Seasons After, helmed by Tony Housh, Jimmie Beattie and Chris Dawson are best known for their hard rock rendition of “Cry Little Sister”. I had a chance to see these amazing group of guys in 2008/2009 when they were just a “baby national” band. Believe me, it is incredible to see what this very talented group of guys have developed into. The group recently released their latest album Manifesto to the world. The word incredible definitely doesn’t do the album justice.
Typically, you have a group who releases an album through a label, has amazing producers and mixers as well as the occasional songwriter for songs involved, definitely not the case for Seasons After. These guys not only wrote the lyrics and the music for this particular album, but, produced it completely in-house. I have the utmost respect for these guys because they are 100% independent but really deserve more attention than they receive.
You could classify them as hard rock or even a softer version of metal but Seasons After really have a unique sound that crosses over between metal, to melodic rock, and even hard rock. They definitely fit the bill of each of those with the dynamic sound that Manifesto brings to the table. The album starts off with “From the Edge”, which starts off with a brief mellow intro, and I mean brief, then Jimmie tears it up with an incredible guitar solo and then Tony’s vocals belting out probably the most powerful screams I have heard from the group. Number two on the album is my personal favorite “Fighter”, I have to be honest, I have been caught a few times singing along to this while driving around.
“Manifesto” the title track is definitely my number two go to song on the album. The rhythm guitars provided by Chris are just so intense and catchy on this track that it is definitely a head-banger for sure. “Hate Me” is the definition of being sick of a situation and just confronting it with truthful feelings. Rounding out the beginning of the album is “Into the Ether”, you can technically call this a “take a break” song but it is definitely worth a listen. The track really puts the production skills of Tony and Jimmie on display.
I could go on and on about how amazing this album is but then you would be reading an entire novel. The production of this album is truly amazing. My other two favorite tracks on the album (if you haven’t noticed I love all of them) would have to be “What You Do” and “Things Are Tough” these lyrics really resonate with having gone through really tough times and making it through. If you get a chance to see these guys live, buy a CD, a shirt or both! Remember they are completely independent!
You can catch Seasons After on tour through the early part of January in support of “Manifesto”. You can pick up a copy either on Google Play, iTunes or directly from the group at www.seasonsafter.com.
