Alternative nu metal pioneers Sevendust have been kicking ass for more than a decade. When their now classic debut self-titled album came out in 1997, they won the respect of audiences and peers everywhere they toured. The short golden age of nu metal was in full force (which I date from 1996-1999). Staind, Limp Bizkit, and other bands they toured with in 1998 and at Ozzfest were as raw and hungry for success and respectability in the metal world as they were.
Ten years later, after many of those so-called "metal" bands either mellowed out or faded away, Sevendust is still going strong. All but one of the musicians are original members; veteran axe man Sonny Mayo (ex-Snot, Amen) replaced Clint Lowery a few years ago, who left to join his brother Corey Lowery (ex-Stuck Mojo, Stereomud) in hard rock band Dark New Day.
Sevendust has also switched labels in recent years and formed their own (7Bros) as a way to retain some rights and rewards for their own work. The band had their first four CDs and a live acoustic album released through TVT Records, their fifth album Next released on Winedark Records, and their sixth record Alpha distributed by current label Asylum Records in early 2007. And so this past December, just two years after the release of Sevendust's first retrospective — their last release for TVT — entitled Best Of (Chapter One 1997-2004), Asylum/7Bros quietly released another best of as a CD/DVD combo curiously entitled Retrospective 2.
While the first greatest hits CD had a few song choices Sevendust fans may quarrel with, its sixteen tracks did a good but not truly satisfying job of representing the band's best work through four albums. Retrospective 2 is also average, but it isn't much of a true "retrospective," at least on the audio disc, as its mere nine and mostly live tracks include only two from the Next disc and four from last year's hyper-aggressive Alpha album.
The other three are considered new studio tunes, but only two of them are truly new — "The Rim" was previously only available on international orders of Alpha from the Target store. They have the typical meaty and melodic riffs you'd expect from Sevendust, but despite the vulgar lyrics of "The Rim" and the personal lyrics of "Losing You," only "Sleeper" stands out from this new batch, mostly for its rather strange song structure. The change from slow, melodic verses and refrains to machine gun fast riffs throughout the song is sudden, memorable, and of course, intense.
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