Another member of Alter Bridge makes an appearance, with Miles Kennedy performing a duet with Lajon. The vocals contain plenty of emotional heft, although I cannot say that it left much of a mark. It does strike me as a song that could play well on the radio.

The third guested song is easily the strongest of the bunch. It is a ballad featuring Lajon trading lyrics with former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry. Their voices play well together over the acoustic guitar driven bed. Now, if any song was perfectly set up to get some radio play, this is it.

Among the rest of the tunes there are some standouts. "Inside" gets the album started strong with a nice and brutal riff following 90 seconds of industrial noises before settling in on the signature heavy/melodic dynamic that has been their bred and butter. "Scapegoat" is a good example of a mixture of what was seen on Alpha and Next, while being a strong tune in its own right. Then there is "Prodigal" which has a great groove with a crunchy guitar presence.

There is definitely something to be said about consistency. This album may not be the best entry in their canon, but it still has its share of rocking tracks that will be sure to please any fan of hard rock and melodic metal. Lajon Witherspoon has a fantastic voice, few can match his combination of emotion and aggression (Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage comes to mind as another with this magical combo).

Bottomline. If you are a Sevendust fan, you will want to get our hands on this one. If you are interested in the band, I would recommend starting with Home from 1999, although I am a bit partial to Alpha. Anyway, with the possible exception of "Hope," Chapter VII is yet another winning album from these heavy music stalwarts.

Recommended.

Track list:
01. Inside 4:36
02. Enough 4:34
03. Hope 4:42
04. Scapegoat 3:55
05. Fear 5:06
06. The Past 3:53
07. Prodigal Son 3:33
08. Lifeless 4:34
09. Sorrow 4:49
10. Contradiction 3:24
11. Walk Away 6:34