Seether: Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Worst-lyric-of-the-year alert: "Your verbal defecation I can't wash away despite myself." So Seether frontman Shaun Morgan informs us in his Nickelback-ian growl during "No Jesus Christ," a seven-minute-long compilation of post-grunge cliches. The lip-ringed Morgan -- best known as the subject of Evanescence's "Call Me When You're Sober," as penned by former girlfriend Amy Lee -- and his band do know how to write some catchy heavy-guitar riffs. What's more, the rhythm section, while overactive, is way tighter than your average indie wusses (check out the surprising swing of the single "Fake It"). But on this South African band's third album, the guitar tones are a teeth-grinding, digitized-sounding nightmare, and a series of I'm-singing-through-a-cell-phone vocal filters can't disguise how played out Morgan's style is. The dreadful active-rock radio format that this album targets could use a great band, or at least a mildly original one. Seether, alas, is neither.