Review Summary: You'll need caffeine to keep you awake.
Only four full-length studio albums into their career, and it feels like Seether have already fallen flat on their faces. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this album was their last. Think of the new album-Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray-as typical Seether, but without the attitude that made songs such as Gasoline such fun for fans of this genre to headbang to, and without the emotion that made ballads like Fine Again so successful. There aren't even any catchy tunes like hit single Fake It on here. I've heard this said about the album before, and I'll say it again because there really is no other way to describe Seether's latest attempt (key word here being attempt) at an album. It's bland. It's bland, it's boring, and it's dull. Innovation and originality aren't exactly key factors of the radio rock genre to which such frowned-upon bands as Nickelback and Seether belong, but this is just ridiculous. Despite the fact that any kind of radio rock will be criticized to a larger extent than most other genres, there are more respected bands from this genre out there, Shinedown and Chevelle being examples, because although they may not always do something different and new, their music is at least interesting and enjoyable. Holding Onto Strings is neither of the latter. Without further ado, let's get started on this disappointing release.
The album's opener was originally No Resolution, however the song Fur Cue was thrown onto the record in front of this track at the last minute. And thank God it was. Fur Cue is not a great song, but I found it listenable at least. It will no doubt please the hardcore Seether fans with it's dark guitars and generally heavy feel. However, cliches flourish here, most notably in the lyrics. The instrumentation is simple and boring, and the song feels quite lacking in attitude. This said, the song is a far better opener than what follows. No Resolution starts off well-the guitar in the introduction shows more talent than in any previous albums, but as Shaun starts singing the instruments fade into the usual boring drone. The chorus feels anticlimatic, the lyrics are nothing special, and although the introduction gave me hope that maybe-just maybe-there would be a nice little guitar solo thrown in, I was disappointed to find nothing of the sort.
And unfortunately, the album doesn't pick up from this point. Here and Now and Master of Disaster both suffer from the same problem that plagues this album, and that is a lack of emotion. And a ballad without emotion is a trainwreck waiting to happen, as both these tracks demonstrate. Pass Slowly is probably the best of the ballads on this album, as it at least has some feeling to it, but it's still not impressive, interesting or catchy. There's no reason to listen past the one minute mark. The more up-tempo songs Down, Fade Out and Tonight are equally uninteresting in all departments-the musicianship, the lyrics and the vocals are lackluster (although the solo in Down is pretty good). Desire for Need is a song all the fans are praising, because it bares some semblance to the album Karma and Effect, which seems to be the most popular of their releases. It does to some extent, but it sounds more like a song they wrote early on for K&E that was quickly discarded because it simply wasn't good enough. And it still isn't.
I thought the acoustic closers to Disclaimer and Karma & Effect (Broken-the version without Amy Lee-and Plastic Man) were some of Seether's better songs, so I had some hope for Forsaken, the last song on an album that feels like it drags on for eternity. These hopes were quickly shattered. Forsaken is, surprise surprise, a song about breakups and relationship troubles. If you're not asleep by this point, you probably will be by the end of this song.
And don't even get me started on the bonus tracks.
Perhaps the only high point on the album is lead single Country Song. The track is your average radio rock, but with a little country thrown into the mix to liven things up. It isn't the first time this combination has been tried, but I think it works quite well here and although the track is nothing more than average it's at least entertaining if this is your kind of music. All things considered, I can give you only one piece of advice regarding this album, and that is not to bother. There just isn't anything interesting here. I feel like I have said this a thousand times, but the album is just bland beyond belief. The lyrics feel recycled-it seems like the lyrical topics have been the same since Disclaimer. The musicianship is simplistic, monotonous and unimpressive. Morgan's vocals lack the power or emotion they used to possess. Ironically, the title of the album seems to describes Seether best;
Holding onto strings better left to fray.
