Sevendust - Animosity (2001)^{Release ID: 6204}

My flirtation with The Gateway clan has waned over the past year or so.  However, that having been said I think Bad Omen's latest release might just be my most played album of the year and I do still spin Niratias by Chevelle on a regular basis following its release last year.  Still, I do not now engage with much of this clan even though for a period in the late 90s and early noughties I was listening to the likes of Korn, Linkin Park and grunge acts such as AiC and Soundgarden on a daily basis.

In Sevendust I found a happy medium I guess between a record that is not shying away from being alternative but at the same time lacks any real sense of panache when it comes to song writing overall.  But let us start with a huge positive in the vocals of Lajon Witherspoon.  His cool and tuneful voice is the standout item on Animosity.  The irony being that his voice hardly evokes any sense of animosity given that it possesses a smoothness that sounds like he could roll icing out from between his vocal chords at times.  The more aggressive tracks leave me to think that he most certainly has depth in his abilities (if not necessarily able enough for me to describe that depth as range of any sort).  In keeping with the vocal performance, I find the riffs here of equal aptitude.  When they put their mind to it, Sevendust can let rip with the old six-strings whilst also weave some of those hazy nu-metal notes in there also from time to time.  These two elements alone make for some memorability without ever managing to convey much in the way of excitement or intrigue in what I am hearing.

Animosity is very much an album that I would not come back to.  After giving it more than a few listens ahead of this review I cannot say there is anything remarkable here and it really just sounds like an awful lot of other music that was floating around at the time.  The song writing can actually sound quite lazy at times with clunky structures such as Xmas Day really bringing nothing positive to the table.  As a result the album lacks completeness and suffers from the dreaded sense that this is a collection of songs as opposed to an album.

I must admit that I’ve experienced relatively little of Atlanta alternative metal legends Sevendust for such a significant band. My only targeted effort to explore what they’re all about came at the end of 2010 when I gave their eighth full-length “Cold Day Memory” (3.5/5) a few spins & found it to be a reasonably enjoyable yet largely forgettable experience. I’ve since heard many of the band’s individual tracks due to their inclusion in the monthly The Gateway playlists but have never ventured any further so I’ve gone into this month’s feature release with an open mind & a hopeful attitude.

The first thing I noticed about Sevendust’s highly successful third album is that it contains a stronger nu metal component than I remember from “Cold Day Memory”. In fact, the record kicks off with a song that sounds noticeably similar to Korn while album highlight “Dead Set” also leans very heavily in that direction too. A large percentage of the other tracks contain nu-metal riffs or sections even though the highly melodic chorus hooks & vocals in general see “Animosity” still tending to leave the overarching impression of being an alternative metal album at its core. At the end of the day I think we have a bit of a hybrid here though with a few tracks steering away from metal altogether via some more commercially accessible alternative rock or post-grunge sounds.

As seems to be the norm for Sevendust, “Animosity” relies very heavily on the chorus hooks of front man Lejon Witherspoon & the listener’s final impressions will no doubt hang on their ability to connect with his performance. He’s a class act for the most part & can really sing but I find those hooks to be a little hit & miss. There aren’t any absolute bombs here, despite songs like “Crucified”, “Dead Set”, “Beautiful” & “Angel’s Son” all being high quality examples of their type. There are a couple of pretty flat tracks though with hit single “Praise” & album weak point “Live Again” failing to connect with me. The rest of the album is just kinda middling to be honest. It’s definitely a pleasant listen but I just don’t find it to have the hooks to offer the sort of memorability that will have me singing along to them in my head for the rest of the day. The gruffer backing vocals of guitarist Clint Lowery do offer a nice juxtaposition to Lajon's more clean cut sound though, it must be said.

Sevendust are certainly very good at what they do & I don’t think “Animosity” will disappoint too many alternative/nu metal fans but it doesn’t surprise me that they’ve never reached the same levels of popularity as the elite bands in their field. The band is very tight & everything's executed in a highly professional manner but I rarely find the song-writing to command the same level of excitement as Tool or Deftones seem to muster up quite regularly. Perhaps Sevendust are simply a little closer to the dreaded accessibility line than I'd like. In saying that, I’d probably take "Animosity" over “Cold Day Memory” (from what I can remember of that record anyway) & are glad to have conducted the exercise as there’s really very little to regret here. It’s a more than decent example of its chosen subgenre set, nothing more, nothing less.

For fans of Taproot, Staind & Adema.