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Seether are a South African Rock music band founded in 1999 in Pretoria, Gauteng. The band originally performed under the name Saron Gas until 2002, when they moved to the United States and changed it to Seether to avoid confusion with the deadly chemical known as sarin. Lead vocalist and guitarist Shaun Morgan is the band's longest serving member, bassist Dale Stewart joined shortly after formation while drummer John Humphrey joined them for the band's second album. Since 2018, the band has been employing second guitarist Corey Lowery. Several notable guitarists like Corey's brother Clint Lowery and Troy McLawhorn have toured or recorded with the band, however, Morgan has recorded most guitar parts for the band's records.
Seether gained mainstream popularity in 2002 with their US Active Rock number one single "Fine Again". Their success was sustained in 2004 with the single "Broken", which peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. They have experienced continued success with many number one hits on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, such as "Remedy", "Fake It", "Country Song", "Tonight", "Words as Weapons", "Let You Down", "Dangerous", "Bruised and Bloodied", and "Wasteland". The band has released nine studio albums; their most recent, The Surface Seems So Far, was released in 2024.
Following the release of Disclaimer, the band toured continually in order to increase sales and gain name recognition. A planned second album was delayed for nearly a year when Seether was selected as the support act for an Evanescence worldwide tour. Seether reworked their acoustic music ballad "Broken" into an electric ballad with guest vocals by Amy Lee of Evanescence. Favourable audience response led the band to record the revised version, with Lee on vocals. The track, along with a new song entitled "Sold Me", was featured on the soundtrack for the 2004 film The Punisher, and became a major success for the band, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. A romance developed between Lee and Morgan during this time.
Morgan has stated that the reworking of "Broken" was due to the wishes of the record company rather than those of the band. An alternate version of the original album, with many of its songs or re-recorded, was released in June 2004 and entitled Disclaimer II. The alternate version also featured eight extra tracks.
Seether released an acoustic CD/DVD set titled One Cold Night, recorded at the Grape Street Club in Philadelphia, on 22 February 2006. Morgan had been suffering from a stomach ailment, and decided to do an acoustic performance of their set rather than cancel the show. The exclusion of "Needles" and "Burrito" from the album is due to the label's desire that it contain no obscenities.
Guitarist Patrick Callahan's departure from the band was announced on 15 June 2006. His last performance with them was on 3 June. Pat was later interviewed on a radio show in Philadelphia where he said his departure was not anything musical, but he and the singer Shaun had a "personality" clash and were not seeing eye to eye, and just couldn't work things out, but was still very friendly with the other two members. Pat also did not like certain band decisions. One example was the band being on the Punisher and Daredevil soundtrack in which he did not like the lineup of bands they were associated with. Shaun Morgan himself later commented on Pat's departure:
Morgan entered a rehabilitation program for what he felt was "dependence on a combination of substances" in August 2006, which forced the band to cancel a tour with Staind and Three Days Grace.
A tour launched in support of the album in early 2008 lasted much of the year. Troy McLawhorn of Dark New Day, Evanescence, and doubleDrive was hired as a touring guitarist on 15 February 2008. Bands Seether shared the stage with on the tour included Three Days Grace, Finger Eleven, Breaking Benjamin, 3 Doors Down, Skillet, Red, Papa Roach, Flyleaf, Econoline Crush, and Staind. McLawhorn was afterwards made an official member of the band.
"No Shelter" appeared on the NCIS Official TV Soundtrack, released on 10 February 2009, and a version of George Michael's "Careless Whisper" was made available for purchase as a digital or mobile download. The song was reportedly covered as a joke, in which the band turned an "80s pop ballad" into a hard rock/metal song in response to Wind-up's request that they record a Valentine's Day song. The music video for "Careless Whisper" premiered on 15 June 2009, and the song is included as an additional track on the reissue of Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces.
