Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces

by

Seether

Edit

What a STUNNING album. Right from the very first song they GRAB you by the ears and rip your head around a full 360.

Starshine Moments

LIKE SUICIDE John deserves some serious accolades for his new role as The Baron of the Bionic Beatdown. His electrifying performance on this first song sets the tone for a truly electrifying record. He is so good on this track in fact that he seems to transcends drumming all together. There is so much palpable rage on this song that it sounds like he is not drumming so much as he is nailing someone's sorry butt to the wall. BRILLIANT. The first time I heard this song the hair on the back of my neck stood up and stayed up for the rest of the record.

BREAKDOWN. The lyrics are so intensely personal that by the end of the song I felt like an inadvertent peeping tom. There is a voyeuristic undercurrent on this and so many of the other songs that the sense of guilt for somehow snooping in someone's personal life was thankfully counter balanced by the staggering melodies and sumptuous harmonies in the music that supports so many secrets

FALLEN. This song is 100% AURAL pleasure. Dale Stewart should be nominated for an AVN Award for his outrageously devilish bassline on this song. Talk about a dirty lick. WOW!!! I am blown away and addicted. The bassline and the drums on this song are so HOT that it borders on porn...FUN porn...like Lollipop Girls in Hard Candy the infamous 3D porn with John Holmes from the 70's. Phunky, Chunky, stick-to-your-ribs delishus. If you need music to lurk to put the bass line from this song on a continuous loop and have at it. Fallen is especially effective in headphones when Johns drum beats move from here to there. If you listen to this song on an ipod you will not be able to walk straight.

NO JESUS CHRIST is another stand out moment for Dale. There is an epic 70's era Black Sabbath flavor to this song. The bassline is like liquid grit...so liquid that the strings seem to literally drip. Howard Benson's intergalactic presence is most apparent on this song because prior to becoming one of music's greatest producers he was an aerospace engineer. This song soars. The lyrics and Shaun's fierce vocals in conjunction with Johns persistent beat give this song it's flame so all together what you have here is earth, wind and fire. I can't wait to hear this song performed live because this song was made to be played in an arena.

I LOVE but was confused by SIX GUN QUOTA because it was originally supposed to be called Six Shot Quota. Not sure why they replaced the shot with a gun...not meaning to pun. Fasten your seat belt....This is another song with a flight pattern that drives the music forward

Shaun's voice on WALK AWAY FROM THE SUN is heaven on earth. There is an ethereal quality to the high notes that would make even the Seraphim envious. This is my favorite song on the whole record. The music is really exquisite. There is an subtle Latin texture to it so when listen with my eyes closed I can envision caballeros on horseback galloping through the surf. That is the magic of this song there is a breathtaking sense of freedom in it.

Da Vinci was once asked how he sculpted so beautifully. His response was that "I see angels in the marble and I carve until I set them free". Da Vinci's spirit is alive and thriving on Seether's record. Shaun passionately carved to set his personal demons free and this is most apparent on the albums final track.

WASTE. In the credits it indicates that additional guitars were provided by Space...and I wondered if this was THEE Space who had a hit a few years ago with Female Of The Species. Alternate Universe Howard Benson is also "visible" here. Listening to Waste there is a sense of floating through the etherIt was this song that made me wonder if the catharsis was complete. I titled my review PRIMAL BIPOLAR LASAGNA because of the multiple layers of gut wrenching emotion on the record. My sense of this album and especially the lyrics is that Shaun really opened himself up on this record more than he ever has on previous efforts. If you REALLY listen to the lyrics you will hear a man openly grappling with all five stages of grief.

Rage, denial, bargaining, despair, acceptance...it is all here.

David Ho's art work featuring the ghost of Candace and her love/hate relationship with the human race is a perfect visual companion to the music. If you are unfamiliar with David's work I hope you will check him out at Davidho.com. He has another picture of Candace where she is standing laterally to the wind which is blowing crows out of her hair. It is called Candace Unleashes Her Personal Demons. And so to has Seether.

Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces is an astonishingly intelligent album, an extraordinary journey and surely one of the best records of the year.

I have precious little to add in terms of where I think this band is headed musically. This is a truly diverse album in that not every song can be fitted into the formulaic molds left by Disclaimer and Karma & Effect. Whether this is a good thing, of course, remains very much up for debate, and the best I can offer is a song by song review:

1. Like Suicide (9/10) - I had been anticipating this track for some time, given the studio outtakes that have been floating around online. It's a decent enough track, one of the few in which Shaun's guitar riffs almost manage to make up for Pat's departure from the band. The addition of some nice vocal harmonies was a treat for me, but again, this is the kind of addition that is up for debate. A good opening track, in any case.

2. Fake It (10/10) - A great song, released months ago so as to give us all high hopes for this album. I particularly enjoy the drumming, which includes a beat pattern suspisciously similar to Green Day's "Holiday". It grinds away in its own right and is so catchy that this album could forseeably ride it's coattails for a good while.

3. Breakdown (6/10) - A radio-friendly addition, with lyrics that very much attest to this fact. This is the kind of track that, while topically maintaining some of Seether's earlier elements, is pushing in an entirely new direction. In my mind, however, this is not a direction I should like to hear - it being covered by a host of other bands. Still, not particularly bad.

4. FMLYHM (8/10) - More Green Day influences in the opening bit before Shaun pipes up. A lot of reviewers seem to object to the apparently overdone lyrics, but I'll admit I enjoy the way he spits them out, especially in the chorus. This is a funny song...lighter than previous Seether, yet angry like previous Seether, and musically reminiscent of something caught between Korn, Three Days Grace, and Nickelback.

5. Fallen (7/10) - Here more than at any other point in this album, I'm wishing Pat was still there to really make the heavier guitar riffs come to life; Shaun gives a worthy effort, but there's still something missing. Definitely moving closer towards Nickelback with this track. I do enjoy the solo, however.

6. Rise Above This (3/10) - I really have nothing to say about this track. Nothing special, nothing even remotely resembling what I like about Seether. Again, change is clearly inevitable, but this is not the type of change I believe a band of Seether's unique talent needs to be making.

7. No Jesus Christ (6/10) - I'm not sure quite what to make of this song. At 7:04, it's definitely the most spacious thing Seether has done to this point. Musically, there is almost nothing innovative, however, and it sounds to me like the band is equally confused as to where this song is suppose to take us. Still, heavy enough to warrant mention, just very odd.

8. 6 Gun Quota (3/10) - See Rise Above This.

9. Walk Away From The Sun (3/10) - A sound so strikingly similar to Nickelback, it makes me nostalgic for heavier days gone by. I do not mean to suggest that I think Nickelback is a bad band, quite the opposite - they have found their niche in the rock world. The tragedy is that Seether is now attempting to share that niche.

10. Eyes Of The Devil (7/10) - A slightly higher score for this track simply because it's not happy music. Even the solo conveys this sense of desperation. Quite enjoyable.

11. Don't Believe (6/10) - This song kind of reminds me of "Diseased" with it's atmospheric verses mixed with heavier choruses. Select Tool influences are certainly detectable. I enjoy this track, but again, I do believe it could prosper from a second guitarist to both heavy things up and to move it along a bit more...this seems a bit sluggish for some reason.

12. Waste (9/10) - I think this was an excellent track to close the album with. Quite a jump from the sounds of Disclaimer or Karma & Effect, but in this case, I quite enjoy the departure. I have to laugh during the verses because I'm quite sure I hear Garth Brooks poking his head up at times. Great chorus, full of emotion and good use of backing vocals. Nice and dark, also.