“Nastiest intro ever.” That’s all that needs to be said about Sevendust deep cut “Rumble Fish." And that was all TikTok user Ayden (@notaydengonz) needed to say in order to score an astonishing 1.1 million views of a clip that’s nothing more than that song and him grooving to it. Out of all the tracks Ayden has run this content formula on none have more views than that one. Even a far bigger band like Deftones couldn’t rack up half of “Rumble Fish”’s tally. If this was an isolated incident that would be one thing but Sevendust goes viral all the time. A clip of guitarist John Connolly’s absurd cross stage leap at WXRK’s Dysfunctional Family Picnic during a performance of that same song 26 years ago has pulled down millions of views on Instagram. Sevendust has become something of a viral shortcut for any ‘Finding Perfect Songs/Epic Rock Concerts’ account to run up a cool couple 100k with little more than a YouTube-to-MP4 downloader and a dream, which isn’t to say a certain numetal moment page is above tapping that particular vein more than a couple times. Then there’s @kuso.gov’s slowed down remix of “Denial,” which has soundtracked everything from Resident Evil memes to team usa hockey & figure skating edits. And do not even get me started on the Lajon Witherspoon thirst traps. Six years ago Sevendust had around 830,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Today? 1.3 million.
@notaydengonz #fyp #sevendust #viral ♬ Assdrop - Sevendust
Why Sevendust? Why now? They were always a band tipped to break through but never quite did. Sevendust’s three most successful albums topped out at gold in an era where platinum was considered the minimum threshold for success. They made Top 20 at Alternative Airplay once and never came within 50 miles of the Hot 100. But their record label, TVT, truly believed in the band and pushed them hard. When their 1997 self-titled debut struggled to find a foothold at radio, TVT commissioned an infomercial disguised as a concert special and paid-to-play it on network TV. Their explosive live energy got them consistent talk show bookings including two on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. And it’s arguable that their set at Woodstock 99 is the highlight of that entire ill-fated fest, as the band radiates an infectious energy and passion. In an early display of the aforementioned “Rumble Fish”’s power, Sevendust converts the crowd from water bottle throwing brutes at the outset to a singular mass of ecstatically bouncing bodies by the breakdown. “Thank you Woodstock!” Lajon cries, floored with a gratitude that no other artist that weekend even attempted.
Despite this limited mainstream success Sevendust became one of the most influential modern hard rock bands around anyway. Certainly Nickelback, Breaking Benjamin and Creed owe their heavier cuts to Sevendust’s palm muted drop tuned chug. Meanwhile, record execs were convinced that even if Sevendust couldn’t break through then maybe a band that sounds exactly like them could. Orlando, Florida’s Skrape replicated the formula down to a drummer donning a headset mic so he could make the occasional barked interjection same as Sevendust’s Morgan Rose. Their lone innovation came in the form of a keyboardist adding Cars-esque new wave synths over the top. The Sevendust sound is so sturdy that one wrinkle was all they needed to make their 2001 MCA debut album, New Killer America, something of a lost gem, packed with adrenalizing black and white guitars and those aforementioned synths coloring in between the lines around them. Stereomud’s Perfect Self, released on Columbia Records imprint Loud, is a gallingly blatant Sevendust rip off from start to finish, to the extent that their bassist Corey Lowery is the brother of Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery, yet it kicks buckets of ass anyway; that 7D signature style gussied up with catchier tunes and sterling silver production. It also magnifies what it is about Sevendust that held them off from true breakthrough success which is, simply, they didn’t write pop songs. That’s not to say they don’t have huge choruses or strong melodies, it’s that they don’t really have hooks. Stereomud’s “Pain,” on the other hand, is replete with them and, as such, made it all the way to number eight at Modern Rock in the competitive radio landscape of 2001, a position Sevendust wouldn’t surpass until the far lower tides of 2010. The only Sevendust song to receive a real crossover push, the acoustic ballad “Angel’s Son,” originally recorded for 2000’s Lynn Strait of Snot tribute album Strait Up but reissued in 2002 on sophomore record Animosity, failed to make waves on either release. Compared to something like Staind’s own acoustic power ballad “It’s Been Awhile,” which repeats the titular phrase 14 times in four and a half minutes, it’s not hard to understand why that went went top 10 at pop airplay while “Angel’s Son” stalled out at 15 on rock radio.
