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.
Xmas Day
Sevendust Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Touch her hand just to see
If she's all alone again
Still she hasn't seen sun
But I promise you now when she wakes
There will be none
Don't know how she gets by
Sleeps with a phone on her chest
Forgets the day I was born
But if she saw me right now
She would hold me until we both die
I could be the one who would die to
feel you breathe
I could break into a million pieces
So just run as fast as you can for me
You mean everything
I can't deny her. I'll do whatever
To stop all the bleeding that makes
her world so red
Such a delicate one
She screams so loud that I run to
hide from the sound
And I could be the one who would die
to feel you breathe
But it's too far-gone
And this love must die
I could break into a million pieces
So just run as fast as you can for me
You mean everything
I could break into a million pieces
So just run as fast as you can for me
You mean everything
I could break into a million pieces
So just run as fast as you can for me
You mean everything
I could break into a million pieces
So just run as fast as you can for me
You mean everything
The lyrics of Sevendust's song "Xmas Day" depict the emotional struggles of someone who is deeply in love with a woman who seems to be going through a difficult time. The opening lines suggest the singer stalking the woman, desperate to get close to her and see if she is alone. Through the course of the song, we learn that the woman is dealing with some kind of emotional pain and that she is perhaps not coping very well. She sleeps with a phone on her chest and drinks to forget her troubles. The singer contrasts this with his own seemingly worthless existence- he feels that if she saw him she would hold him until they both died.
The verses reveal that the woman is screaming in anguish, which sends the singer running away from the sound. As the song builds to a climax, he reveals that his love for her is consuming him, to the extent that he would die just to be near her. Despite this, he realizes that their love is not sustainable, that it is too far gone, and that it must eventually end. The lyrics suggest a profound and somewhat hopeless feeling of attachment and love, along with a sense of desperation and turmoil.
Line by Line Meaning
One step in the dark
Taking a risk in a situation with little to no information
Touch her hand just to see
Making an effort to establish contact with someone else to gauge their current state
If she's all alone again
Checking to see if the other individual is alone without any company
Still she hasn't seen sun
Mood is not bright and availability of hope is minimal
But I promise you now when she wakes
The individual will feel better when they wake up
There will be none
The problems faced will cease to exist and the individual will be content with the state of things
Don't know how she gets by
Not knowing how that person lives or survives
Sleeps with a phone on her chest
Fearing being alone and making themselves available at all times
And a bottle that's totally dry
Trying to suppress feelings or emotions through substance abuse
Forgets the day I was born
Not remembering important dates about the people around us
But if she saw me right now
Wanting to be with someone if given the chance to do so
She would hold me until we both die
A desire to hold each other tightly forever
I could be the one who would die to feel you breathe
The extent to which someone would go to just being close to and being comfortable with the one they love
I could break into a million pieces
Experiencing emotions that might lead to destruction
So just run as fast as you can for me
A plea from the heart to get someone to help or come closer
You mean everything
The other individual holds great importance in the artist's life
I can't deny her. I'll do whatever
The individual acknowledges their responsibility to the other individual, and wants to protect them from anything that might cause them harm
To stop all the bleeding that makes her world so red
Stopping whatever is causing pain or severing their relationship, so that the individual can be okay and content again
Such a delicate one
The one the singer loves is prone to being hurt easily
She screams so loud that I run to hide from the sound
Troubled emotions on the part of the other individual, which causes the artist to feel nervous and avoid confrontation
And this love must die
Referring to the fact that there is potential to hurt each other and that love must end
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: CLINT EDWARD LOWERY, JOHN M. CONNOLLY, JOHN M., JR. CONNOLLY, LA JON JERMAINE WITHERSPOON, MORGAN J. ROSE, VINCENT E. HORNSBY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind