Five Reasons Why I Like Sevendust
Second Season of the 'Nu-Metal Agenda' Out Now
The second season of The Nu Metal Agenda, the podcast I occasionally appear on, has kicked off. For the the 11th episode, we talked about our favorite bands. Here's a transcript of my section on Sevendust.
5. Nary a one of Sevendust's 13 albums is bad.
Today, I listened to Next, the lowest-rated Sevendust album on RateYourMusic. It's fine. Sounds like a Sevendust album. It has all of the hallmarks: an elevated rhythmic dexterity, Lajon Witherspoon's stirring singing that makes rock choruses sound like gospel, groovy chugs that trade in flash for a grittier meatiness. "Pieces," pretty good song.
4. Lajon Witherspoon can actually sing.
My favorite Sevendust album is actually Time Travelers & Bonfires, aka the acoustic album, one of only a handful of acoustic "re-imaginings" that I can stand. The reason I like it is that Witherspoon sounds fantastic on it, impassioned, imparting a soul-nourishing soulfulness. And he's always had that quality. Even on something like "Terminator," which sounds to me now like Downset doing Crowbar, Witherspoon gave the song a vocal hook that still hooks me because his voice just feels so human. He's like "Amazing Grace" reincarnated as a rock singer.
3. Despite a brief three-year period when Sonny Mayo from Silence and Snot replaced Clint Lowery on guitar, this has been the same band.
In my main gig, I pick through the roster changes of metal bands that rival a transaction sheet detailing a hectic day for MLB's hot stove. That Sevendust has only had two transactions over nearly 30 years is wild. And this band has had tough breaks, including a mid-oughts label kerfuffle that almost sunk Sevendust. So, considering the consistency, it's a blast hearing how these musicians have grown over the years. It also provides latter-day albums with a fun through line, an uncommon continuity. Longtime Sevendust fandom is like following the decades-long reign of a sports team that kept its rookies together. It's a deeper kind of relationship.
2. Sevendust is sneakily creative.
Sevendust was never about the musicianship, although the band was always tight. It instead sought riffs and melodies that stuck with you while Morgan Rose's pocket-building and pugnacious playing battered you. Because of this, it worked a little harder to ensure any ear candy was substantive. And thus you got stuff like "Licking Cream," where Witherspoon's duet with Skin weaves together like a finger trap. And you also got the riff to "Dying to Live," a simple chugger with a dive-bombing squee that sounds like a daredevil dove.
1. Sevendust's Blood & Stone is why I'm back.
Speaking of "Dying to Live," that was my re-entry to the band and nu metal at large. While writing a segment on Spiritbox, I decided to check the roster of that new-school band's new label, Rise. What do I spy on Rise? Huh. Sevendust. I like Sevendust. Huh. New album? Is that good? Blood & Stone is very good, balancing the rough and tumble early days with the band's late-career near-spiritual emotionalism. I listen to nu metal because I'm a sucker for a good, modern rock hook, and Blood & Stone proved to me that those still abound in the 2020s. So of course it had to be Sevendust that brought me back, one of the reasons I even continued to show up in the first place.
“Favorite Nu Metal Bands,” the debut of the second season of The Nu Metal Agenda, is out now.
Welcome to the Plague Rages Stacks, where I occasionally dust off and annotate old pieces.
If you'd like to read something updated more frequently, please subscribe to the VaccZine/Booster or Your Least Favorite Lupine.
You can check out my other garbage here: https://linktr.ee/wrambatz