Sevendust

Oct. 17, 2010

Sevendust Searches for its Soul
By Kristi Kates
Beautiful fall colors, a short drive - and some impressively aggressive rock music - are all great reasons to head up to Sault Ste. Marie for the evening on October 19. Especially if you’re a fan of Georgia-based band Sevendust.
Just don’t try to pigeonhole them - the band themselves aren’t even sure where to place their sound within the alt-rock genre, according to Sevendust guitarist John Connolly.
“I don’t know - I’ve been trying to figure that out,” he said in a recent interview, “people, for five minutes, called us progressive, and then it was nu-metal. Then, all of a sudden, we were playing alternative metal. We are some kind of heavy, and some kind of rock, and some kind of metal.”

SNAKES TO SEVENDUST
Teaming up with Lajon Witherspoon on vocals, Clint Lowery on guitar, Vincent Hornsby on bass, and Morgan Rose on drums, Connolly and his band went through a number of name changes before settling on the Sevendust moniker, which is, interestingly, also the name of an insecticide and a computer virus.
Formed in 1994, the band was initially called Snake Nation; when they added Lowery on guitar, they renamed themselves Rumblefish. After running into another band called Rumblefish, they re-dubbed themselves Crawlspace, releasing the track “My Ruin” on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack album - and yes, you guessed it, it wasn’t long before another band called Crawlspace surfaced and wanted the band to pay them for the rights to the Crawlspace name.
So Sevendust it was.

MEMORY TO TODAY
Sevendust’s eponymous debut hit stores in 1997, and the band quickly became known for their forceful, heavy vocals, dark guitars, and bombastic beats. Fans of prog-rock/nu-metal/alt-metal — whichever you’d like to call it — were quickly won over, and Sevendust snagged a spot on the Billboard charts, where it remained for four months.
Over a dozen years later, the band found themselves in Chicago recording their latest set, Cold Day Memory, during which they chose to keep fans involved in the process.
Even during the remarkably busy sessions, Sevendust posted regular videos both on their own website and their YouTube channel, giving behind-the-scene looks at the recording process and making them feel
like part of the project.
And now arriving full-circle, Sevendust are following up Cold Day Memory with a special re-release of that first album from 1997 - now titled Sevendust: Definitive Edition, the re-release will include five new songs, and brings this ambitious band back to where they began, while their current tour will be bringing them to Michigan, too.

Sevendust will be appearing live in the Dream Makers Theater at the Kewadin Casino in Sault Ste. Marie on October 19. Tix are $28.50 and are available online at www.kewadin.com, or via the Kewadin box office
at 1-800-KEWADIN (539-2346.)