Seether
Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray

One word: boredom.

Endless boredom and banality in this pointless album by Seether, a band that for years has been feeding on the already decomposed corpse of Grunge, continuing to churn out records despite the genre being long dead and buried.

Indeed, it must be said that something good was done in the past by this South African group: just remember their early millennium albums, "Disclaimer I" and "II," or their 2005 work, "Karma And Effect," which featured some real knockout songs. Later on, there was a softening of the sound with the 2007 album, "Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces," which, although it can be listened to easily from start to finish, suffers a bit too much from banality and lack of ideas in some songs. Despite everything, even that was an album with something salvageable...

Now, after a full four years of inactivity (a time gap worthy of Linkin Park), the band, which seems to have found a true passion for lengthy titles, is preparing to come back on stage with this new "Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray." I confess I was curious: they were never my favorite band, but I admit that I liked the two previous albums, and I still enjoy listening to them today, maybe as background music while doing something else; anyway, I consider them a great pastime. This album here is not even worth having as background music while riding a bicycle or running on a treadmill at the gym.

The only comment I feel like making is: what a drag! And to think this new work even got off on the right foot, with the aggressive opener Fur Cue, worthy of appearing on the previous two albums. Unfortunately, though, the roughness of the guitars is immediately toned down in the following No Resolution, a filler song that wouldn't have found space even on an album like "Take A Look In The Mirror" by the Korn. I said to myself: Come on, the album just started, a filler can be tolerated, let's move forward and see what happens! The songs can't all be this boring...

Alas, how wrong I was.

The following Here And Now is so artificial and melodic that it seems made of plastic, I wouldn't be surprised if I heard it in the next Crai commercial. No offense to Crai, of course. Among all, the single Country Song and the peculiar Roses stand out positively, where the piano finally creates some beautiful atmospheres; if Roses had not been surrounded by other such mediocre tracks, it would certainly have made a good impression. For the rest, there's nothing to say: Tonight and Fade Out disappointed me quite a bit, given that, being placed one before and one after the horrendous ballad Pass Slowly (the disc's lowest point and perhaps of Seether's entire discography), in my opinion, they should have displayed a certain aggressive edge. But no. In Tonight, it's like hearing the Negramaro with a singer with a deep voice... pathetic. I found Master Of Disaster rather nice, a song neither praiseworthy nor infamous that can be listened to, and it is one of the few that manages to convey a bit of melancholy, as intended by the band. Finally, I would add!

When I finished listening to Roses, which is one of the few strengths of the record, I had to take a half-hour break to have dinner: who knows, I thought, maybe the break will do me good to digest the rest of the record.

No such luck. Tracks 10, 11, and 12 are so anonymous that one wonders if the band really had the desire to record this album, or if they were forced to do it. Too much filler in the indecisive Down, always teetering, searching for a sound between aggressive and melodic with a frightening result; Desire For Need, which finally returns to the roaring guitars of the opener, arrives anyway too late to say something interesting, and the closing track Forsaken seems like a poor copy of Roses. But with much less pathos, however.

Truly disappointing vocal performance by the singer Shaun Morgan, as expressive as a blank wall. The sound has been softened, emotions were sucked out by the money: this album is a scorching disappointment for those, like me, who expected a worthy comeback of a band that, although it was never at the heights of genius, managed to do something appreciable in the past.

I hate to be so harsh, but even when we isolate the redeemable tracks (Fur Cue, Master Of Disaster, Country Song, Roses) what changes? Nothing. The 1 remains, and it is more than deserved, and many greetings to Mr. Morgan's group. I go back to listening to "Karma And Effect": I prefer to remember Seether for what they were then, not for these pop crap disguised as artistic maturity.