|
By JEFF MAKI
What the hell happened to my Sevendust? This band broke onto the scene back in 1997 with a superior debut and followed with other solid efforts (Home, Animosity) but now choose to play a semi-watered down version of their former selves. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the band and have been since their debut album, I'm just not convinced of this direction of the band's sound.
Now there's nothing wrong with a band wanting to put out something different or evolve as they say, but in this case I believe their headed in the entirely wrong direction. As I said, their debut was flat out awesome. It was exciting and different, raw and very aggressive. Ever since they seemed to have gotten the idea that they need to be on the radio, so what we get here like on recent releases is half an album of 'real' Sevendust and another half of watered down crap.
Next starts off strong enough with "Hero" and "Ugly," but quickly descends into mediocrity with the next few tracks. It wasn't until track eight,"The Last Song" when I started to get back into the album. This song is in your face, heavy and aggressive with no cheesy and predictable chorus. This is what Sevendust is best at and they need to realize this! Quite frankly, no one cares if you're on the radio Sevendust, cause not many listen anyway! Drop the stupid melodic and tiresome choruses because they make no sense and you sound silly doing it.
Basically, this band has enormous potential still and I believe they could eventually release something even better than their debut, but if they continue to stick to this recent formula of the last couple of albums it'll never happen.
If you're interested in checking out Sevendust, then please, please go buy their debut or even Home. This is the band at it's absolute best period. If you feel the need to go and check out Next go right ahead, but it'll just end up collecting dust on your cd shelf.
|
