Review Summary: The most radio-friendly album by the pioneers of the nineties metall
The nineties gave birth to a number of the so-called “nu-metal bands” like Limp Bizkit, Korn, Staind and many others. But I would like to write about a band that seems quite underrated to me, because not many people out there even know/remember them.
“Seasons” was their first album I purchased. That time the album just blew me away, however after buying some of their other stuff, I realized that it was great but not their best effort so to say. But… “Seasons” introduced me to Sevendust, it introduced me to the band I still enjoy listening to.
The album is really melodic and radio-friendly, it has got its hooks and groove, but at the same time it is quite repetitive. *Cough* “Hold on here we go”… “Seasons”, “Broken Down”, “Enemy”, “Separate”, “Burned out” and so forth… All of these songs are based on the same formula “intro+verse+chorus+bridge+chorus+outro”… All of them had the potential to become a hit-single, what “Enemy” and “Broken Down” actually did. Each of the album’s songs has got some memorable vocal lines by Lajon and Clint, groovy guitar riffs by John and Clint respectively, great beats by Morgan. However, the bass is almost inaudible on most songs, though nobody says that Vinnie is a bad bass player. Unfortunately the only song that you can hear his bass work clearly is “Honesty” whose verses are driven by his bass.
Each song is quite catchy, but after listening to the whole album for the first time, it is quite difficult to tell one song from another…
The track that clearly stands out apart from the hit-singles “Enemy” and “Broken Down” is “The Skeleton Song”. The acoustic dark ballad which to my mind is the main highlight of the entire album shows more “mellow” side of Sevendust. Guitar arpeggios, harmonics, and outstanding vocal lines by Clint and Lajon immerse a listener into a dark atmospheric song.
Speaking about the arrangement and musicianship, I must say that Lajon’s vocals are really good, Clint does some good backing vocals as well. As for the other aspects, each member of the band provided the album with some good work, however, their more recent efforts had some trickier guitar/bass/drums parts than this one. But as I’ve already mentioned this is Sevendust’s most radio-friendly album, assuming that the album practically has nothing too complicated. Still you won’t feel that it’s BSB singing to you.
As for the overall impression, this effort is good, enjoyable and really has its moments. Though some of the tracks are quite repetitive and hard to distinguish, you still have chances that they might get stuck in your heads for a long period.
A good album, though not a classic one by the great band which continues to make us head-bang up-to-date.
