Seether - Poison The Parish (Review)
By - #d
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Album: Poison The Parish
Artist: Seether
Genre: Post-Grunge/Alternative Metal
Label: Canine Riot, Concord Music
Release Date: May 12, 2017
About time Seether made a new album. It’s been a whole three years since Isolate and Meditate, and Seether are one of my favorite bands. Isolate was alright, but it’s on the end of the list of Seether albums that I listen to in frequency. Poison The Parish kicks it in the ass. It is fresh and produced by singer Shaun Morgan himself. I don’t think Wind Up Records (their previous label) wanted Seether to ever stray from the radio rock formula. Well they did more than just stray on this album.
The first song Stoke The Fire, opens with an eerie sound, then transcends into a metal riff. Uhmm sorry, since when are Seether metal? In addition to the metal riffs, there are some awesome screams that reminded me of “Needles” from their debut album Disclaimer. The message of the song is wanting to be famous and how that will be accomplished. The next track, Betray And Degrade, makes a very welcome appearance by Dale Stewart (bass player). I appreciated the loud bass solo, as I don’t believe bass always needs to be quiet. I love the song “Breed” by Nirvana for that reason. This song is about a relationship that needs a new direction, and from the perspective of Shaun Morgan, he’ll accept the degrading he receives from his girlfriend as a sign of emptiness within her. Unrelated, I particularly loved the sarcastic tone of the lyric “And yeah I'm guessing, that I should be kind of happy. It's a fault of mine”. Ouch.
Skipping ahead a couple of tracks is, I’ll Survive, which seems to have a very familiar riff. The opening riff to the chorus instantly reminded me of “Nobody Praying For Me” off Isolate and Meditate. I’m not a fan of recycling one’s own work, but I can’t read music so I’m not the best source. I will however say by this point, it’s very obvious this album is talking about the same relationship in each song. Let You Down is the first single off the album, and I agree it was a good choice. Different sounding enough, but undeniably Seether. There’s some metal-ish guitars, but the chorus is pretty classic radio rock sounding. Whatever relationship Shaun was/is in may be kinda shitty, he apparently see’s good in the girl as he says “So say something beautiful. Say what you're keeping inside”. Well that’s good, I thought you were just staying in this relationship so you could write an album.
Next up is, Against The Wall, which opens with a prominent, but minute guitar solo with juxtaposing screaming vocals from Shaun. I believe this shows confidence in a singer and their abilities when this technique is applied. They’re willing to stand out. It reminded me of Can You Feel My Heart by Bring Me The Horizon. However, a bit of a different subject matter then the former, this song is about being at the end of all possibilities in a relationship. Getting away from the failing relationship is the song, Saviours, which preaches about religious fanatics. Shaun states that people who claim to be saviors just “worship themselves” and are “all just bigots and liars”. I was kinda surprised to see a semi-political track by this band. They usually keep it pretty relationship oriented. I applaud them for branching out on this nice little upbeat track.
I love the next track, Nothing Left. I particularly love John Humphrey’s (drummer) use of the cymbals in the verses. It reminded me of the iconic intro to “Blind” by Korn. I also love the screams by Shaun in the chorus. Since Seether have already demonstrated they can be political, I suspected this song was political as well. Lines such as “It seems you're trying to capture what's not really there. And so, remember the ones that you used up for gain” reminded me of Donald Trump. I believe the message of the song is Donald Trump tried to fulfill a political ideology that is not actually wanted, and he used people too dumb to realize what they are actually voting for. #Liberal. Towards the end of the album is Emotionless. This song proves grunge is NOT dead. The muffled vocals, in combination with the guitar and bass being at the same level (while at the same time making the guitar still very noticeable) reminds me very much of Alice In Chains. I wouldn’t call it a rip off, as this song does have it’s own soul. Shaun also grew a pair in this song, as he said, “you won’t amount to more than this” and “I know somehow you will never be found”. Bout time he stuck it to the bitch.
Overall I would give the album a 3 out 5 stars. The instrumentation is some of Seether’s best, however, the lyrical themes make it obvious this album is completely about one person. Kinda seemed like the same message of “You’re a piece of shit, and I love you, but I want out of this relationship”, was repeatedly used in the songs. Spice it up a little bit, reflect on more than just this one slice of time in the relationship. However, keep up with the alternative metal sound, I dig it.













