Sevendust has entered the recording studio, according to a post on Instagram by drummer Morgan Rose. The band is tracking the follow-up album for their new label Rise Records/BMG (Five Finger Death Punch, Of Mice and Men), and the album is due in the first half of next year. Sevendust released their Grammy-nominated album Kill The Flaw in 2015, featuring the hit single ‘Thank You’, which has tallied over 5.25 million plays on Spotify. Continue reading
At one point in time Sevendust seemed poised for superstardom. Well, the point in time was the early 2000s as they were riding high on a string of Gold certified albums and solid tour packages.
Then as we were approaching the mid-aughts the floor collapsed. Suddenly bands who were regularly playing small arenas and collecting major label royalty checks were out of favor. Sevendust and countless others were lost in the Nu-metal shuffle. Which is a damn shame as this Georgia collective was never really a Nu-metal band and had better songwriting chops than many of their contemporaries.
And the years went by and the various popular hard rock styles (garage rock, emo, metalcore, etc…) came and went with their respective enduring acts and others left on the decline. But as the musical landscape changed Sevendust remained musically consistent as their tenth and latest studio offering Kill the Flaw (7Bros, Asylum) can attest to. The sales haven’t remained as good, but the music has.
The main reason for this musical stability is that much like Deftones, Sevendust rose to prominence during the Nu-metal gravy days, but never really fit that mold. Sevendust was always about working behind Lajon Witherspoon’s strong singing (one of the more underrated vocalists working in rock today), Morgan Rose’s busy drums and John Connolly and Clint Lowery’s crunching guitars.
Look no further than the sweeping choruses of ‘Thank You’ and title track ‘Kill the Flaw.’ It’s still the Sevendust we loved in the 90s, yet we refuse to give them another Active Rock hit while Avenged Sevenfold makes a killing by aping Metallica’s self-titled. But it’s not all nostalgia since they’re adding new facets to their sound as Lowery and Connolly tap into that palm-muting style the kids love so much on ‘Death Dance’ and ‘Chop without sounding like their pandering to what younger generations like (i.e. Korn’s The Path of Totality).
Those who have stuck with Sevendust will have much to enjoy on Kill the Flaw. And even those who have hitched their wagons to other passing genres are always welcome back home.
7.0/10
HANSEL LOPEZ
Like spaghetti bolognese, it is hard to dislike Nuclear Assault, a thrash metal band who released a three well regarded albums in the mid-to-late 80’s, before internal combustion and some lesser offerings. Like spag bol, they were no nonsense, popular and easy to digest to the taste buds of all who liked their metal fast and thrashy. However, to over-extend the metaphor to the length of a string of tagliatelle, they weren’t as flavourful or complete as others, lacking the depth of ingredients in comparison to their contemporaries, and it’s very unlikely many would call NA their favourite dish.
Since announcing his impending retirement from live playing Dan Lilker has been a machine, blurring (sic) at the pace of his picking hand, bringing each of his projects to a concluding fruition, which has included the Lazarus act being applied to Nuclear Assault once again. Setting out to intentionally write “four killer old-school thrash songs”, the Pounder EP (Sidipus) is the band ramping up to a “Final Assault” tour and album in the second half of the year.
Achieving the majority of their pre-conceived idea, they have written four old-school thrash songs (well, three, and one, ‘Died In Your Arms’, that sounds as if Alan Averill was wailing along to a Metal Church outtake but not able to hear himself through noise-reducing headphones), though they’ve failed to live up to the “Killer” part of that promise. With what could kind-heartedly be called a “raw” lo-fi and DIY production, Pounder displays uncultured punky, chromatic thrash, a dearth of songwriting ideas and John Connolly’s once distinctive yelp having clearly seen better days.
One hopes this is merely the itching to get out of the blocks, let’s get something out there, false-start that serves as a irrelevant pre-cursor to a gold medal winning final sprint, but the portents don’t look promising for the final assault to do anything other than flounder and perish meekly.
4.5/10
STEVE TOVEY