Sevendust just released their 8th studio album, Cold Day Memory, in April of this year, their first studio album since the return of the original guitarist, Clint Lowery. Cold Day Memory is an emotional, hard hitting metal album that continues the Sevendust tradition of molding hard metal around a melodic chorus. Their tour comes through Salt Lake this year at In The Venue on Nov. 2.
Lowery left the band in 2003 to pursue other musical aspirations with his other band, Dark New Day but in 2008 decided to come back to the original band he helped create.
“He was with us the whole time when we were putting the band together and getting the record deal,” Sevendust drummer Morgan Rose said.
During the time that Lowery wasn’t around, Sevendust toured and recorded with Snot drummer, Sonny Mayo. Rose said that during the five years that Mayo played guitar with the band, it was an entirely different band, “Sonny-dust and Sevendust.”
The writing process during those five years was left entirely up to the rest of Sevendust, without Mayo having any input or say.
“Sonny didn’t have a real chance with us,” Rose said. “We had a manager at the time that was kind of a tyrant and his whole make up was to not allow anyone else in the family.”
When Lowery came back to Sevendust it was like the family had gotten back together. The band began writing music as an entire band again and everything was back to normal.
Sevendust began working on Cold Day Memory in October of 2009 and gave full creative freedom to Lowery to write the music. The other members of the band still contributed but any idea that Lowery presented they immediately ran with.
“I had been writing the majority of the lyrics for the last three records before this one,” Rose said. “There’s always some kind of drama going on in my life and it seems like with every record I can always pull from prior year or two and say ‘Wow. That was a rough run’ and with this one in particular I had a lot to say but I didn’t feel like saying. I didn’t want to go through the whole talking about the divorce and all that stuff.”
Rose has never been one to talk about his private life, not even in his music. Although he knew that he had to come public with it but didn’t want to do it in lyrics. Even though Rose wasn’t writing most of the lyrics on Cold Day Memory, he said the lyrics “still hit home” because he and Lowery have a lot in common in their personal lives.
Sevendust is now on tour promoting Cold Day Memory and will be playing in Salt Lake on Nov. 2 at In The Venue with 10 Years and A New Revolution. Rose admitted that it’s been a while since Sevendust has played a proper headlining show in Salt Lake but they’re excited to come here to see all of their friends and fans.
Being on tour for months at a time, not being able to see family or have a consistent connection with the world can seem like less of an adventure as time goes on.
“We’re definitely the kind of band that almost half the time needs to see the sign that tells what city we’re in because it literally is a different one every day,” Rose said. “It becomes very twilight-zone-ish.”
Metal bands are unlike any other when it comes to tours, from Ozzy biting the head off a live bat to GWAR’s elaborate stage sets, but even if the band itself doesn’t do something crazy, someone in the crowd probably will and Sevendust shows are no different.
Rose said that he will never forget when he came to Salt Lake 13 years ago and almost got arrested for lighting up a joint on stage. He admitted that he doesn’t even smoke pot and probably wasn’t even intending to smoke that joint but because he was young he decided to do it anyways.
“We’ve had shows where 18,000 people are completely shut down, the whole crowd is dead silent and an ambulance gets pulled through the middle of the amphitheater, someone puts a guy in the ambulance and drives off to the hospital. Then they look at us and say ‘time-in, time to start playing again,'” Rose said.
Sevendust is a band that has pioneered the new sound of metal, combining beautiful melodic vocals with hardcore lyrics and heavy metal compositions. With the return of Clint Lowery, Sevendust finally has that last piece of that musical puzzle back. Every metal fan, young and old, should definitely have a place in their heart for Cold Day Memory and the rest of the Sevendust albums.