This legacy, of always being so close yet so far, only contributes to Sevendust’s resurgent popularity. There is a need to correct the record, to finally give this band their flowers while they’re here to receive them. I’ve met plenty of young people that have real affection for Staind’s Dysfunction or Break the Cycle but none of those feelings extend to the band themselves. Sevendust fans, on the other hand, adore the group and their strikingly consistent discography. As Tudor (15) relayed to me via Instagram: “I love their first six albums, their music means a lot to me. I find them to be more unique and creative than other bands and very consistent.” For their entire run Sevendust has never gone three years without a studio release, a pedigree set to be extended when their new album, One, drops on May 1st.
I reached out to Ayden (20) on TikTok to get the context behind his viral Sevendust moment. “I discovered Sevendust on a road trip with my aunt,” he said, “One summer we were pulling up to a gas station when ‘Rumble Fish’ came on her playlist and I immediately added it to my liked songs.” He goes on to remark “it was really cool seeing it blow up because that song specifically is personal to me and my love for the band as a whole. The first 17 seconds are insane. The drive of the guitar riff and the groove of the drums had me hooked instantly.”
Indeed, Sevendust were never shy about their driving guitar riffs or groovy drums. Nearly every song they’ve got goes barreling into a cinched tight, palm muted percussive guitar chug boosted by Morgan Rose’s snap-crackle-pop percussion and heavy right foot with either a brief intro or none at all to blunt the impact. In our short form video world where you’re expected to get to the point in 15 seconds or less, Sevendust delivers. It doesn’t hurt that Lajon Witherspoon can truly sing either. With a voice like the artist formerly known as Terence Trent D’Arby auditioning for Living Color; there is simply no era, no genre, in which this man would not thrive. His voice is the only representative of the African American soul tradition that gave us artists like Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye, that is no less able to achieve the ragged blues wail of Howlin' Wolf if the situation calls, to achieve prominence in that first wave of nu metal, a representation our genre sorely needs more of. His voice continues to be one of our most spectacular instruments, capable of chesty baritone crooning and column toppling roar in equal measure, that inspires plenty of aspiring vocalists to attempt their own covers, furthering the band’s information age spread.
Viral success is cheap but Sevendust’s work ethic is anything but. You might never find a band that hit the road harder than they did both in and out of their prime. Any day ending in “y” (including literally today) is a day you can bet they're pulling up to some midwest bar ‘n’ grill and rocking that fucker like it’s Yankee Stadium. They hit the road so hard that fans couldn’t understand why they’re already back in their city when they were just there a month ago. That dedication means both a quiet legion of diehard fans across the country and a massive archive of live footage on YouTube ready to be exhumed for modern short form video platforms. And then there are the hops. Even amongst an extremely bouncy genre like nu metal, Sevendust were getting some serious air time during their shows. During the 2000 tour for Home, they went so far as to install aerobics trampolines behind the stage monitors so they could get even higher. That kind of on-stage stunt work drafts easy captions for Instagram aggregators looking for a flashy live moment to captivate an audience. Sevendust’s live show remains a formidable draw while their road warrior status means you’re never left waiting on an opportunity to see them for long. As Kaitai (20) put it, “I like getting my ass beat in the pit and that happened when I saw them,” adding, “LOL.”
