I think the biggest part of it is that I really liked the direction they were taking on Alpha, which had some really killer songs and was a bit of an evolution in their sound. This was no doubt a combination of the fact it was more of a concept album, and that replacement guitarist Sonny Mayo had a hand in the writing. On the other hand, I guess he was involved in the writing of this CD as well, having only been replaced by original guitarist Clint Lowery a few days before the release of Chapter VII. At any rate, it's fair to say that Chapter VII is also an evolution in their sound, although it's kind of like Alpha was one branch off of the trunk of the Sevendust tree, and for Chapter VII they went back up to the trunk and then took a different branch.

The part that stands out the most about this new CD is the addition of atmospherics, primarily in the intros. If you look back at all of Sevendust's prior CDs, there was at most a 20-second intro to the first track before they kicked off with something heavy, generally reserving the softer parts for slower songs and ballads sandwiched in the middle of the CD. Instead, the lead-off track "Inside" starts off with a 1:20 industrial sounds intro. The following track, "Enough," again has an ambient intro for the first 45 seconds. "Hope," with Creed/Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti, starts with a 50 second piano intro. "Fear" fades in with processed drums and guitars finally evening out around 45 seconds in. I could continue to outline the tracks that do this, but you can kind of get the point by now--most of the tracks start of with ambient intros. Maybe these serve to add more dynamics to the CD than they felt they could get just mixing heavy tracks and ballads, but they do start to wear thin. Closing track "Walk Away," clocking in at 6:34, also has a mellow instrumental fade for roughly 1:50. The first time I listened, I wondered if my player had randomly switched to 10 Years.

Atmospherics aside, the rest of the music is a bit of a throwback. Morgan Rose is somewhat more subdued, both in terms of screams and drumming--on many previous Sevendust tracks, I would find myself air-drumming along with some of his more creative beats and fills, but nothing really jumped out at me on this disc. The songs have their good moments, including lead single "Prodigal Son," with its mean groove and catchy pre-chorus/chorus, but overall they sound a bit conservative. It's as if they wanted to experiment with the ambiance, and wanted to try to keep the rest of the songs reigned in so they wouldn't totally lose everyone. The guests on the songs (Mark Tremonti on "Hope," Chris Daughtry on "The Past," and Alter Bridge vocalist Myles Kennedy on "Sorrow") don't really add much, except maybe some more cred with the radio rock crowd.