Projected: Human

Full-on yearning from Sevendust and Alter Bridge members

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Sounding more crestfallen than a teenage girl who’s caught her older sister making out with her boyfriend in their bathroom, Projected

Which is not to say that Human is an exercise in abstract navel gazing accompanied by a forlorn acoustic guitar – this is an album set to stun. Sevendust fans won’t be surprised by the tenor of the songs here: lofty, broad and with an unrelenting impact.

Projected are at their best in songs like Hello and Alive, both destined to be banner-waving favourites, but also architects of their own undoing in a song like The Crown, which sounds like it failed to make the last A Perfect Circle album. There’s little nuance here either– everything’s set to a blistering 11 – but it’s a small gripe for an album that’s more than accomplished at grandstanding.

Philip Wilding

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.