Release date: October 2007

Label: Wind-up Records

Tracks: 12

Rating: 9

I must admit that when Seether first came onto my radar, I was not inclined to buy the album or even to pay much attention when my friends put it in the stereo. The first impression that this band made on me was that of an average, dime-a-dozen hard rock band that was virtually indistinguishable from Nickelback, Hinder, or myriad other sound-alikes currently enjoying constant radio play.

In truth, I’d still easily relate Seether to Nickelback, in terms of Shaun Morgan’s vocals specifically, but also because of the almost laid-back and smooth approach to hard rock music. But this is not a bad thing.

The first single from this record is ?Fake It,? a track that the band’s front man admits was almost one of the other 48 songs he wrote that just didn’t make the cut. Morgan remarked that the song is a bit lighter and perhaps poppier than the rest of the album, something he doesn’t mind in theory but that he thinks might be misleading to audiences.

I don’t actually agree with him on this point. Although ?Fake It? does have a slightly different musical focus than most of the other tracks on the record, the single isn’t exactly what ?Swing Life Away? was to Siren Song of the Counter Culture (2004 Rise Against album). In fact, the song really just helps to add character that I had not been expecting to the record.

What sets Seether apart from other similar bands is the fact that instead of being a carbon copied hard rock band with that omnipresent generic sound, Seether actually is a hard rock band formed independently of the contemporary record company pull for that specific sound.

?FMLYHM? (an acronym that might amuse you; I won’t give away the surprise, so go download the song and figure it out!) and ?6 Gun Quota? are the two songs on the record that appealed most to me, mostly because they were incredibly intense and essentially raw in terms of lyrical content and musical composition.

I expected bland and uninteresting music from this band simply because I’d heard a Seether song or two in the background once or twice and had lumped it in with other generic hard rock groups. As it turns out, Seether is actually one of the bands that those generic masses have been trying to emulate; Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces is emotional, gripping, and altogether surprising in its technical execution and distinct, commendable hard rock sound. I have been reformed and am happy to say it.