Early years and Sevendust (1994–1998) In 1994, bassist Vinnie Hornsby joined drummer Morgan Rose in a band called
Snake Nation. Drummer John Connolly then joined the group as guitarist. They recorded one early demo, but were displeased with the lead vocals and thus they hired Lajon Witherspoon following a yearlong search. Around the same time, guitarist Lee Banks joined to complete the lineup, and the band renamed themselves
Rumblefish. Rumblefish renamed themselves again after discovering another band with the same name. They chose
Crawlspace, but shortly after, Banks became dissatisfied with the touring schedule. The band replaced him with Clint Lowery. Their first commercialized appearance was the song "My Ruin" on the 1996 compilation album
Mortal Kombat: More Kombat through
TVT Records. The band changed their name for the third and final time after another group named
Crawlspace sent notice they wanted $2,500 in exchange for the naming rights. The band renamed themselves
Sevendust, inspired by commercial
insecticide brand "
Sevin Dust". The singles "Black" and "Bitch" both peaked at No. 30 on the
Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. "Black" notably became the opening song for nearly every Sevendust concert until 2004.
Sevendust appeared on the
Billboard 200, remained there for sixteen weeks, and peaked at No. 165 on April 4, 1998. The album went
gold on May 19, 1999. In 1998, Sevendust performed at
Dynamo Open Air (May 29–31) and
Ozzfest 1998 (July through August). In the same year, they released the compilation
Live and Loud, which featured live footage of the band's performance of September 16, 1998, at
Metro Chicago.
Home and Animosity (1999–2002) In July 1999, Sevendust played on the last day at the infamous
Woodstock '99 concert in
Rome, New York. Rose recalled that they were escorted by numerous security guards to the stage for their set as attendees grew violent. On August 24, 1999, Sevendust released their second album
Home, which peaked at No. 19 on the
Billboard 200. Two singles were released from the album, "
Denial" and "
Waffle", the latter of which was played on ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien. That year, the band gained European exposure by opening various shows in Germany for Skunk Anansie, whose vocalist Skin provided guest vocals on the track "Licking Cream" off Home''. Sevendust also opened for
Metallica, with
Kid Rock and
Ted Nugent, on New Year's Eve in 1999 at the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, Michigan. In 2000, the band joined
Slipknot,
Slayer,
Sepultura,
Coal Chamber, and others on the
Tattoo the Earth tour. In November 2001, Sevendust released their third album
Animosity, which went gold due to the success of the singles "
Praise" and "
Angel's Son", which peaked at No. 15 and No. 11 respectively on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. "Angel's Son" was a tribute to
Lynn Strait, lead singer of
Snot, whom the members of Sevendust were friends with. Strait died in a car accident in 1998. In addition to being re-recorded for
Animosity, the song originally appeared on the compilation album
Strait Up. The band made an appearance on
Late Show with David Letterman playing an acoustic version of "Angel's Son" featuring
Paul Shaffer on keyboards. Tragedy struck again when Witherspoon's younger brother was shot and killed later that year. Due to his death, Sevendust went on hiatus in 2002.
Seasons, Lowery's departure, and Next (2003–2005) In 2003, Sevendust returned with their fourth album
Seasons. Featuring their highest-charting single at that point, "
Enemy", which peaked at No. 10 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, the album debuted at No. 14 in the US, selling around 68,000 copies in its first week. "Enemy" was also the official theme song for
WWE Unforgiven 2003. In 2004, for the first time in the band's career, they released a live album on a CD/DVD double disk package titled
Southside Double-Wide: Acoustic Live. This concert showcased a mellower side to the band with their acoustic performance. On December 11, 2004, after a show in Columbus, Ohio, it was announced Lowery had left the band mid-tour, because he wanted to play with his brother Corey in his new band
Dark New Day, who had reportedly just signed with
Warner Bros. Records. A temporary guitarist was found for the rest of the dates, and Lowery was ultimately replaced with
Sonny Mayo of Snot and
Amen. The first radio single off
Next was "
Ugly", released to radio August 9, 2005, followed by the music video. "Pieces" appeared on the soundtrack for the film
Saw II.
