Sevendust

The long, dramatic title is fitting for Sevendust, a band that’s jumped labels, toured its ass off for years at a time, lost a crucial member, and yet keeps on keeping on over the course of seven albums. Chapter VII: Hope And Sorrow kicks off with a crunchy riff that’s undeniably Sevendust before vocalist Lajon Witherspoon’s soulful, gospel-tinged vocals kick in. Not quite true heavy metal, yet much more corrosive than anything that’s popping up on the dial of your local rock station, Sevendust straddles the line between commercial and underground with relative ease. They’re prime listening material for aggro music fans not quite hungry for death metal, yet who are in search of something that delivers a potent sucker punch to the jaw.

“Inside” opens the album, and it packs a wallop. It’s followed by “Enough,” which has a long instrumental intro (several songs have extended intros) that builds escalating tension before erupting into a low end riff. The beauty of this Atlanta band is the way that they temper the molten guitars with Witherspoon’s butter-smooth vocals. He never has to resort to screaming; he makes his points efficiently and effectively with his croon, which is always stuffed with emotion. This is best evidenced on the ballad, “The Past,” which features Daughtry. That said, none of the songs on Chapter VII are bona fide hits with any scarring hooks, like those found on their self-titled debut or its follow-up, Home. But that’s perfectly acceptable. At this point in Sevendust’s career, they’ve built a rock solid fan base and continue to release respectable rock music in their patented style.

—Amy Sciarretto
03.03.08

On Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow, Sevendust open their doors to such guests as Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy and American Idol's Chris Daughtry, a move that stretches the album's sound past the usual limits of alternative metal. Daughtry may be a popular figure in the hard rock world, but he's also synonymous with the glitzy TV show that helped launch his career, and his presence here points to Sevendust's desire to tap into that same market. If 2007's Alpha prized riffs over melody, then Chapter VII is the reversal of that arrangement, with songs like "Sorrow" and "The Past" featuring the sort of tough-guy-ballad approach that often yields heavy rotation on modern rock radio. Daughtry lends his vocals to the latter song, although his moment in the spotlight is limited -- perhaps because his voice outshines Sevendust's Lajon Witherspoon, or because the band doesn't want "The Past" to sound too much like a Daughtry track. "Hope," on the other hand, pitches itself closer to the Linkin Park camp with its melancholic piano intro and rainy day atmospherics, even if the chorus packs more throat-shredding power than anything Chester Bennington has mustered on a Linkin Park release. Pounding percussion, swaggering guitars, and downtrodden lyrics are still Sevendust's bread and butter -- especially throughout the album's second half -- and even "Hope" finds time to showcase some dazzling, fiery guitar heroics by the visiting Mark Tremonti. So while Sevendust's audience won't be thoroughly confused with this release, they'll occasionally be jolted by the changes that Chapter VII presents: pop idol cameos, heavy-handed semi-ballads, and some cautious steps outside of the alt-metal genre. ~ Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide