Seether: My, My, where are you getting your anger from?
Written: Sep 12 '05 (Updated Sep 12 '05)
Product Rating:
Pros: Explosive and hard-hitting. This time around, Seether are even more enraged
Cons: Heck, they might as well rename it Disclaimer III.
The Bottom Line: The band make no attempt to shake off their influences or their unquenched fury, meaning they're wearing thin just two albums into their career.
blackstar40's Full Review: Karma & Effect by Seether
Ok, we know the record company forced you into a no profanity policy and that you aren't happy you had to change your latest release's title to be less potentially offensive. But surely that's no reason for Seether to vent such hostility displayed frequently on the follow-up to Disclaimer? Karma & Effect pummels away at everything that's been torn into before in Seether's 3-year history and is twice as volatile - guitars screeching and throaty screams that would almost pull them into nu-metal (except on softer moments like 'Gift' and 'Plastic Man'). Even when Shaun Morgan is singing it's in a gratier tone than previously.
'Because of Me' is the heaviest piece the band have yet attempted, ripping straight into driving guitars and the problems with love Morgan would like us to believe haunt him arise: 'Nobody died for you / Somebody pray for me' he yells. Is Amy Lee really that bad? This leads into the slightly less assaulting but still as aggressive piercing guitar of 'Remedy,' Morgan dressed in the video clip as a Gothic clown. 'You'll be the death of me' he laments in chorus.
Ultimately much of the material is all-too-familiar though to make a lasting impression and a slump begins to show as the band's ferocious edge starts to become too familiar. On 'Truth,' the second single, Morgan's convinced that something's wrong with himself once again and more lyrical resemblance comes on 'Gift.' 'I don't belong here' he states as he did repeatedly on his debut. There's some cardboard rhyming, too, ('Never leave me / And don't deceive me' for example), perhaps generated by the absence of cursing.
What's most interesting on Karma & Effect is to see how Shaun Morgan copes on the softer numbers without Amy Lee to carry him along. He can hold a note quite amiably, proven both in 'Never Leave' and 'Tongue,' most likely the best the album gets - a poewr ballad sung with brutal honesty, pulsing depression in the words not surprising. It goes to show that Seether have always been at their most credible in their most controlled, introspective moments, as opposed to generic anger release the band is prone to lean towards, next track 'I'm The One' a primary culprit, that phrase repeated some 30 times in it's 2:49 running time.
Comparing releases 1 and 2, the difference is very little. The posters Disclaimer used to advertise itself with (slogans including 'I Hate Myself, I Hate You' and 'I have unrealistic dreams') are gone, but the ragged eye on the cover of Karma & Effect is just as disturbing.
But really it shouldn't be expected that Seether would change much, mainly because they'd have to do something completely unexpected to throw off the labels of 'The South African Nirvana' or 'The New Staind' that are thrown at them. So you might as well resign yourself to an expectation that Seether will keep churning out painstaking glumness in the mould of their original. What's more, with a track lacking the calibre of 'Broken,' Seether look set to become South Africa's biggest one-hit wonders.
Track List:
1. Because of Me
2. Remedy
3. Truth
4. Gift
5. Burrito
6. Given
7. Never Leave
8. World Falls Away
9. Tongue
10. I'm The One
11. Simplest Mistake
12. Diseased
13. Plastic Man
14. Hidden Track
Heaviness: Moderate, more than there was before
Swearing: No
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