Next debuted at No. 20 in the US, selling around 37,000 copies in its first week. After the release of
Next, Sevendust's former label TVT Records released a greatest hits package for Sevendust, titled
Best of (Chapter One 1997–2004), the label's final Sevendust release. A few months after the October 2005 release date of
Next, the band was at odds with WineDark. "I had people come up to me and say, 'When is the record coming out?'. And it had already been out for five months", Rose stated. "Basically, the main person that was in charge of the whole thing fell off the face of the earth. There were no more cheques coming in, and the money had not been paid in full."
Retrospective 2, a CD/DVD including two previously unreleased studio tracks, live concert footage never before seen, and the music videos for the songs "
Beg to Differ", "Ugly", "Pieces", and "Driven", was released on December 11, 2007. Sevendust rejoined Grove and returned to the studio at the end of November 2007 to finish their seventh studio album
Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow. Released on April 1, 2008, the album debuted at No. 19 on the
Billboard 200. Its first single "Prodigal Son" peaked at No. 19 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The single was followed by "
The Past", which peaked at No. 27 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and also featured
Chris Daughtry as a special guest. Around the same time as the album's release, Sevendust announced Lowery had quit Dark New Day and would return to Sevendust in place of Mayo. On Lowery's return, Rose stated "This was extremely tough considering Sonny is our brother and has been amazing to work with. [Sonny] didn't do anything wrong at all; we just owe it to ourselves and all the folks that grew up with us to put our original band back together."
Cold Day Memory (2009–2011) Sevendust toured with
Black Stone Cherry in December 2008, with
Disturbed in January 2009, and performed multiple shows for US troops in
Iraq and
Afghanistan in the spring. They released a limited-edition box set in November 2008 entitled
Packaged Goods. Each five-disc set was autographed by the band. The box set included
Next,
Alpha,
Retrospective 2 (CD/DVD), and
Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow. In October 2009, Sevendust began recording
Cold Day Memory in Chicago with producer
Johnny K. The band launched a specialized website promoting the new album. During recording, the band posted daily videos on their official site and also their YouTube channel with updates on the album, recording sessions in the studio, and recording sessions from their new house. On February 6, 2010, the band uploaded "Forever Dead" on their website.
Cold Day Memory was ultimately released on April 20, 2010. It was Sevendust's first studio recording with the original lineup since 2003's
Seasons. The first official single "
Unraveling" hit No. 29 on the Rock Songs chart and No. 7 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The album went to No. 12 on the
Billboard 200. The album included two more singles, "
Forever" and "
Last Breath", both of which also charted. Sevendust toured with
Chevelle,
Shinedown,
Puddle of Mudd, and
10 Years on the
Carnival of Madness tour during the summer of 2010. The band re-released their self-titled debut album called
Sevendust: Definitive Edition later that year. It was the first time a Sevendust album was given a reissued "deluxe" treatment. In November, it was announced Sevendust would play with Disturbed,
Korn, and
In This Moment on the
Music as a Weapon 5 tour. In February and March 2011, Sevendust toured in Australia with
Iron Maiden, Slayer,
Ill Niño, and
Stone Sour for the
Soundwave Festival.
Black Out the Sun and Time Travelers & Bonfires (2012–2014) On June 27, 2012, Sevendust announced they would enter the studio for their next album on September 5, 2012. They entered Architekt Music Studio in Butler, New Jersey with engineer Mike Ferretti. In an October 2012 interview, Lowery described the album as "...a basic Sevendust record", stating "There's nothing, like, too completely different than anything we've done before. It's got a darker vibe to it. We've got a good amount of the programming element in there. It's a lot of what we do. It's heavy and it's got its melodic element in it". Additionally, he discussed the possibility of touring in early 2013 with
Lacuna Coil. Sevendust announced they would release the album
Black Out the Sun on their 7Bros Records label (through Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group) on March 26, 2013. The album's debut single, "
Decay", was released to radio and retail outlets on January 22, 2013. It peaked at No. 10 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Black Out the Sun landed at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in the first week of its release. It became the band's best-selling album in its first week of release since 2007's
Alpha. Sevendust recorded an acoustic album in early 2014 and supported it with an acoustic tour. The album,
Time Travelers & Bonfires, was released on April 15 via 7Bros Records, in conjunction with ADA Label Services. Half of the album contained new original compositions and the other half contained re-recorded songs from prior albums. The album's first single was the acoustic version of "
Black", added on radio stations on March 25, 2014. The album sold around 15,000 copies in the US during its first week of release to debut at No. 19 on the
Billboard 200.
Kill the Flaw and Grammy nomination (2015–2016) It was reported the band finished recording their then-new album by late March 2015. The record,
Kill the Flaw, was self-produced and recorded at Architekt Music Studio in Butler, New Jersey. It was released on October 2, 2015, via 7Bros Records with ADA/Warner Brothers distribution. The album debuted at No. 13 on the
Billboard 200, selling over 21,000 units in the first week of release. On July 24, the band released the single "
Thank You" to various rock radio stations around the US. Sevendust was announced as direct support on the then-upcoming
Godsmack tour, which began on September 23, 2015. Sevendust traveled to Australia and New Zealand in March 2016. The tour was the band's first trip there in six years after their slated 2014 Soundwave Festival appearance was cancelled. The band previously suffered backlash from Australian fans who blamed the band for the last minute cancellation. "Thank You" was nominated for
Best Metal Performance at the
2016 Grammy Awards, the band's first ever Grammy nomination. The band
Ghost ultimately won the award. On January 27, 2016, the band announced a US headlining tour with
Trivium and
Like a Storm as direct support. Sevendust embarked on another headlining tour of North America including Canadian dates in August. Sevendust then released the
Live in Denver acoustic DVD on December 14, 2016.
All I See Is War and Blood & Stone (2017–2022) On March 1, 2017, Sevendust announced they were writing and demoing a new album. On July 6, 2017, Connolly posted a live video on Sevendust's Facebook page stating the band would go into the studio in November 2017 with producer
Michael Baskette, with a tentative release in the spring of 2018. Additionally, he announced the band signed a deal with
Rise Records. Sevendust's 12th album,
All I See Is War, was announced on February 28, 2018. The album's first single, "Dirty", was released on March 16, with a music video. "Dirty" eventually peaked at No. 17 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The album was released on May 11, 2018, via Rise Records. On April 20, the band began a headlining tour with support from
Memphis May Fire,
Fire from the Gods, and
Madame Mayhem. In early 2019, Sevendust toured the US with
Tremonti and
Cane Hill. In April 2019, the band played an Australian leg to support
All I See Is War. The band's 13th album,
Blood & Stone, was released on October 23, 2020, again through Rise Records. It was preceded by the single "
The Day I Tried to Live", a
Soundgarden cover, released on June 26, 2020. "Blood from a Stone" was the second single, released on August 28, followed by "Dying to Live" on October 20. On October 23, 2020, the band played its first livestream concert, "Sevendust: Live in Your Living Room". In March 2021, Sevendust played the
Animosity 21st Anniversary Tour with support from
Tetrarch and Dead Poet Society. Sevendust played two special back-to-back livestream events where they performed the albums
Seasons and
Home in their entirety on April 10 and 11, respectively. In June and July 2021, the band played a socially-distanced US tour. A deluxe edition of
Blood & Stone was released on December 10, 2021, via Rise Records, which included a few unreleased tracks from the album's sessions.
Truth Killer and One (2023–present) On April 12, 2023, the band announced their 14th studio album
Truth Killer, revealing its cover and track listing, followed by the first single, "Fence", with a music video. On May 11, Sevendust released the second single "Everything". "Everything" notably peaked at No. 6 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart (Sevendust's highest position on the chart up until then).
Truth Killer was released on July 28, 2023, via
Napalm Records. In August 2023, the band supported
Alter Bridge on the summer leg of the Pawns & Kings tour with
Mammoth WVH and MJT. Sevendust completed a US co-headlining tour with
Static-X and
Dope in the fall of 2023, titled the Machine Killer tour. Sevendust supported Alter Bridge on a tour of Europe in January 2026. On January 21, 2026, the band announced their fifteenth studio album
One. It was preceded by four singles: "Is This the Real You", "Unbreakable", "Threshold", and "Construct". "Unbreakable", in particular, peaked at No. 21 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, which continued Sevendust's streak of appearances on the aforementioned chart (dating back to their self-titled debut album). ==Musical style and influences==