Seether

About Seether

Seether started in Pretoria, South Africa in 1999 under the name Saron Gas, which tells you something about the era they emerged from. Shaun Morgan handled vocals and guitar, with his brother Dale on bass and drummer Dave Cohoe rounding out the lineup. They released a local album called Fragile before Wind-up Records noticed them and suggested a name change, probably because Saron Gas sounded uncomfortably close to sarin gas. Fair point.

They moved to the United States in 2002 and released Disclaimer, their proper debut. The album had "Fine Again" and "Driven Under," two songs that fit neatly into the post-grunge landscape that bands like Puddle of Mudd and Breaking Benjamin were occupying. It did well enough that they re-released it in 2004 as Disclaimer II with additional tracks, including "Broken," a stripped-down acoustic thing featuring Amy Lee from Evanescence. That song became massive, partially because people were very into the whole rock-couple thing they had going at the time.

Karma and Effect arrived in 2005 and gave them "Remedy," which is probably the song most people think of when you mention Seether. It's straightforward rock radio material with a hook that lodged itself into the mid-2000s alternative scene. The album went platinum. They were firmly established as a reliable presence on rock radio and festival lineups.

Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces came in 2007 with "Fake It" and "Rise Above This," continuing their run of singles that sounded good at 3pm on a Wednesday. Dale Morgan left the band during this period, replaced by Troy McLawhorn, though he eventually departed too. The revolving door around Shaun Morgan became a pattern. John Humphrey took over drums from Nick Oshiro, who had replaced the original drummer years earlier.

They kept going through the 2010s with albums like Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray and Isolate and Medicate, which had "Words as Weapons." The sound stayed consistent: heavy enough for rock fans who wanted some weight, melodic enough for radio play. They weren't reinventing anything, but that seemed beside the point.

Shaun Morgan has been open about dealing with depression and substance abuse over the years, which adds context to the generally bleak lyrical themes running through their catalog. The music doesn't really disguise where it's coming from.

Their most recent album, The Surface Seems So Far, dropped in 2024. They're still touring regularly, still making the kind of hard rock that sounds like it could have come out fifteen years ago, which depending on your perspective is either consistency or stagnation. They've sold millions of albums and remained a fixture on rock radio longer than most of their contemporaries. Shaun Morgan remains the only original member, which at this point is just how Seether works.

Seether shows are workmanlike and direct. Morgan's voice carries the room, the band plays tight, the guitars are loud. Crowds are made up of people who genuinely want to hear these songs, not casual observers. They'll sing every word back. It's honest, professional rock.

Known for Fake It, Broken, Remedy, Fine Again, Against the Wall

See Seether Live