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| Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow | 
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| Artist: Sevendust
Label: Asylum Records
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $11.55
You Save: $7.43 (39%)
New (47) Used (12) from $8.93
Avg. Customer Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 13268
Format: Explicit Lyrics
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 429692
UPC: 075597994513
EAN: 0075597994513
ASIN: B0013K1ALY
Release Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not only the best Sevendust cds, one of the best hard rock cds of all time April 16, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Though I can't really call Sevendust metal in the same vein as Unearth and In Flames, categories don't even matter. Since their self titled, i havent heard anything from them thats even close to as good as this. This eclipses their self titled in terms of riffs, song writing. God I love this cd.
Track 6 with Chris Daughtry is an excellent duet with so much emotion coonveyed by both of them. The rest of the album just kicks you in the teeth with sick riffs with double bass sometimes, sick guitar solos. Much better than I ever expected from them especially now.
# 7...dust...Another Treat... April 24, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The seventh studio effort continues the hard rocking trek of Sevendust.From beginning to end...just straight in your face rock.Enough,Scapegoat,The Past,Prodigal Sun & Contradiction highlight this solid rock effort!!!Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy from Alter Bridge appear along with Chris Daughtry.Co-writing,etc..If you are a fan of Sevendust and have purchased most of their efforts,if not all,what are you waiting for.Go get this one...A solid 4.5 for in your face hard rock!!!!!Long live The Dust!!!!
 after all these years...l'm let down for the first time April 3, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I've been a fan of Sevendust for many years. I thought their first album was pretty good, not great, but had potential. After that every CD has at least been really good. I've liked 80% of each album since. I was excited that the band had another album out so soon since the last album Alpha, which was a really good rock album, but I think they needed more time to come up with some better songs. There are no songs that sound terrible but there is really no stand out track besides the single "Prodigal Son." Every song sounds the same and is on the slower/heavier side. I just found myself bored listening to it. Hopefully after this album Sevendust take a longer break and really take their time to make more memorable songs instead of just coasting on writing the same riff over and over.
sorry guys...better luck next time
 The stars are rounded up... April 8, 2008
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
Wow, surprise surprise. Now, you and I both know that the music industry has been a bit crappy the last half dozen years, but Sevendust was always the consistent surprise. Even with Next, when they went through the seemingly universal (in the so-called numetal world) guitar lineup change, they surprised us and brought the goods. Sophomore slump with Alpha? No way! They brought a killer album, heavy, dark, driving, and filled to the brim with intense lyrics that, together, create one of my favorite lyrical works. Introspection to the max; gotta love it.
Anyhoo, then comes the beginning of the bumps on the track of the mighty Sevendust pain-train. Retrospective 2, (apparently not retrospective enough to remember the last DVD was Retrospect, not Retrospective, but that's just a nit-picky aside) while bringing a decent live ep-sized mini-album and two mighty b-sides, surprises me, but not in a good way. The DVD is just a rehash of special DVDs packaged with the last two albums on release week, and although I did need the one from Alpha, it did seem more of a special feature type of thing to include, and not be the feature itself. A Day in the Life of Sevendust, a superb feature on the first Retrospect, is now just a music video of setting up a concert (zzzz). Pete the A&R guy is decent enough, but hardly something to soil oneself over. The live concert footage, although meant to highlight the conscious/subconscious, id/ego, Tyler/Jack (however you want to look at it) bipolar theme of Alpha by splicing together two performances into one, just feels more chopped together than satisfying. I'd rather see a straight concert, like Live and Loud or whatever it was from the first Retrospect album. (And the menu, dear Lord, I think the thing was put together by a two-year-old; most terrible navigation through the features ever leads to more feelings of dejected, poorer quality).
Then, up on myspace comes samples from the instant follow-up Ch.7: Hope and Sorrow cd. I kinda get that wary feeling returning, hoping the album sounds better than the samples, and I start to wonder: why aren't Sevendust on myspace anymore? It seems too quiet...
Chapter 7 hits and so does the news: Clint is back, and Sonny is out. Very shocking and strange, escpecially with the timing, but the cd is what I'm trying to get to, so to that I finally turn my attention...
Inside starts out good, albeit sounding like it's running a first draft of Hyperpower! or The Great Destroyer from NIN's Year Zero (or Space Invader, which preceded Year Zero, which had been on Limp Bizkit's myspace, and had used similar types of industrial sounds to mirror combat or the feelings of a battle - but no one probably cares about that). Anyway, after that, Inside starts hammering away, turning into a decent enough song until about 2/3 of the way in, when the time for a killer guitar solo finds itself hastily abandonned. And this is what will come to sum up one of the fatal flaws with Ch. 7: where in the hell is Sonny?
