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Non-Prog CD Reviews

Sevendust Time Travelers & Bonfires Review by Gary Hill This is a new acoustic album from Sevendust. If you expect, based on the fact that it’s acoustic, that this will he mellow and hum drum, think again. These guys still manage to rock it out and it gets heavy at times. Sevendust is a unique act in that they fit in well with the modern nu-metal meets alternative rock style of bands, but transcend that sound at the same time. There are a lot of influences and stretches of sound in this set (made up both of new songs and reworkings of classic Sevendust tunes). This is just a great rocking album that is sure to please Sevendust’s fans and probably earn them some new ones at the same time. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014 Volume 3 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Come Down What a great way to start this off. The whole arrangement is hard rocking, but still melodic. It’s got a real modern prog element to it. As good as the music here is, the vocals really sell this thing.

Under It All Modern heavy metal sounds merge with modern prog on this smoking hot number. It’s a great rocker with an alternative rock edge to it.

The Wait This starts off quite mellow and it grows out after a while. It’s another that has quite a bit of progressive rock built into it. It’s also another that really gets a lot of its magic from the vocal performance.

Upbeat Sugar Hard rocking alternative rock serves as the main concept here. This one does land closer to metal. It’s got a great driving rhythm section and a lot of melody at the same time. It just plain rocks.

One Life There are symphonic elements to this piece at times. It’s got a lot of mellow sound in the mix, but it also rocks. It’s more of a mellow number than some of the others here, though.

Bonfire I love the killer hard rocking groove to this piece. It’s got a lot of energy and a really driving progression. The vocals, as always, are exceptional. The smoking hot instrumental section later is great, too.

Gone Alternating between harder rocking sections and mellower, more melodic ones, this is another killer piece of music. It has some almost symphonic elements at times. The acoustic guitar driven sections lend some interesting character to this.

Denial Another with a lot of progressive rock leanings to it, this seems packed with emotion. It’s more like a power ballad is packed with emotion.

Trust Both heavy and melodic, the arrangement to this is more dynamic and diverse than some of the others. It rocks, but still has some mellow elements over the top of the arrangement.

Crucified The main base of this song has a lot of bluesy rock and roll built into it. The arrangement, though, brings it more into a hard-edged but melodic modern progressive rock territory. It’s one of the standout tunes here.

Karma A hard rocking tune, this alternates the more metallic sections with mellower ones. It’s another killer song.

Black Although there are no big changes here, the melodic hard rocking sounds that drive this are exceptional. There is a real magic to this and some of the guitar playing is particularly powerful.

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