In January, the Atlanta nu-metal veterans, SEVENDUST, played their first-ever show in Helsinki, warming up for ALTER BRIDGE, and rumor had it that they were going to release a new album on the brink of summer. SEVENDUST, huh? If the name does not instantly ring a bell, I cannot blame you: for some peculiar reason, the band has remained criminally underrated in this neck of the woods. Considering how consistently flawless their back catalog is, it really makes no sense. Ironically enough, one of their older albums is entitled “Kill the Flaw,” and the band has certainly done exactly that in terms of songwriting. The new album, “One,” their fifteenth overall, was released on May 1st, 2026, via Napalm Records, and it does not necessarily offer much by way of novelty – this bunch has neither jumped on the trendy metalcore bandwagon nor plunged into the deep end of djenty polyrhythms. The thing is, these rogues have long since found their winning formula, so why fix it if it ain’t broken? In a way, ALTER BRIDGE could not have picked a better-fitting support act: both bands have churned out excellent albums for decades without making too much of a fuss about it. I guess the glory days of the whole nu-metal movement have long since faded away, but SEVENDUST is one of those (few) pioneering bands that persistently keep demonstrating that there is still juice in the tank. Quite a few bands of that particular trend flopped years ago, but these rogues keep chugging along. Of course, some 7D albums pack a bit more punch than others, but this bunch has produced quite an amazing number of bangers on every single album. The previous endeavor, “Truth Killer,” from 2023, was an all-killer-no-filler affair, so how does this new selection compare?
The game is set afoot with the title track, which soon turns out to be yet another class-A song from the band, bearing all the hallmarks of a classic SEVENDUST banger: heavy riffs, haunting and somewhat brooding atmosphere, all layered with Lajon Witherspoon‘s signature soulful vocals that resonate with the air of Terence Trent D’Arby dipped in heavy metal. I mean, here’s a frontman who could recite a phone book and make it sound like the most soulful thing you’ve ever heard. Of course, the lyrics on this album are remarkably more profound than that – the title track, for instance, asks: how can you believe in yourself when all you love is gone?
“Unbreakable” and “Threshold” were both released as early singles, and they work pretty damn well as the album’s calling cards: crushing riffs and anthemic choruses. The band has never been big on ballads, as far as I can remember, but my first impression of this new endeavor is that the songs are almost exclusively big riffers, one after another. Some may see this type of consistency as sounding derivative without a fresh tangent to the music. Then again, would you like to hear a band like AC/DC flirt with the emo side of metalcore? Exactly. When I’m in the mood for SEVENDUST, these big, anthemic riffers are exactly what I expect to hear. In this respect, this new selection does not let me down in the slightest. The riffs slap so hard that it’s nigh impossible to single out the highlights; one moment, “Threshold” towers above the rest, and the next thing I know, “We Won” does the same, and so forth… The closer, “Misdirection,” kicks off with brooding atmospherics, but it soon gears up on beefy riffs, too. Quite frankly, there are no skippable tracks in this selection – as if there ever were on those earlier albums, either. That’s no small feat, considering the band has 30-something years under their belt. I reckon that if there is one band that can speak with absolute nu-metal authority, it’s SEVENDUST. It seems that touring with ALTER BRIDGE paid off: the band is preparing to hit the road again in Europe in November. Too bad there are no tour dates in Scandinavia. Someone ought to bring this awesome band to Finland for a headliner concert ASAP. So, I guess we need to start spreading the gospel about this great band! If nu-metal tickles your fancy at all, you really need to check this album out.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- One
- Unbreakable
- Is This The Real You
- Threshold
- We Won
- Construct
- Bright Side
- The Drop
- Blood Price
- Misdirection
Lineup
Lajon Witherspoon – vocals
Clint Lowery – guitars
John Connolly – guitars
Vince Hornsby – bass
Morgan Rose – drums
Label
Napalm Records
