Nu Metal has had its fair share of both decent and poor quality bands. Sevendust is yet another Nu Metal band, promising heavy tunes and a decent amount of crazy attitude. This album, Home, is their second release in their album canon and has been considered a fairly good release in the back catalogue of Nu Metal music. Still, how does it sound? Let’s find out.

Home begins the album with some very mid range frequency styled guitars and some electronically modified bass guitar sounds. Soon enough, this tune gets going. This tune is a solid piece of Nu Metal, and although the mix here is very poor, the tune itself is not. That is the issue with the song, the music is good, but is let down by a trashy mix of each piece of sound. Nonetheless, this is a good effort, and the weird sounding guitar solo is also very good. The second half of the song is super intense, but the mix does not do a great deal of justice to this music. An okay listen, but nothing too special here. An interesting tune, but nothing special nor great.

Denial begins with a faded intro, with some decent drum beats and guitars. Soon enough, it launches into an extremely heavy drop-tuned piece of music. It is okay for what it is, but all the same, this music is more style than substance, much like Disco music was, but completely different musically. In any case, this is okay, but not super stellar. This is a nicely varied and awesome sounding song that has incredible value in the Nu Metal crowd. Yes, this isn’t the greatest album ever, but nonetheless, this song is fairly impressive. The drum solo in the second half is really quite good, with a quirky nature about it. This returns back to the song section. Great singing from Lajon Witherspoon, he does sound great on this album and song as well. Great listen for a Nu Metal tune.

Headtrip begins with some super drop-tuned guitars, before launching into a very heavy tune. Again, this isn’t the greatest. Sure, some of the guitar work and other instrumentation are impressive in their own way, but this is cringe-worthy music. The guitar riffs are sort of catchy, but aside from that, there is nothing hugely special about this music and indeed, the album. Fortunately, it is only three minutes long. It’s okay but fairly ordinary. If you are not a huge Nu Metal fan, you will not enjoy this. The vocals throughout are quite good, mind you. Okay, but nowhere near great.

Insecure begins with some discordant Nine Inch Nails sounding riffs. It is a short one minute long piece, which although interesting, sounds quite horrible. Sure, you don’t need to listen to this, you can go and do something else by now. Still, this segues straight into the next track.

Reconnect arrives next, and begins with some really heavy drop-tuned guitars, some pounding gurgling bass guitar work and a great fusion of musicality and Nu Metal attitude. It’s okay listening, but just not brilliant. Despite this, there are worse musical efforts out there. There is an interesting breakdown towards the middle of the song before singer Lajon Witherspoon re-enters and makes a really fine listen. A good listen, although a rather flawed listening experience. Singing and pleading to the audience, Lajon does a great job on this tune, although to be fair, the rest of the tune is rather naff. In any case, this is fortunately short enough to not get bored or too annoyed with. This tune ends with synchronised drum beats and guitars, not too bad.

Waffle begins with some rather horrid guitar parts that are drop-tuned, before launching into an okay sort of song. Again, this is not very impressive listening and it comes across as a drag to hear. Sure, some musical elements present in this tune are quite good, but this isn’t exactly that good. Anyway, it’s alright, but not supreme. This song is barely passable musically, and this isn’t even the worst of Metal, surprisingly. A good piece of music without being great, this comes across as disappointing. Interesting lyrics are present as well. This song ends with a cool riff and finishes abruptly.

Rumble Fish begins with more of the same riffs, entering into a sludgy Nu Metal tune. Some shouted vocals (rather than sung) that do not exude real emotion are present here in this song, and this tune is fairly ordinary and dreadful. It’s style over substance, and there is nothing overly special to listen to on this album. This tune comes across as a big disappointment. Sure, some of the sounds on this song are amazing, but only if you love Nu Metal exclusively. There is a staccato section in the second half before the song goes back into action. A good listen but not at all perfect.

Licking Cream begins with rolling drumbeats, some dual-tracked guitars and launches into a good piece of tuneful music, for Nu Metal. Otherwise, it is fairly forgettably horrible to hear. There is an element of classic Pop music here, but nothing overtly so. The female vocals present in this song which eventually replace Lajon Witherspoon’s singing are suffocated by the guitars and textures throughout. In any case, this is another awful tune that doesn’t need to be heard. This song is about relationship based stuff, but nothing great otherwise. A very poor offering from Sevendust. The outro is beyond terrible.

Grasp begins with some deep, dark basslines and some heavily effect laden guitars. Before long, the synchronised drums and guitars enter and this piece gets going. The singing does not match the guitars here, and both sound awkward in the mix supporting each other. Again, this song is a failure, and it does not come across as a good quality piece of music. Like most bands who are not the best in a genre, Sevendust falls flat on their face. There should be more variety and musicality on this album, but there is not. Terrible music and the mixing of these songs is very poor, as well. In any case, this is okay, but not memorable nor fantastic. The outro is long and fairly dull.

Crumpled begins with some awful guitars, cut-up beats and an EDM feel to the music. Soon enough, this song gets underway and sounds really excellent. This is a punchy and intense musical assault, but the limited musicality and playing present in this song are largely forgettable. This sounds like only something that Metalheads would enjoy, and nobody else. In any case, another poor offering by the group, and the Electronic experimentation doesn’t really bring this track to life. Worth skipping this song, or hitting stop on the album by this point. It’s barely okay to listen to.

Feel So begins with some rather ordinary down-tuned guitars and some powerful and punchy sounds. The tune here is likely inspired by some older EDM styled sounds, but this isn’t done in the best way possible here. Yes, even Nirvana made better music than this. This is undoubtedly awful to listen to, it just doesn’t sound like a good job, even for Nu Metal alone. In any case, this is okay for what it is but is still a poor effort overall. Do go and spend some time listening or doing something else if you can, this music is easily consigned to the dustbin of history. Avoid it if you can.

Grasshopper is an eight second long track. Nothing great, if you hear it, you can hear a bunch of Nu Metal singing a Country music parody. Really? This is proof of the poor quality of this album.

Bender is the last track on this album. Fortunately, it is fairly short at under four minutes long. In any case, this quickly launches into a Nu Metal piece that, although has some very good vocals on it, the music is dreadful. In any case, it’s okay but most people will undoubtedly hate this music. An okay effort to finish up with, but nonetheless, pure garbage for the most part. There is a good drum and guitar solo mash up in the middle, before this piece launches into a multitracked set of vocals, prior to resuming the Nu Metal impact. A sour finish to an ordinary album, this could have been done a lot better. The outro is super weird.

This is not a great album, let alone a good album. Yes, the singer Lajon Witherspoon has quite a good singing voice, but he sounds as though he is clearly in the wrong band. The rest of the music on this album is pure garbage, it just doesn’t work very well and some of the production and mixing sounds very much like an afterthought. It’s good for Metalheads but bad for everyone else.

Ordinary.

4/10