Seasons

by

Sevendust

Edit

As the years have passed I have found myself being inexorably drawn away from this type of music. Taste, maybe. Artistic quality, no. I have been a Sevendust fan since their first release, with Home being my favorite album, until now. I sift through these reviews and think to myself, are these people really fans of this band, or do they actually want the same thing over and over? Sevendust has never sounded better. You can say that they are soft, you can say that they have taken the sell-out road to Pop music stardom, you can say that they are no longer 'Sevendust.' I say open your ears and listen. Seasons is one of the best "nu/metal" releases that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. It is apparent, to those of us that actually pay attention to the music, that Lajon and crew are working toward closure as a band, and as human beings. Some of the songs are brutal; Face to Face is actually scary. But the polar opposite, Skeleton Song, and to some degree Disgrace, leave this listener on the verge of emotional turmoil. I want to follow these guys as they mine these emotions, regardless of how thrashy, hard, loud, or "Rock" they may sound. I say Kudos to the band. Seasons is a wholly justified purchase for Sevendust fans, and fans of earnest, emotional rock music. Even the naysayers may find some gold to mine if they put down their placards of "Sell-Out," and "Gone-Soft" long enough to experience the emotion of this release. Lajon, our hearts are with you.

I can see why people will have mixed feelings on this record, as, like the reviewer TensionExperiment said, it sounds like this band is trying to approach some sort of closure. The band themselves are great; Sevendust stuck their foot in the door to the widely dispised "nu-metal" scene and offered something honest, not fake or polished. Their debut album was raw and stripped of gimmicks - it was hard, crunching rock with melodies permeating its core. Utilizing a tour de force - in the sense of their sound and their heavy touring to become known - Sevendust seemed to secure a loyal backdrop of fans while never selling out. Home was a creative mix, shoving off the so-dubbed sophmore blues to pinpoint their sound to the heavier crowd, using chugging, insane riffs and beats to catch the ears of even more selective metal fans. Animosity seemed to be their combined efforts to put out a disc aimed at catching everyone off-guard - the most melodic yet, while still maintaining the classic Sevendest atmosphere.

However, Seasons seems to be a bump in the progression the band was on, a disc not of a singular purpose but one not as defined. Enemy and Broken Down, along with the surprise broadcasting of Face to Face seemed to grant the band its most prominant space on the radio yet. The songs went out there to grab the people's attention, and I believe they did that but not in the magnitude expected. It somewhat feels like the band wanted to finally break into mainstream, but tried to with mixed feelings. The songs on Seasons are easily classified into a seperate batch from Sevendust's previous offerings; they all fit together on this disc, but this disc alone. In this sense, Seasons is their most unique album, but feels the least artistic.

Broken Down and Disgrace speak volumes to what you'll be getting with this album - heavy, melodic, but with a sad undertone. It feels like this disc lost the energy of excitement that blasted through their first album. Each of the three previous installments seemed to show the band growing and maturing without selling out. They didn't sell out with Seasons, and they made some good tunes. But it feels like this is "the other album", that album right after peak maturity, where nothing is experimented but things are more balanced. Whether it be the fact the members are growing older and maturing, or the fact that for the first time they offered a producer to come on and analyze their sound, I am not sure. Sure, Butch Walker probably is responsible for Broken Down being how we hear it, and it is a good song at that. But the album overall doesn't build on the sounds of every other song, adding something new and unexpected to keep the listener intriqued. That's one of the things I liked best about Sevendust - they knew melody, they knew rythm and heavy crunching slabs of metal, but most of all they offered something different. You didn't know what they'd try next. Home was different than their first, and Animosity took the rock community completely by surprise. Regretfully, I cannot say the same for Seasons. Somehow, it just feels like an after-their-time, greatest hits album or something. Good, but not great.

Overall, I would recommend it, but warn you it is not in continuity with their other albums. It will hold its own in your collection, but it will hold a spot seperate from their other albums. I hope the band stays together, as it almost feels a break up could be on the horizon, but collects themselves for next time. No outside producers, I want the band to have free creative rein and make a 100% pure, creative, and true album. Hopefully their fifth will be more of a surprise.

Good luck to the band members on their continued success.