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a Mayo fan. Sure, he's had his shortcomings on the prior albums, he's no Dimebag, but at least there he seemed to be embracing his style and at least running his more atmospheric quasi-solos through. Here, he just simply plays the part of "guitar guy two". I don't remember a single guitar lick or part on this album, aside from the decent-enough one that a guest artist played. Connolly also suffers slightly from this, he's a more rhythm guitar player than a lead solo player, but damn, come on guys! Pop-oriented or not, at least give it a solid groove. This whole album, guitar wise, feels nearly to the point like something Trent Reznor could concoct on his laptop. And that reminds me: this whole album feels empty in similar ways that Year Zero does; but those points are for another review.
Second major flaw: lyrics. Sevendust always had good lyrics, at least 95% of the time. Even without Clint, they proved very able to churn out great, inspiring and introspective lines. Look at Shadows in Red, and hell, the whole Alpha album taken in its conceptual context. Their mighty, aforementioned b-sides from Rectrospective 2? Still incredibly solid, at least Losing You and the majority of Sleeper. Those should have been on this cd. Ch. 7 flops big time on lyrics. Sure, it has its moments, but they just don't fall into place nor stay consistent. Admit it: "Look at me I'm a Scapegoat..." uh, sh-t what now? "...what you gonna do about it?" Good lord. Sounds like they got the guys in Alterbridge to try and write "heavy" lyrics for them after they tracked some guitars and vocals. I could let the "elephant gun" thing go on Prodigal Son, but Scapegoat is worse than The Rim lyrically...at least The Rim felt tongue-in-cheek. Contradiction made me want to cry ("Not Sevendust! Not my Sevendust! No!"). All the reviewers of popular music magazines and websites will probably love it, and say it harkens back to the old rap-metal days, but then again, the same people probably drooled over Kid Rock's "Sugar" for the same reasons (Good God). Walk-Away seems like Alterbridge's take on Face to Face, the happy-go-lucky version with a positive message (can you tell I don't like Alterbridge? "I want to change the world! Weee!").
Surprisingly, lyrically my favorite is a b-side! Yep, included in bestbuy releases on release day, it's called Heart in Your Hands. That was the one completely solid and satisfying track, the whole way through. The other bonus track wasn't bad either.
Now, I know what Sevendust was trying to do. They were out to make another Animosity, but one that was more popular. Daughtry and the guys from Alterbridge must have seemed the way to go to help them, but, although amusing, I don't think the album holds up. Granted, Alpha took a while for me to admit that I loved it, but that was the type of questioning due to cerebral shock at the intensity and the new, driving focus of the record. Me not feeling satisfied with this is like me not feeling satisfied with many other cds being released nowadays: they don't bring the goods, and fill me up right. I'm left feeling kinda empty, like they are just going through the motions. Granted, these are all lighter songs, and perhaps juxtaposed with heavier ones, would have been slightly more appealing...but even Next's softer songs stood on their own. Hell, the b-sides from Retrospective 2 stand on their own. These all just blur together, and sound like another dose of popular rock radio.
I hate to say it (I've been a fan since Home, and of all their albums except Greatest Hits, which I do not own and see as simply a cash-in for their previous label TVT), but this album is worse than Seasons, which I believe (and I think many others believe) to be their previous low point. Now, don't take this the wrong way; Sevendust are a great band. But, if I hadn't known Clint was returning, I gotta say - and coming from me, a diehard fan, this means a lot - after this, it would be questionable for me to pick up further releases.
Bring the dark, the heavy, and most of all, the great songwriting next time, guys. We all know you've got it in you.
In conclusion: this is a longtime fan's rantings about what he feels is a creative slump in a great band. By all means, if you like the samples, pick up the album. Chances are, many of you will disagree with me. I'll cycle it through my player, but it just is not the Sevendust I know and love. I felt that this needed to be said, after reading so many positive reviews after release day when I, quite frankly, was feeling underwhelmed.
Best sevendust CD ever April 8, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Ok, I've been a pretty big Sevendust fan for the last couple of years, having all of their albums (except for "Next"), they have really grown on me. and I have to say that this has to be my favorite CD that they have done. They have so many talented songs on this CD mainly "Sorrow", "The Past", "Inside", "Prodigal Son" are just a few which could easily be placed on a greatest hits CD. Unlike Alpha, their previous CD, this one concentrated much more on a constant melody. Sevendust really has come a long way from its self titled CD (which by no means was bad in any way).
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