Sevendust - Denial

     Unplugged week continues apace here at Loud Noises, and tonight we're getting in the wayback machine for a bit of a blast from the past.

     Last year saw nostalgic favourite of mine Sevendust release an acoustic album that's equal parts old and new material, and while Time Travelers and Bonfires may not have made my end of the year Ten Best list, that doesn't mean it's not a great record. Both the new songs and the re-imagined versions of classic Sevendust numbers are well done and worthy of inclusion in an acoustic theme week, but for my money we're going to have to go with one of my old favourites.

     Have a listen to the acoustified take on "Denial", originally from Sevendust's 1999 album Home, and marvel at how this piece of my musical youth can be at once familiar and unfamiliar in nearly equal measure. If you don't want to revisit some more Sevendust by the end of it, then you sir are a terrible, terrible monster. There, I said it.

Sevendust - Trust

     Growing up, one band my friends and I could all agree was awesome was Sevendust. The punkier people, the more metal people, the rockier people, all of us could find common ground in Sevendust. Putting on some of the Dust was seldom a bad call.

     Now we're all older, some of us married, some with kids, but Sevendust remains a unifier, only made more powerful by the passage of time and the added veneer of nostalgia. Now, putting on some Sevendust incites discussions not only of how good they were, but also how good they still are, how well their catalogue (or at least their first couple of albums) have held up.

     I'm sure my group of friends isn't alone in continuing to dig us some Sevendust even after all these years, and I'm also sure that Sevendust's latest release will cause a whole lot more renewed Sevendust love in a whole lot more old Sevendust fans. Time Travelers and Bonfires is the band's first acoustic studio album, and something of a different beast from their previous acoustic live album, 2004's Southside Double-Wide.

     Where Double-Wide was an album of (mostly) old Sevendust songs, recorded on an acoustic tour, Time Travelers is a mixture of new acoustic songs combined with old songs that have been reworked specifically for the acoustic format of the new album. This gives even numbers we've heard acoustically before, like today's classic "Trust", a refreshing feel while still leaving the song something that can sit alongside the original version just fine. Sevendust fans should definitely check out this album if they haven't already.