Even beyond their live show gymnastics, wealth of music and perennial underdog status, Sevendust benefit enormously by just being good people, deeply humble when they’ve long since earned some rockstar arrogance. Despite making such brutal, knuckle-down music there’s not much that’s particularly macho about Sevendust themselves. On the contrary, they’ve never been anything less than (literal) human rainbows, grateful for each and every fan they’ve got and the privilege to make a living performing for them. When MetalSucks invited Lajon to watch YouTube covers of Sevendust songs he could not keep the smile off his face as he shared kind words and affirmations to each and every singer. Meanwhile, the comment section is packed with recountings of what a genuinely amazing person Lajon is and how kind his band has been to their fans. We interviewed Lajon for our podcast back in June of 2023 and he acted like we were doing him a favor, thanking us profusely for the opportunity as if they were a new band getting their first shot at success. When I expressed my disappointment their set at that year’s Sick New World had been cut short by technical issues he promised me that the next time they were in Los Angeles I’d be a VIP guest of the band, a promise he fulfilled just a few months later. As such Sevendust has become a group that may not be household names but every household that knows the name sings their praises to the heavens. When Chad Kroeger of Nickelback was asked what band he never wanted to follow he had to give it up to the mighty Dust, claiming “they will kick your ass and wipe you all over that stage” (Lajon, naturally, was overwhelmed with gratitude). Even the confederate flag guitar that bassist Vince Hornsby used to play in the 90’s has been addressed with uncommon grace and consideration. Speaking to Joshua Toomey in 2023, guitarist Clint Lowery declared “You live and learn. You admit when you do wrong and you change and that's what everyone needs to do.” There are no skeletons in Sevendust’s closet the way there are with Sully Erna or Aaron Lewis, they’ve been a force for good both in their era and ours when they could have easily made a cynical pivot to culture war grievance as a bid to stay relevant.
All of this means Sevendust, a band that’s been around in some form or another since 1994, are building a new fanbase amongst kids that weren’t even alive for their tenth year in business. “I heard about them through Spotify radio and instantly fell in love with their sound. To me, their music is a way for me to find comfort, which sounds like it should do the opposite but I love loud stuff!” says Jacob (18) “I'm especially a big fan of ‘Licking Crème’ because of the female singer [Skin of Skunk Anansie] just belting her heart out, it itches something in my soul and I don't think I'll ever get enough of it.” Molly (20) says; “I discovered their collaboration with Chino [Moreno], “Bender” and instantly fell in love with Lajon’s voice and their sound. My fav song is “Trust,” their music is super energetic and I have a blast blasting them in the car on summer nights, it’s my kinda music for sure.” Landon Renwick (20), whose father Kevin Renwick actually toured with Sevendust as a member of Burn Season, both admires the band as a fan and musician by making music that carries plenty of Sevendust influence, attracting a growing audience of those looking for more of that 7D sound. “The instrumentals are a top, and it's its own thing,” Renwick says, “They got great grooves, and Lajon's vocals are perfect for that instrumental vibe.”
What makes nu metal’s current resurgence in popularity so thrilling isn’t that kids are getting into the headline acts, they’re getting into the second stage bands too (and some are going even deeper than that). Primer 55, a casualty of the nu metal gold rush that got signed and dropped without much notice 25 years ago, reunited with new vocalist Donny ‘The DRP’ Polinske taking the place of the late J-Sin and are performing for some pretty energetic crowds right now. Snot, a band whose sole album gained little notice outside of nu metal circles in its time and tragically ended when Lynn Strait died in a car accident less than a year after it was released, recently recruited a new vocalist, Andy Knapp, as well and have been packing shows ever since. A few years ago, Skindred’s 2004 reggae/metal/punk/hip-hop stomper “Nobody” resurfaced as a viral TikTok dance challenge, compelling that band, who have been hitting the road in Europe as hard as Sevendust do here, to play their first American shows in six years. It’s this energy that will allow our nu metal moment to transcend a nostalgia trip and become something significant. For the most part, emo revival simply saluted the most commercially successful members of the scene and little else. I’ve been to a few Emo Nights, you’ll hear “Sugar We’re Going Down” three times in two hours but won’t hear “In Circles” once. That’s not to suggest your average ‘Nu Metal Night’ is going to be spinning Dry Kill Logic deep cuts anytime soon but I did just throw a literal 'nu metal deep cuts' party and was shocked at how many people showed up. There is a desire out there to move beyond Linkin Park and Korn in favor of Nothingface and Reveille. Nu metal’s long standing reputation as a gigantic mistake, a pop culture nightmare better off left in the past, has made it something to fight for. Having hidden gems as powerful as Sevendust lying around makes that cause all the easier to take up.
Holiday Kirk is a writer based in Los Angeles, California.