Seether supported Nickelback on their Dark Horse tour in March and April 2009. Shaun and Dale confirmed in an interview on 2 March 2009 that, after the Nickelback tour, Seether would take the rest of year off to write and record the follow-up to Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces. The band nevertheless gave performances through the remainder of the year, which included a date in Okinawa to play for American troops as part of a USO tour on 23 and 24 May at Camp Schwab, and then in MCAS Iwakuni on 26 May for the US Marines. Seether also made appearances at a number of festivals during the summer, including sets at the Chippewa Valley Music Festival and the Quebec City Festival, before the tour's conclusion at The Big E Festival, West Springfield, Massachusetts, on 4 October.
Seether covered the song "I've Got You Under My Skin" on the Frank Sinatra tribute album His Way, Our Way, which came out on 7 July 2009.
Troy McLawhorn's departure from the band and return to Evanescence was announced on 8 March. Seether performed live in Cincinnati, Ohio on 10 May, and in South Bend, Indiana on 11 May. Both concerts were recorded, and released as a limited edition CD set for each individual city. The band played main stage at the Uproar Festival alongside Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace, Bullet For My Valentine, and Escape The Fate, and supported 3 Doors Down on their European tour from November to March.
On 3 September 2013, Seether announced the name of a compilation album, titled . It was released on 29 October 2013 as a 2-disc album featuring some of the band's greatest hits, unreleased demos, soundtrack songs, and 3 all-new tracks, including a cover of Veruca Salt's "Seether" (the song that the band is named after). Seether: 2002-2013 also contains two new recorded songs ("Safe to Say I've Had Enough" and "Weak") and was produced by Brendan O'Brien. The band released a 15-second demo clip for the song "Safe to Say I've Had Enough" on loudwire.com. They also carried out a small, semi-acoustic tour of Europe and South Africa.
On 30 November 2013, Seether released a 3-track single titled "Goodbye Tonight", featuring Van Coke Kartel & Jon Savage. The song is also featured on the deluxe edition of their follow-up album Isolate and Medicate.
On 24 April 2014, it was revealed that the album Isolate and Medicate would be released on 1 July 2014, with the lead single "Words as Weapons" slated for release on 1 May 2014.
On 29 April 2014, Bryan Wickmann was announced as the new touring guitarist. Wickmann was the band's long-time guitar tech, as well as Isolate and Medicate's cover art creator, and a former art director of Schecter Guitar Research.
On 17 May 2014, Seether performed their first single, "Words as Weapons," from the album Isolate and Medicate, live at the Orbit Room in front of 1,700 fans. The band released a music video for the album's second single, "Same Damn Life," on 30 October 2014. The video was directed by Nathan Cox. In late May and early June, Seether announced European tour dates in September, along with several stops in the UK. On 7 July, Seether kicked off their summer tour with 3 Doors Down.
Morgan appeared on Octane on 22 February to discuss the new record, entitled Poison the Parish. José Mangin stated that the new material is looking to be "harder than anything they've done". The album was released through Morgan's label Canine Riot Records. Three singles, "Let You Down", "Betray and Degrade", and "Against the Wall", were released in support of the album, all charting significantly on the Billboard Mainstream Rock songs chart.
In May, July, and August 2017, the band toured throughout the United States with American hard rock band Letters from the Fire, adding guitarist Clint Lowery (Sevendust, Dark New Day) to the touring lineup. They then recorded a cover of "Black Honey" by American post-hardcore band Thrice during a live session for SiriusXM in June 2017. In February 2018, Clint Lowery returned to Sevendust to begin touring and promoting their album All I See Is War. His brother (and former Dark New Day bassist), Corey Lowery, took over his duties as Seether's touring guitarist. The band then supported Nickelback on their eight-week Feed the Machine European and UK tour. Before the tour ended, Corey Lowery was initiated as a full-time member of the band. On 20 May 2018, Seether played in their hometown of Johannesburg for the first time in six years. On 6 June 2018, they released an acoustic version of "Against the Wall," along with an accompanying music video.
In July 2021, the band released an EP titled Wasteland – The Purgatory. On 1 July 2022, the band released the deluxe edition of Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum.
The band announced the new single "Judas Mind" which was released on 10 July 2024. The band's ninth studio album, titled The Surface Seems So Far, was released on 20 September 2024.
Former
Former touring musicians
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