Seether: Disclaimer : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Seether hail from sunny, rock-impoverished Johannesburg, South Africa. But everything else about them screams Seattle in the Nineties, from singer Shaun Morgan's Eddie Vedder vocal timbre to his band mates' simmer-to-a-scream dynamics. Morgan stuffs Disclaimer with angst-y images of burning houses, "rats everywhere," expired dreams, "monthly blood" - even bed-wetters. And that's just the first three cuts. "Fine Again" is a jackhammer lullaby that carries the DNA of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and comes with a real downer of a singalong chorus: "I am aware now of how everything is going to be fine one day/Too late, I'm in hell." Not much optimism here, but a little toe-tapping catharsis counts for a lot.

ROBERT CHERRY
(RS 905 - Sept. 19, 2002)