Mining their way into our hearts, Sevendust strikes gold with their latest album Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow. This heavy alternative metal band was born in Atlanta and raised around the world with over 800 concerts.

With Lajon Witherspoon as the lead vocalist, Morgan Rose on drums, John Connolly and Sonny Mayo on guitars, and Vinnie Hornsby on bass, this quintet will have your head in a bang, your mind internalizing every word of their soulful lyrics, and your body will seizure in reverberating shifts as the heavy guitar riffs and percussions have you fight back the urge to dance.

I think there's a little bit of everything in this album for everyone. "The Past" is as soft as it gets, the rest of the songs follow the abrasive lead. Still, that would be because this ballad is sung by the guest vocalist, Chris Daughtry, from American Idol. His singing style evidently influences Sevendust's ensemble into being more soothing, but it is far from bad, it's just different.

The name of their album, Hope & Sorrow, is actually the names of two of their songs, which both include guest musicians from Alter Bridge: guitarist Mark Tremonti in "Hope", and vocalist Myles Kennedy in "Sorrow". Clearly, the band is in a mode of experimentation as they find a voice for themselves in the ever-changing music business. Also, this is ex-guitarist Sonny Mayo's final album with Sevendust since Clint Lowery (one of Sevendust's founders) returned as lead guitarist.

Favorites: It was very hard to choose! Nonetheless, "Inside", "Hope", "Sorrow", and "Scapegoat" stand out to me. One thing that I wasn't very crazy about was the cover art, it is not as creative or interesting as their previous CDs.

This Reviewer's Rating: 3.5 / 5

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."