NOT JUST A COLD DAY MEMORY: SEVENDUST ARE THAT MUCH BETTER WITH CLINT LOWERY BACK IN THE BAND

The influence that Clint Lowery’s return to Sevendust has had on the band is evident just a few seconds into Cold Day Memory opening track “Splinter”; are those guitar harmonies? Yup. But it’s not just the added frills like guitar harmonies, vocal harmonies, and — egads — guitar solos that Lowery brings back to the Sevendust fold; it’s his extremely developed sense of songwriting, and his presence is felt from the very beginning to the very end of Cold Day Memory. Sevendust are just different — and better — with Clint back in the band. Even a song like “Forever” which garnered luke-warm reaction from both me and Axl upon its MySpace release a month or so ago fits well into the whole, which you can now stream in its entirety at TuneLab. His input as a producer is evident not just in the improved songwriting but in the re-introduction of ambient samples and the fact that Lajon Witherspoon has found his singing voice once again. Explains drummer Morgan Rose:

We were going, ‘Let’s bring back those other elements Clint brought in that made us what we were. So we sort of made a silent agreement that we were going to let Clint run wild. We said we’ll jump in when it’s time, but if you’ve got an idea let’s go with it.

I’m only a couple of listens in, but already it’s obvious that Cold Day Memory is a better, balanced, more complete and well-thought out album than any of the three albums Sevendust released while Lowery was away. Stream Cold Day Memory in full at TuneLab. It comes out tomorrow.

-VN