Sevendust- Chapter VII

Genre rock Publisher 7Bros. Records / Asylum External Links Sevendust Website

So I've been sitting here for an hour, listening to Sevendust on these headphones that give me a headache from the pressure on top of my head. I thought the damn things were DJ-grade and would grant me access to the finest, most subtle sounds on albums- the ones you weren't supposed to hear, like the bassist's stomach growling, but no, they just hurt.

That hurt happens to be compounded by this Sevendust album. It's a dull ache that kind of started behind my eyes and then slowly spread to meet with the pressure on top of my head to create a volatile ball of negative energy right around my prefrontal cortex which gives me spasms of terrible psychic pain.

And the worst part is, I wish I could explain this by saying this album was awful, awful, awful- so bad that I couldn't listen to the whole thing; that I could roundly pan the entire recording. But the truth is, it's not abysmal or anything. In fact, I've scraped the bottom of my oily, charred brainbox, and all that came up underneath my fingernails was "meh." But to be honest, it took a lot of effort even to come up with that much.

I'm not positive, but I think that may actually be the worst insult a band can have doled out to them. At least if some asshole "critic" declares an album unlistenable, the band can come back with "well, you just didn't understand what we were trying to DO." Being called unendingly mediocre, though, that's a different kind of hurt, because you're not even notably good at being bad. That's especially indefensible, too, for a band that's comprised of musicians who've been playing and recording together professionally for 10 years, and doing exactly the same thing year after year (but with strings this time, woo!). The songs are the same, the overall sound is the same...their debut had a good amount of power behind it, but immediately after that they leveled off, and there they stay. If you have Home, then consider yourself as having heard Chapter VII: mournful-but-mad songs about the pain that life doles out, backed by a rhythm section that can handle their instruments fantastically, but have godawful songwriting skills (no, the songs are not beautiful; just because they have sweeping vamps doesn't mean they're well-written) and a lead guitarist who's eminently forgettable. Maybe if these guys took a chance and stepped outside their comfort zone we'd see something truly astounding from them, but what they're doing now falls embarrassingly short of impressive.

Sevendust are nothing if not guys who play by the rules. At least the game they're playing is a good one.