The self-titled debut sold 311 copies its first week. However, through touring, and TVT support, the album gained charting success through Billboard and earned gold certification.
Bassist Vince Hornsby joined drummer Morgan Rose in 1994, in a band called Snake Nation. John Connolly, a drummer, left his current band and joined Snake Nation as a guitarist. They recorded their first demo. Not happy with vocals, however, Snake Nation spent a year searching for a new singer before finding Lajon Witherspoon. Six months passed, Clint Lowery joined the band and they renamed themselves Rumblefish.
Rumblefish was short-lived, however, because they found another band with the same name. They renamed themselves Crawlspace, and released My Ruin on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack album entitled More Kombat through TVT Records in 1996. Shortly after, another band named Crawlspace sent notice that they wanted $50,000 for the rights to their name. Rather than purchase the rights, the band members chose to rename themselves Sevendust.
Sevendust released their self-titled debut on April 15, 1997, known for its heavy riffs, angry vocals and thrash-like drumming, as the songs Black and Bitch. Black was the opening song for nearly every Sevendust concert until 2004. The debut album also contains the song My Ruin, from the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. Sevendust appeared on the Billboard 200, remained there for sixteen weeks and peaked at 165 on April 4, 1998. The album went gold on May 19, 1999.
In 1998, Sevendust performed at Dynamo Open Air (May 29–31) and Ozzfest 1998 (July through August). In the same year they released a compilation called Live and Loud which featured live footage of the bands September 16, 1998 performance at Chicago's Metro.
On August 24, 1999, they released their second album, Home. The album peaked at 19 on the Billboard 200 and featured Skin from Skunk Anansie and Chino Moreno from Deftones as guest vocalists. The two singles from the album, "Denial" and "Waffle", gave the band moderate chart success, and the latter of which was played on the Late Night with Conan O'Brien show. They appeared in Woodstock 1999 and have toured with many bands such as Korn, Staind, Nonpoint, Reveille, Godsmack, Mudvayne, Mushroomhead, Powerman 5000, Creed, Kid Rock, Machine Head, Limp Bizkit, Disturbed, and Metallica. In 1999, they gained European exposure by opening for Skunk Anansie at various shows in Germany. They also opened with Kid Rock and Ted Nugent for Metallica on New Year's Eve in 1999 at the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, Michigan. They also joined Slipknot, Coal Chamber and other bands on the Tattoo the Earth Tour in June 2000.
In November 2001, the band released their third album, Animosity. This album went gold and gained the band commercial success thanks to the success of singles "Praise" and "Angel's Son", which peaked at 15 and 11, respectively, on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. "Angel's Son" was a tribute to Lynn Strait, the lead singer of the band Snot, whom the members of Sevendust were friends with. Strait had died in a car accident in 1998. In addition to being included on Animosity, the song was included on the compilation album Strait Up. The band made an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman playing an acoustic version of "Angel's Son" featuring Paul Shaffer on keyboards.
In the same year Sevendust was seen in the Chris Rock movie Down to Earth as a partial clip of "Waffle" is played.
Another friend of the band, Dave Williams the lead singer of Drowning Pool, died in 2002. Tragedy would strike again when Lajon Witherspoon's younger brother was shot and killed later that year. Due to his death, Sevendust went on hiatus in 2002.
In 2003, Sevendust returned with their fourth album, Seasons. The album debuted at #14 in the US, selling around 68,000 copies in its first week. This was one of the band's best received albums and to date features their highest charting single (tied with "Driven"), "Enemy," which peaked at #10 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. "Enemy" was made the official theme song for WWE Unforgiven 2003. Other singles released from the album, "Broken Down" and "Face to Face," met with more moderate success charting at 20 and 22, respectively.
In 2004, for the first time in the band's career, they released a live album on a CD/DVD double disk package titled Southside Double-Wide Acoustic Live. Both the CD and the DVD include a cover of "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails which is dedicated to Johnny Cash.
On December 11, 2004, after playing a show in Columbus, Ohio, it was announced that Clint Lowery had left the band mid-tour, because he wanted to play with his brother Corey Lowery in his new band Dark New Day, who had reportedly just signed with Warner Bros. Records. A replacement was found for the rest of the dates and was eventually replaced by Sonny Mayo from Snot and Amen. At roughly the same time, Sevendust and TVT Records parted ways.
On March 26, 2008, Sevendust announced that Clint Lowery, former guitarist and vocalist for the band, had quit his duties as guitarist for Dark New Day and would be returning to the Sevendust lineup in place of Sonny Mayo. On Lowery's return, Morgan Rose stated "This was extremely tough considering Sonny is our brother and has been amazing to work with. [Sonny] didn't do anything wrong at all; we just owe it to ourselves and all the folks that grew up with us to put our original band back together."
Since formation, Sevendust has released thirteen studio albums, earned additional charting success and gold sales certifications. Their eighth studio album, titled Cold Day Memory was released on April 20, 2010. More recent studio albums include: Black Out the Sun, released on March 26, 2013, Time Travelers & Bonfires, released on April 15, 2014, Kill the Flaw, released on October 2, 2015, All I See Is War, released on May 11, 2018 and Blood & Stone, released on October 23, 2020
They also re-released their self-titled debut album as Sevendust: Definitive Edition which contains five new tracks and a DVD.
