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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Of Sevendust?, July 19, 2005
Even though it seems to be a rather unpopular opinion, it is mine that Sevendust's third album, 2001's "Animosity," is the one that truly captures and defines the group. While it's predecessors, the self-titled debut and it's follow-up, "Home," seemed a bit conflicted and their fourth effort, "Seasons," marked a more stream-lined approach, this is the one album that really brings all the elements of Sevendust to the table: Introspective and mature song writing, beefy guitar riffs, and soothing melodies coupled with abrasive yelling. Depsite the fact that they pull off this sound better than just about everyone else out there, they still haven't gotten the recognition they deserve. When they made their debut, the nu-metal scene was slowly on the rise. When "Home" came around, every band that had crunchy guitars was a success. And, even though bands like Staind and Incubus were breaking through in 2001 with honest, straight-forward rock music, Sevendust still couldn't catch a break. Which is a shame, as "Animosity" stands as one of the most memorable releases of that year.
To me, "Animosity," sounds more complete than previous works. Before this album, I couldn't quite understand Sevendust. Don't get me wrong, I love their old stuff, but a lot of it just sounded so disjointed. Here, the group seem more focused than ever, and in turn, all thirteen tracks are winners. No filler, whatsoever. The album starts off in traditional Sevendust fashion with the fierce "T.O.A.B." and the equally energetic "Praise." From there, however, the focus seems to be more on song-writing than on sonic bombast. "Trust" is probably the ideal single, even though it was never chosen. It is just one of those songs that you will instantly click into and is a huge representation of Sevendust's maturity. Likewise, the emotionally draining "X-Mas Day," penned entirely by band guitarist Clint Lowery, will grasp your attention. The song was written about domestic abuse and the childhood experiences of Clint and his brother Corey (whom Clint later left Sevendust to be with in Dark New Day). Other standouts include "Live Again," with it's strong, positive message, "Follow," which marks a collaboration with Staind frontman Aaron Lewis, and a reworking of "Angel's Son," complete with string section. Now, I'm not quite sure why they decided to re-record this song, (which previously appeared on the Lynn Strait (Snot) tribute album, "Strait Up"), but it sounds just as good, if not, better here.
Overall, I have to say, it's a perfect album. It's got it's loud moments, but it also has the reflective, personal moments too. Perfect balance of all things Sevendust. Plus, the production by Ben Grosse (who also did Filter's "Title Of Record") is the best the band have been subjected to. The sound of this album is much more crisp and cleaner, which is a major contribution to why I feel this to be Sevendust's shining album. I highly recommend this album. Just give it a chance, and don't judge it by everything else you hear on the radio. Sevendust stand in a league of their own. They work hard, and the effort they put in really shows, especially on this album.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Numetal done right!, May 28, 2002
Let's face it folks, the numetal genre doesn't have much to offer. However, Sevendust is a band I've always enjoyed. I bought their previous album "Home" a couple of years ago. It was good at first, but after a while, I kind of got tired of it due to its simplicity and repetition. So, I was a bit hesitant to buy this. However, I just decided to go ahead and give it a chance, and I'm very glad I did.This album is a giant step up from anything the band has done before. It has much more melody, and much more variation. In this one album, Lajon has increased my appreciation for his vocal abilities by leaps and bounds. He is simply an amazing vocalist, possibly the best in rock (second behind Iced Earth's Matt Barlow). He just sings his heart out here, and thankfully Morgan's annoying backup vocals are cut to a minimum. Best songs would have to be "Praise", "Trust", "Live Again", and "X-mas Day", but almost every song on here is great. The first song, "T!ts on a Boar", isn't too great, but from there this album hardly misses a step. "Follow" features guest vocals from Staind frontman Aaron Lewis. He does a great job, but even he is dwarfed by Lajon's mighty pipes. He does manage to get in a nice "vomit scream" though (Staind fans know what I'm talking about). I like the new version of "Angel's Son" better than the first one, I think the guitarwork is much better. However, I'd say the guitar playing is this album's main downfall. John and Clint may have slightly more skill than the average numetal guitarists, but the majority of the guitarwork is nothing but a blur of distortion. With better riffs, this could have been a really amazing album, but even as it is, it's quite good. Also, the drumming is too restrained. Morgan is obviously a great drummer, but he needs to just go nuts every once in a while. He only does like 3 fills in this whole album, and they're quite good, so he should do it more. Oh well. It's numetal, so whaddya gonna do? This album exceeded my expectations by far. I like it, but I'm not really sure who to recommend it to. I guess just open-minded people. If you consider yourself an open-minded music fan, you should buy this. It's possible that numetallers might not consider this heavy enough, because of all the melody, but well, you guys don't know what "heavy" is anyway. I think numetal is better with melody, because when they try to rock, it's just pathetic. System of a Down is the only numetal band that can rock out with any success. Anyway, this is a really good album. If you like this, I also recommend a similar but lesser known band called Nonpoint.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great from start to finish, October 12, 2006
This is pretty clearly my favorite Sevendust album, and pretty much one of my all time favorites as it has such a lot of really strong songs on it. There is no real flow to the album as such, one song to the next is fairly different, but that's good, just don't expect a sort of journey thing.
For me it's something like what would have happened if Living Colour had made a follow up to Stain - doesn't sound like them but the style of very clear segments of music within songs, powerful riffs, and passionately performed lyrics is a fair way different to a lot of the other hard rock stuff in offering something a bit outside a conventional formula.
While it doesn't have the same sort of stand out rock tracks as 'Home' had , it's gone for a range of really really good songs - tracks 1-3 and 6-9 are particularly good: Dead Set, Damaged and Praise perhaps a little above the rest. The rest is good, but not as good (to my taste) except the last track which is a complete masterpiece, a slower but exceptionally passionate dedication to a dear freind of theirs who passed.
For me having those 8 tracks which are exceptional is enough for me to really love this record, it's certainly a creative record (although it could be said some of the tracks on Home went a little further) and it's got a nice sense of power and passion to it.
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