Sevendust - Alpha Review
Posted by Brandon Ratliff on 03.06.2007
Ironically, this is their sixth album...
Sevendust - Alpha
Release Date: March 6, 2007
Label: Asylum Records
Produced By: Shawn Grove
First Single: Driven
Recommended Downloads: Burn, Alpha, Confessions Of Hatred
Sevendust is:
Vocals: LaJon Witherspoon
Guitar: Sonny Mayo
Guitar: John Connolly
Bass: Vince Hornsby
Drums/Vocals: Morgan Rose
Tracklisting
1. Deathstar
2. Clueless
3. Driven
4. Feed
5. Suffer
6. Beg To Differ
7. Under
8. Story Of Your Life
9. Confessions Of Hatred
10. Aggression
11. Burn
12. Alpha
Few bands that were lumped into the nu-metal scene lasted more than one or two albums, much less the six that Sevendust has released. Not only have they managed to stick around long enough to record six studio albums, but they have accomplished the impossible by not creating a single bad album. Sure, some are harder (Sevendust, Home, Next), and some are more melodic (Seasons, Animosity), but none of them have been anywhere near bad records. How does a band do this? Maybe they have a magic touch. Maybe they are just that good of songwriters. Whatever it is, it’s worked for them for their first five albums, but does Alpha turn out just as good?
Click the picture to buy the album.
In another review, this album is described as: “…take Sevendust's 2001 album Animosity, throw it in a blender with Killswitch Engage's The End Of Heartache, and hit stir.” And try as I might, I can’t come up with a better description. Although I did put Animosity as one of their more melodic albums, that’s where the Killswitch Engage reference comes in. There are a lot of heavy moments on Alpha, so much so to make Next actually look like one of the softer efforts. “Deathstar” opens the album with a hard kick to the teeth, and doesn’t let up until the final notes, which leads into “Clueless”, the album’s first showcase of Animosity-esque material.
At worst, this album is entirely too predictable. At best, it’s just too familiar. The first four songs switch between heavy and Animosity type stuff, only to have “Suffer,” the fifth track, sound like an amalgamation of the two. “Beg To Differ,” “Under,” and “Story Of Your Life” (the latter of which probably shows the weakest vocal performance from Morgan Rose ever) all sound like cuts from Home also. Then, moving onto the last four tacks, “Confessions Of Hatred,” “Aggression,” “Burn,” and “Alpha” show the band mixing up their formula a bit. All four songs are stellar songs, but “Burn” is an easy highlight on the album. The song clocks in at 09:01, and is the first time Sevendust has ventured into what could be called progressive territory. Various rhythm instruments along with heavy reverb on the guitar add a great atmosphere before the song picks up with Morgan Rose screaming “Rescue Me!” For a band like Sevendust to pull off a nine minute song and have it remain not only interesting, but simply intriguing over the entire course of its duration is very admirable. By the time the song is over you simply will not realize how long it actually was.
While some of the riffs do sound slightly regurgitated from previous efforts, Alpha is yet another solid album from the Sevendust camp. The biggest problem with the album though is that the pacing is entirely too predictable, as the album seems to be broken up in three basic sections: the heavy/mild/heavy/mild/combo section, the Home section, and the “Let’s try some new shit and throw it all at the end of the album” section. I don’t know if the band intended for the album to flow this way, but because of it, while none of the songs are particularly weak (“Story Of Your Life” is close however), they do tend to blend together a little too much, especially in the aforementioned “sections.” It would be easy to say that Sevendust "rushing" this album out after Next could be to blame for this, but even with a couple of glaring problems with the pacing, this album is still miles better than most other hard rock albums out right now. Sevendust has kept up the quality over five albums before this, and even in light of these issues, this is definitely a strong enough album to make it number six in their string of solid output.
The 411: Though this has a couple of issues with pacing and the apparent division between the songs, Alpha is solid enough to rank up there with the rest of Sevendust’s material. Even at the couple of low points, there is always a riff or a chorus that will come soon thereafter that'll really make you forget about any concerns you may have had. In addition, I can not stress enough how totally blown away I was at the first listen of the progressive opus “Burn.” For the few hard rock fans who may have to this day doubted Sevendust’s abilities as songwriters, this song will be the blow that will mute them forever. Recommended, but conditionally.
