Sunday, August 26, 2012

Song Of The Week: 8/26/12






Song: "Immortality"

Artist: Seether

Album: "One Cold Night"

Year: 2006



"Immortality" was originally written and recorded by Pearl Jam and released on their 1994 album "Vitalogy". To understand the song is to understand a little of where Pearl Jam was at during that time. "Vitalogy" was when Pearl Jam was at the total height of their career. In fact, at the time it was the second fastest selling cd in history, only behind Pearl Jam's second album Vs. This was also the time when Kurt Cobain of Nirvana had taken his own life, collapsing from the pressures of being thrust into the world of rock stardom and being basically labeled as the voice of that generation. While Immortality wasn't directly written about Cobain, Eddie Vedder himself has been quoted as saying it's about the pressures on someone who is on a parallel train. Both Vedder and Cobain were in it for the love of the music and the creativeness of the art. Both felt trapped by the pull of mainstream success and all the burdens that come with it. "Immortality" didn't totally endorse suicide as an escape from these pressures, but at the same time it didn't condemn it either. Seether is a post-grunge/alternative metal band from South Africa that formed as a band back in 1999. They were originally called Saron Gas and released one album entitled "Fragile" under that moniker. In 2002, the band officially changed their name to Seether and released "Disclaimer". One of the songs from "Disclaimer" called "Broken" would be re-worked, adding the vocals of Evanescence's Amy Lee and would prove to be a huge success for the band. The re-worked version of "Broken" would appear on the 2004 released "Diclaimer II", which was basically "Disclaimer" with some added songs. In 2005, Seether released "Karma And Effect" which spawned the singles "Remedy", "Truth" and "The Gift". "Remedy" was Seether's very first #1 song of the U.S. Mainstream Rock charts. In 2006, Seether released their very first live cd/dvd entitled "One Cold Night". This concert was an acoustic set performed by the band on February 22, 2006 at Grape St. in Philadelphia. This is the album that Seether covered Pearl Jam's "Immortality". Fitting that they did in that Seether's style is clearly very much influenced by those originally "grunge" bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. 2007 saw the band release "Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces" which continued their streak of having number one singles. One of those singles, "Rise Above This" was written by Seether frontman Shaun Morgan as a tribute to his brother who had committed suicide. The band's latest release, 2011's "Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray" reached as high as number two on the Billboard 200 charts. Currently, Seether has been touring in support of "Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray". In 2011, they embarked on the Uproar Festival which included bands such as Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace, Bullet For My Valentine and Escape The Fate. From November 2011 to March 2012, Seether supported 3 Doors Down on their European tour. Seether is a band that is quite active and has been largely successful throughout their career.

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