The Atlanta-based quintet
Sevendust became one of the rising acts in late-'90s heavy metal with an aggressive blend of bottom-heavy riffs and soulful, accessible melodies. The band, comprised of frontman
Lajon Witherspoon,
John Connolly (guitar),
Clint Lowery (guitar),
Vince Hornsby (bass), and
Morgan Rose (drums), first appeared in 1995 as
Crawlspace, releasing the single "My Ruin" on the
Mortal Kombat: More Kombat recording. Shortly thereafter, the group changed its name to
Sevendust and released a self-titled debut in 1997. Two years later, the bandmates issued the gold-selling
Home and played over 800 shows alongside such groups as
Creed, along with a stop at Woodstock '99. Their angst-ridden third album, the aptly titled
Animosity, appeared in fall 2001, and
Seasons followed in 2003.
In late December 2004, word surfaced that
Lowery had left the band, and those rumors proved true the following February when
Sevendust announced ex-
Snot guitarist
Sonny Mayo as
Lowery's replacement. (
Lowery, a co-founder of
Sevendust, eventually surfaced in the hard rock supergroup
Dark New Day.)
Next,
Sevendust's fifth album and their first self-produced effort, appeared in October 2005. The record failed to sell as much as its predecessors, but
Sevendust nevertheless signed to Asylum Records and issued
Alpha in March 2007.
Alpha fared better than
Next, climbing to number 14 on the Billboard charts and paving the way for the band's seventh effort.
Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow arrived in April 2008, featuring an appearance by former American Idol star
Chris Daughtry, followed by
Cold Day Memory in 2010. Their ninth album, Black Out the Sun, arrived in 2013.
–
Kirk Dombek, Rovi