran Strine and guitarist Tommy Redd. Each week a different member will be posting a blog entry at MetalSucks. This week ex-Megadeth low-end king Dave Ellefson talks about the band's upcoming tour plans. (Check out Fran Strine’s, Jim LaMarca’s and Tommy Redd's previous entries.]
Someone told me that we have to go on tour soon. The thought of leaving the Iron Steel compound with its many amenities was less than pleasant, but I understand that mere mortals need to see us play from time to time to be reminded of what Metal is.
The people we pay to deal with these things let us know about the offers – headlining of the main and second stages on the Rockstar Mayhem Tour, Ozzfest, The Warped Tour and Sounds of the Underground (they said they would do it this year if we would headline it) and a few other little tours that I don’t recall right now.
[Welcome to the third entry of our exclusive blog series from the new thrash supergroup Iron Steel, featuring Morgan Rose (Sevendust) on drums; Jim LaMarca (Chimaira), Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) all on bass; along with vocalist and guitarist Fran Strine and guitarist Tommy Redd. Each week a different member will be posting a blog entry at MetalSucks. This week guitarist Tommy Redd sounds off on run-ins with Afghani rebels on the band's recent tour through Asia. (Check out Fran Strine's and Jim LaMarca's previous entries.]
OK, so I am late! I’ve been busy keeping the world safe. I’d give you details about my activities, but then I’d have to kill you and frankly, I’ve had enough of that kinda stuff lately.
The guys in the band complain about me being late for practice, trying to play a show over speakerphone from communist countries with bad phone service, disappearing for a month when we are supposed to go on tour and shit, but their concerns pale in comparison to those of my superiors at my ‘day job’ (yeah, let’s call it that).
Over the past several days there have been a spate of press releases more or less confirming that the biggest metal tour this summer is going to be the newly corporate controlled christened Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour, whatwith Sharon Osbourne promising a limited run of Ozzfest dates this summer. So far the lineup is shaping up as follows:
What a mess of conflicting emotions I have about this. I think it’s safe to say that no one who comes to this site gives two shits about Disturbed. I’m not big on Slipknot but I certainly respect what they’ve accomplished and haven’t ever witnessed the spectacle that is their live show, and I know Axl is gonna be psyched about this. Dragonforce and Mastodon: sweet. As for the side stages, there could be some difficult choices to make but hopefully the timing will stack up in such a way that Five Finger Death Suck and Black Tide are playing while other, cooler bands are on the other stage. Machine Head? Seen ‘em twice in 2007 but still, sweet. As for Sevendust, say what you will about their past several very mediocre albums, but the band always brings it live, and this is the first package tour of any sort they’ve been a part of since… man, I can’t even remember. Airbourne could be a good time in that AC/DC sort of way, and Axl’s been hyping Suicide Silence so I’ll give ‘em a shot. Our boys at Metal Injection love the Red Chord, so I’ll check that out too. Couldn’t care less about Walls of Jericho, except that my friend is in their music video.
On second thought, I guess there isn’t really that much of a dilemma: the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour is the tour to be at this summer, despite a few shitty acts. But when are there ever not any shitty acts?
-VN
[Welcome to the second entry of our exclusive blog series from the new thrash supergroup Iron Steel, featuring Morgan Rose (Sevendust) on drums; Jim LaMarca (Chimaira), Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) all on bass (!); with vocalist and guitarist Fran Strine and guitarist Tommy Redd. Each week a different member will be posting a blog entry at MetalSucks. This week Chimaira's Jim LaMarca reports on the post-NAMM show apocalypse.]
As the wild NAMM weekend came to a close, Iron Steel almost broke up. Hung over from our release party, we had our first band meeting. Tommy was late, as usual, because he and Diggity Dave from Pimp My Ride closed down the party and moved it over to the custom shop, bringing the majority of the women in attendance with them. Fran had been barricaded in the bathroom of his hotel suite, hiding from Lacey from Rock of Love. She stalked him during the party and chased him all the way back to his hotel room. Morgan took his Sevendust bandmates, John Connolly and Sonny Mayo, left the party early and somehow wound up in jail for performing lewd acts at nearby Disneyland. Ellefson, in his usual ‘work mode’ did an impromptu ‘side-side project’ with some of the remaining musicians in attendance at the party – recruiting Mick Thomson (Slipknot), Josh Rand (Stone Sour), Marc Rizzo (Soulfly), Doc (God Forbid) – into a band that was all guitar players – and he was the only bassist (finally). I observed it all with Rob and Matt from my other band, Chimaira, sitting in the ultra-ultra-VIP section where nobody could see or speak to us – it was an invisibility chamber, actually – created just for Iron Steel.
Next didn’t do much for me and Alpha did even less; so the news that Chris Daughtry will do a guest spot on the new Sevendust album, Hope and Sorrow, would seem to signal the official end of my interest in Sevendust. Yes, they now join Metallica, Megadeth, Aerosmith, AC/DC, and whatever band Vinnie Paul is playing with this week in my “Who gives a shit anymore?” pile. If working with some dip shit from American Idol is what gets the dudes in Sevendust off these days, then we were clearly headed down divergent paths anyway; Bon Jovi basically plays country these days, so I understand that sometimes bands I enjoyed in my youth and I are just going to have irreconcilable differences.
I’m sure at least one of our fine readers will accuse me of being close minded, and yet another will call me a hypocrite for ever liking Sevendust when I so openly loathe Korn; to those people, all I can say is “Your mother sucks cocks in hell.” Sometimes I have an itch for melodic pop metal that requires something a little more substantial than “All Day I Dream About Sex” but a little less weighty than “Stinkfist.” So blow me.
Anyway, it looks like there’s finally gonna be a new Dark New Day album this year. Maybe that’ll cure my jones for something cool n’ catchy.
-AR
[Welcome to the first of our exclusive blog series from the new thrash supergroup Iron Steel, featuring Morgan Rose (Sevendust) on drums; Jim LaMarca (Chimaira), Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) all on bass (!); as well as Fran Strine on vocals and guitar and Tommy Redd on guitar. Each week a different member will be posting an exclusive blog only at MetalSucks. This week we start you off with Fran Strine, reporting from the trenches of the NAMM show in Anaheim.]
So, today I was walking around the 2008 NAMM show checking out all the new gear that everyone is going to give me because I’m so fucking rad, when I heard a loud ‘bang.’
I hit the floor as soon as I heard it – taking one of our many bassists, Dave Ellefson, along with me. “They’re coming,” I screamed. Dave was looking left to right and doing a military crawl, dragging me along until we got under the table at the Peavey booth. As people walked by, we saw our drummer, Morgan Rose, we called out to him “save yourself, Morgan!” He came over, yanked Ellefson out from under the table and shook him by the shoulders, screaming “Dave – we are in Anaheim!” Next he did it to me, and once we were both shaken and sat down at the booth, we calmed down a bit. Morgan went and got LaMarca and Tommy and told them what happened. I could see them shaking their heads and when I read their lips, they were saying “Not again!”
Perhaps coinciding with the release of their latest greatest hits collection Retrospective Vol. 2, perhaps not, Sevendust have a new video for “Beg to Differ” from their latest proper album, Alpha. It’s a video of live clips, but you know what? Sevendust has always been all about the live show anyway.
Retrospective Vol. 2 — not that there was ever a release called Retrospective Vol. 1 (but there was a “Best Of” album put out by old label TVT a couple of years back) — features a DVD with a live show and documentary, and a CD with some audio cuts from the DVD as well as 3 b-sides from the Alpha sessions. And they’re pretty damn good — “Losing You” and “Rim” are solid but I can see why they were left off the album. The third unreleased track “Sleeper,” along with “Burn” (from Alpha) is a legitimate contender for one of the most progressive and adventurous songs the band has ever written. “Sleeper” is the sound of 7D taking a chance instead of rehashing the same old riffs and rhythms with different notes.
Kokoro Data MP3 Blog has all of Retrospective 2 available for download (it’s the “Try It” link hidden underneath the track listing!). Enjoy.
-VN
According to an anonymous industry insider close to the negotiations, Sevendust have parted ways with their management firm and are currently seeking new management. Neither the band nor their former management firm have commented yet on the matter, though the inside source confirms that Sevendust have left their management firm.
Just today Sevendust released Retrospective 2, a CD/DVD package chronicling the band’s career throughout the Next and Alpha album cycles, the band’s two most recent full-length releases. The band is said to currently be in the studio working on their seventh record tentatively titled The 7th Chapter, loosely slated for a March 4, 2008 via the band’s own 7 Bros. Records and Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group.
Could this be a response to their recent problems selling tickets?
-VN
It’s beginning to look like we may soon a new Dark New Day album pretty soon; according to a post on the band’s MySpace written by guitarist Clint Lowery (ex-Sevendust):
Hey everyone,
Quick update. The new records getting mixed right now and its sounding great. Dave Bendeth who produced it is also mixing it. I think its gonna be well worth the wait. Thanks to all that have stuck by us and hope to see you all on tour next year. The new DnD will be out early next year and as soon as we have a hard date on it you’ll be the first to know.
God bless
clint
But if the band is already in the mixing stage, why haven’t we heard anything about it other than updates directly from the band members? Generally by this phase of making a record we’d have been inundated with various press releases of the “producer announced,” “track listing revealed” and “cover artwork revealed” variety, not to mention video updates from the studio and interviews with band members about the new material. Looks to me like Dark New Day, whose first album didn’t sell all that well, is getting the shaft from their record label, Warner Bros. Could it be that key label personnel involved with DND have since been dismissed, or is DND just not a high priority over there? In defense of the label, it seems like a new record hasn’t exactly been a priority to the band either, what with the members taking gigs as touring musicians for the likes of Korn, Evanescence, and Vince Neil.
-VN
Sevendust have always been about touring, touring and more touring, and as such seem perfectly suited to embrace what is quickly becoming the”new” model: using recorded music as a loss-leader to make money on the road. And the road is where Sevendust shines; they put on one of the most kickass and exciting live shows around, and they never skimp on production. So it comes as no surprise that Sevendust have announced they will head into the studio this month to record yet ANOTHER album, their third in 4 years, tentatively titled The 7th chapter and due March 4, 2008.
Axl and I were scratching our heads when we saw that Sevendust — who are returning to New York tonight on the third leg of their tour supporting their latest release Alpha — booked the Roseland Ballroom for their NYC stop. The venue is one of the city’s biggest all-General Admission rooms with a capacity of approximately 3,000, and the last time through Sevendust failed to sell out the 2,100 capacity Nokia Theater in midtown (I walked up and bought a ticket at the window right before Sevendust started). So it comes as no surprise to us that according to a post this morning on Sevendust’s official website, the Roseland show has been moved to the much-much-smaller Gramercy Theater:
Due to unavoidable utility repair at Roseland Ballroom, tonights [sic] show has been moved to Blender Theater at Gramercy located at 127 E. 23rd St, between Lexington Ave & Park Ave S.
Utility repair??? I call BULLSHIT with a big, humongous capital “B.” The Gramercy’s capacity, at its packed-like-sardines maximum, is 600 people. That is one-fifth the size of Roseland. The conclusion ain’t rocket surgery; if there had been any significant amount of advance tickets sold, this would be impossible. Part of me is bummed that I’m out of town and unable to see Sevendust’s awesome live show in such an intimate setting, but the other part of me is sad to hear that Sevendust can’t even sell 600 advance tickets in one of the biggest markets in the U.S. On the other hand, I won’t have to deal with the Gramercy’s (Blender?? Kiss my ass!) notoriously shitty sound system.
-VN
Dark New Day and Ex-Sevendust member Clint Lowery, who has been collecting cash as serving time as the touring guitarist for Korn all summer and fall, has left the band mid-tour. Sound familiar? Lowery departed Sevendust mid-tour in late 2004 forcing the band to scramble to find a replacement. This time, though, we can’t help but applaud — not only does this add to the continually comical saga of guitarists leaving Korn (will they please die already?), but it means Lowery can get back to what’s important, finishing the new Dark New Day album. Presumably Lowery has been amply compensated for his duties this year and can lay low for a whle while focusing on new music.
According to Lowery’s MySpace, he departed due to a family emergency. “Everything’s fine — just had to get home. Hated to leave. Love all the Korn guys and had a blast with them.”
Whatever, dude. Now let’s all go listen to some Dark New Day and rejoice.
-VN
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