Letters
Sevendust Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
See my conflicted world
It's watered up and blown away
So for all to know you burn through me
You're surrounded confronted now with this
And see the light of day
I'm not the only one who lost the way
Don't let me hold you back now
We got time to get to burn the page
I write a letter just to say
We're not the only one to threw away
And say goodbye it's all to say
I run my last letter for you today
I saw weakness crawling all over you
Like a plague taking over the world
We stayed alive to fear all the pain
So with all I know you can not say
The dearly departed just burn what's left of me
I write a letter just to say
I'm not the only one who lost the way
Don't let me hold you back now
We got time to get to burn the page
I write a letter just to say
We're not the only one to threw away
And say goodbye it's all to say
I run my last letter for you today
The rest of my life I am
Completely blindsided
And not pulling through
I don't give a damn
The words speak the truth
I left it in my letter to you
I write a letter just to say
I'm not the only one who lost the way
Don't let me hold you back now
We got time to get to burn the page
I write a letter just to say
We're not the only one to threw away
And say goodbye it's all to say
I run my last letter for you today
Today, I run my last letter for you today
The lyrics of Sevendust's song "Letters" explore the emotional turmoil experienced by the writer. The singer is trying to convey the inner conflict that they feel, which is causing them to lose their way. The song talks about the struggle with weakness, fear, pain, and how it crawls all over us, which is why we need to write it all down in letters, to express our feelings to others. Through the lyrics, the singer is asking the listener to understand their pain and to know that they are not the only one who has lost their way. They also want the listener to know that it's not too late, and we still have the time to start fresh and burn the pages of past mistakes.
The use of metaphorical language represents the struggle the singer goes through. The line "If you could see inside of me, see my conflicted world, it's watered up and blown away," metaphorically showcases how the pain and hurt inside the singer are so intense that it feels like it has been blown away. The themes of fear and pain, which are present throughout the song, make the listener aware of the difficult emotions that the singer is experiencing.
The intense guitar riffs, bass synths, and drum beats add to the heavy, emotional vibe of the song. The lyrics showcase the band's evolution towards a more melodic sound, moving away from their earlier punk-metal roots. Overall, the song "Letters" is a heartfelt exploration of inner conflict, pain, and the need to move on from our mistakes.
Line by Line Meaning
If you could see inside of me
If you could truly understand my inner thoughts and feelings
See my conflicted world
See the world I inhabit, which is full of internal conflicts and struggles
It's watered up and blown away
These conflicts are constantly being provoked and repressed, leaving me feeling helpless and overwhelmed
So for all to know you burn through me
You have such a profound impact on me that my feelings for you often feel like they're burning a hole straight through me
You're surrounded confronted now with this
You are now forced to confront these intense emotions, whether you like it or not
And see the light of day
I hope that shining a light on these emotions helps both of us see things more clearly
I write a letter just to say
I am putting all of these feelings down on paper to communicate them more clearly to you
I'm not the only one who lost the way
I am not the only one who is struggling, who has lost their sense of direction or purpose
Don't let me hold you back now
I don't want my own issues and struggles to weigh you down or constrain you in any way
We got time to get to burn the page
We have plenty of time to work through these issues and move forward, to start fresh and turn the page on the past
We're not the only one to threw away
We are not the only ones who have made mistakes or failed in some way
And say goodbye it's all to say
Sometimes, saying goodbye is just another way of saying what needs to be said, of closing a chapter and moving on
I run my last letter for you today
This is the last letter I will write to you, because it's time for both of us to move on and start fresh
I saw weakness crawling all over you
I could see that you were struggling, that you had your own weaknesses and vulnerabilities that were plaguing you
Like a plague taking over the world
Your struggles felt like they were spreading and affecting everything else around you, like a disease that was infecting everything it touched
We stayed alive to fear all the pain
We kept ourselves here, alive, because we were afraid of the pain that would come with letting go
So with all I know you can not say
Even though I know everything I need to say, I still can't find the words to express it all
The dearly departed just burn what's left of me
All that's left of me now is this intense, burning love and passion that I can't seem to shake or extinguish
The rest of my life I am
For the rest of my life, I will be dealing with these emotions and this passion that burns inside me
Completely blindsided
I never expected to feel this intensely or this strongly about anyone, and it blindsided me completely
And not pulling through
Despite all of my best efforts, I can't seem to pull myself out of this intense emotional state
I don't give a damn
I don't care about anything else except for this love that consumes me completely
The words speak the truth
These words that I am writing to you are completely honest and sincere, and they speak the truth about how I am feeling
I left it in my letter to you
Instead of keeping all of these emotions bottled up inside, I am putting them into this letter as a way of expressing them
Today, I run my last letter for you today
Once I send this letter off, that will be the very last time I ever write a letter to you, and it will be the final goodbye we need to move on
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Clint Lowery, John Connolly, La Jon Witherspoon, Morgan Rose, Vincent Hornsby
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind