All I See Is War is the twelfth studio album by Sevendust. It was released on May 11, 2018. Three songs were showcased from the album ahead of its full release; the first single, "Dirty", along with two other promotional songs, "Not Original", and "Medicated". "Unforgiven" and "Risen" followed as further singles.
Writing and recording
The band wrote far more potential songs for the album; while they usually write around 30 songs to select from when compiling a track list of an album, for All I See is War, the band wrote between 50 and 60 songs. Recording for the album began in the second half of 2017. The band chose to work with music producerMichael "Elvis" Baskette on the album, their first time working with an outside producer in a number of albums, where they had opted to self-produce or work band collaborator and sound engineer Mike Ferretti. They chose Baskette in an effort to "reboot" the band's sound, knowing that he was very particular in scrutinizing every little detail of the music he produced. The band liked him for his work producing music for Stone Temple Pilots and Incubus, while Baskette had been a fan of Sevendust since their 1999 albumHome; he hoped to help the band recreate the "impact" of the sound created on Home.
Themes and composition
"Dirty" was described as having a traditional Sevendust sound, featuring "heavy" guitarwork and melodic and emotional vocals by Lajon Witherspoon. Contrary to that, the track "Not Original" was noted as being softer than most of their work, described as a ballad. In addition, the song is inspired by Netflix's Stranger Things. "We wanted to get into some new territory," explains Clint Lowery. "It's about being in a dry spell and not able to find creativity. You don't want to repeat yourself. I thought I'd go for this new wave thing, because I was watching a lot of Stranger Things."
Album title
Lowery explained the meaning behind the album title in an interview with The Daily Times:
Release and promotion
The album was released through Rise Records on May 11, 2018. The band will begin touring in support of the album prior to its release, which will extend until at least June of the same year. The first single from the album, "Dirty", was released ahead of the album on March 16, 2018. A second song, "Not Original", was also released on April 6, 2018. Both songs contained similar music videos, featuring the band playing in dark locations with futuristic electronic effects appearing around them. On May 11, The band later released another music video for the song "Medicated", directed by Caleb Mallery who has previously worked on the first two music videos of this album. Sevendust made the entire album available for streaming on YouTube.
Critical reception
praised the album for being what they described as a "late-era evolution" created in working with Baskette as a producer, describing the album as having a " a mature perspective, tighter delivery, and polished production" in its sound and concluding that it " extends Sevendust's maturation with skill and conviction, at once comforting in its familiarity and fresh enough to hint at more to come." The Washington Post generally agreed with the sentiment, comparing the album to Foo Fighter's late career album Concrete and Gold, describing the album as "polished, heavy and melodic...It’s not a revolution — more like another step in the band’s movement toward a cleaner, polished sound." "Not Original" was noted by multiple reviewers as a standout track.
