Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Sevendust Black Out The Sun Company: 7 Bros. Records Release: 2013 Genre: Hard Rock Reviewer: EC

Few standout cuts

Georgia's Sevendust have never lived up to their potential. This metal act have bordered on greatness their entire career yet have never accomplished the ability to make that one great album. In a lot of ways the band are like Flotsam And Jetsam. Everyone knows who they are but few people I talk to actually play them. I've enjoyed a handful of albums and various songs but that minimum dose of variance or complex song structures really bothers me. Once again Sevendust have made another record that is simply par for the course, standard volume and feedback in a world mired with simplicity.

"Black Out The Sun" is the band's ninth album to date and continues their long run of success at dishing out the modern rock and alternative metal to the masses. The album reportedly sold 28,000 copies in its first week and continues to get airplay and rotation. The album is made of concrete slabs of groove and down tuned heaviness, the "washing machine" riffs that Clint Lowery has utilized since 1994. Witherspoon contributes his charismatic vocals to songs that are mechanical in nature yet seem organic with hook chorus parts and the soulful notes. This is a typical Sevendust venture with a few standout cuts amongst your basic modern rock staples.

The strongest song on the album is opener "Faithless", a really well sung track that shows off more melody out of Lowery among the typical churning heaviness. "Til' Death" tries metalcore for a moment, an unusually aggressive song that has Witherspoon barking. "Nobody Wants It" is built for modern radio while "Cold As War" has some of the best vocal notes on album.

The rest of "Black Out The Sun" just floats into obscurity. Songs like "Decay" and "Black Roses" prove that the band's one dimensional battery is well worn out by record nine. The majority of this record seems lifeless and out of touch with the listener. It it these failing moments that push the Georgia natives further and further away from my rotation. I keep waiting on a great Sevendust album but the reality is that the talent level may simply fail to exist.