Produced by a guy named Butch Walker (who is known by some with his work on stuff by the Marvelous 3), Sevendust's fourth album, Seasons, clocks in at 43:53 in total playing time. It overall is even more melodic than Animosity was almost two years ago. If you're familiar with the Animosity album at all, I'll clue you in by saying more songs lean toward "Live Again" than toward "Praise," "Crucified," "Shine," or "Damaged," which incidentally are my favorite songs (and faster songs) off that album. That doesn't make this album bad though, it may even be better. Just a little bit slower. Side note: I couldn't help but notice that the producer helped co-write four of the songs on the album. It's not bad. Brendan O'Brien produces a ton of stuff and has his name on quite a few songs of bands he produces. Now if Sevendust went the way of Aerosmith and had a ton of Desmond Child-type outside songwriters, I'd get worried. But anyway, here's the track-by-track review.
1) Disease (Lowery/Rose/Witherspoon - 3:33) -- This is an opener that I didn't see coming since the band never went melodic on the first track in any of their last three albums. The song has an eerie first verse, the "whatchoo gonna do for me" Morgan prechorus, then the catchy melodic chorus with some double-time beats by Morgan thrown in. I could do without Morgan's "here it comes, here it comes" part, but that's me being picky. The repeat of the final chorus has some cool lead accents.
2) Enemy (Rose/Walker, 3:03) -- This is the first single, and like I've said, I haven't gotten sick of it thanks to my obliviousness to mainstream rock radio and the fact that mainstream rock radio probably isn't playing it to begin with. That said, if there's not enough time for me to listen to the album, this is one of the two tracks I would crank up and listen to. Lots of Lajon/Morgan tradeoffs in the verses. The chorus is almost beautiful, given how lyrically blistering the song is; the chorus has some subtle high guitar notes that are quite integral to the sound of the chorus -- it just works really well. There's parts where the lyric book would have you believe Morgan is yelling "PEZ!" but when you read in the press that Morgan and wife Rayna have been feuding with former Coal Chamber singer Dez Fafara, then you'd probably think Morgan's yelling another consonant there. Lajon throws in some nice accents on the last repeat of the chorus. This one is a crank-up, windows-down-in-your-car song.
3) Seasons (Lowery/Connolly/Walker, 3:32) -- This is by far the most upbeat song on the album, which is ironic considering the lyrics are far from upbeat. It's definitely radio-friendly, except for a couple of choice curse words which can easily be digitally masked if needed. I have to say the first time I heard it, the vocal melody in the verses reminded me slightly of "Gasoline" by Audioslave, but this memory did fade after 20-plus subsequent listens. The prechorus drum/vocal interplay is quite cool. The chorus almost "sounds" happy, but it's the sound/lyrics dichotomy at work. There's a nice half-time beat by Morgan to ramp up from the breakdown.
4) Broken Down (Connolly/Rose, 3:23) -- I love the intro with the mix of drums and guitar-with-effects, and the beat is great. The sound of the lead (not lead as in shred, lead as in prominence) guitar on this song is just great. The verse has the good beat again but with Lajon and a mellowish guitar laid over the beat. There's not too much else for me to say about the song itself other than that it's probably in the top three or four of my faves for this album. I'm not sure what's up with the AM-radio-feeling thing after the instruments are done playing, though. It's somewhat creepy. Probably in my top four favorites on the album.
5) Separate (Lowery/Rose/Walker, 3:41) -- I'm loving that guitar/drum intro and Morgan can be a master of the groove. They throw in what I'm gonna call an "out-note" on the guitar inbetween repetitions of the very mean riff (I don't know what else to call it). Stuff like that puts a smile on my face when I hear it, like I smiled when I heard "Headtrip" off the Home album for the first time (the staccato on the third line of the first verse). The first verse of this song has the ol' call-and-response thing going, but Morgan is just great during the calls. The chorus is so melodic, they went to the point of using a tambourine during it. Thought I might have heard some Lajon through an effect (walkie-talkie?) toward the end. Lajon had some nice add-ons toward the end of the song.
6) Honesty (Connolly/Rose/Walker/Lowery, 3:30) -- Effects once again on the guitar; here they only usher in the intro, but it's still eerie. Some mellow dark guitar over the wicked rhythm section during the verse. A one-note prechorus riff occurs before the once-again melodic chorus. Like "Enemy," there's once again some vital-but-subtle high notes in the background. The break in the song is well-placed with the acoustic guitar and Lajon toning it down. Another half-time beat is used by Morgan before he pulls it back full again.
7) Skeleton Song (Lowery/Rose, 4:22) -- An slow acoustic one here, which isn't too bad to change the pace up a bit at this point in the album. Lajon shines really brightly on this song, probably because there's no aggressive riff for the listener to focus on. The chorus has the vocal tradeoff again (probably with Morgan, I can't tell or don't know sometimes), and there's a real subtle slidey-sounding lead underneath the chorus. There's also some ominous use of piano and some high acoustic notes neatly slid into the chorus. There's a lot of things going on in that song instrumentally; a lot of nuance.
8) Disgrace (Lowery/Connolly/Rose, 3:58) -- This one has a fairly cool intro riff. It's also got some neat tom-tom work by Morgan during the verses. The chorus is melodic once again, but ends in a mean way. The break in the song also has some more cool fills by Morgan. Morgan takes the beat down to half-time to end the song, as it mellows out.
9) Burned Out (Lowery, 3:52) -- This is probably one of my top three on the album. The hyper-hi-hats by Morgan at the beginning play nicely with Lajon's voice before the verse riff appears. The chorus is probably the most memorable on the album (though really they all are) and uses tambourine. The break has a nice ride cymbal pattern by Morgan. There's some nice stop/starts toward the latter half of the song. There's also a light end to the song.
10) Suffocate (Connolly/Rose, 3:22) -- This one's a thumper and it may be my favorite on the album. It's the fastest and most straightforward song as a whole on the album (parts of "Disease" are faster). The riff is brash, and there is a sprinkling of dueling (just the guitars playing different notes, not a dual shred lead) in a couple spots. The verse kinda reminded me of the chorus of "Praise" off the last Sevendust album, with the vocal tradeoffs. The chorus is driving (and melodic, surprise) and ends in half-time before the full-speed verse comes back. The break features some more cool riffs and Morgan fills, and then another part of the break features some possibly effecty and mellow Lajon vocals over what is either a drum-machine beat by Morgan or a backgrounded set of drums with a small snare, not sure which. In the last chorus, Morgan really juggles with the half-feel and the full-tempo feel. It's fun. Great track.
11) Gone (Lowery/Rose, 3:43) -- This struck me as the most lyrically sad song on the album, though the beauiful chords and vibe around the song may have you thinking otherwise. There's an acoustic riff to start off, and the song carries on in 3- or 6-time. Some multiple of three anyway. There's some almost-solo work in the song, and it's a fairly nice lead at that. When you take the CD out of its place in the case, you notice that there are two memorials under where the CD usually goes; one to Lajon's brother and one to someone close to the band. I think if there's any one song on this album alluding to these losses, it has to be this one. I also think this is why the album can at times seem more sad than angry.
12) Face To Face (Lowery/Connolly/Rose, 3:54) -- Well, this one's the only song close to "Enemy" in terms of angriness. Lots of yelling Morgan in this song and this song alone probably earned the explicit lyrics label. Starts off with a weird swiping wah-wah riff over Morgan's yelling. There's a staccato Morgan rhythm during the verses with some good accents thrown in from the kit. Then there's the break with the rap (probably Morgan). Mean, mean stuff right there. Lajon spices up the final chorus with just one note ("leaving"), and the song takes another veer toward Morgan yelling, and it ends somewhat unexpectedly.
I guess as a final note, Clint Lowery wrote an amazing song all by himself in "Burned Out" and has his name on nine of these songs. Co-guitarist John Connolly has his name on six of these songs and was involved in the two cool-guitar-effects songs (tracks 4 and 6). Lajon Witherspoon is an awesome singer and has improved substantially vocally (not quite as drastic as David Draiman on the last Disturbed album, who we didn't know could sing in the first place). Lajon may not write many songs (one song on this one), which may be mildly disappointing, but he really gives this band what it needs to set itself apart from the other bands of the genre. I've heard the term "soulful" used, but the bottom line is he puts his all into it. Morgan is one angry angry man. He's nuts too, and his name is on ten of these songs. He slammed down some solid grooves on this album, and he works as the main tradeoff voice when Lajon isn't singing. And he yells a lot. Vince Hornsby plays bass on all twelve songs and has his name on none of them. Yup, he's a bass player. There has to be a bass player. Given that this is a mainly drop-D (and maybe lower) band, the bass player arguably fills a smaller role than in other bands of non-drop-D genres.
One big improvement I found in this album is that on Animosity, they seemed to have this "default aggressive chord/riff" mode they'd settle into, which managed to show up on "TOAB," "Crucified," "Shine," and "Damaged," and it was one of the few things that I didn't like about the last album. The other was the consistency. In regard to the "default riff" thing, Sevendust improved leaps and bounds on that, so it's great in that aspect. On consistency, they improved possibly more than leaps and bounds in that. The album I regard as the most consistent album I have is the Foo Fighters' 3rd album; consistent in the way that I could play it all the way through and hardly ever think about skipping tracks. Seasons may be close to that. These guys have gotten so great with melody. I didn't think they could possibly get more melodic than their last album, and sure enough, they did, and they've still managed to be aggressive with biting lyrics at the same time.
It's just a plum great album, and it justifies every bit of why they're one of the very few new bands out there that I give a crap about. With me, they're 4-for-4 and batting 1.000 when it comes to good butt-kicking albums. These guys haven't let me down once. Getting this album is money well spent.
