Best Alternative Rock Albums - Imagine Dragons's album, Smoke + Mirrors (Deluxe Edition), including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Imagine Dragons Profile.
Artist: Imagine Dragons
Album: Smoke + Mirrors - Deluxe Edition (2015)
A Grammy Award-winning alt-rock outfit with a knack for crafting stylish stadium-ready anthems that are as emotionally charged as they are radio-friendly, Las Vegas-based Imagine Dragons had their genesis in Provo, Utah, where vocalist Dan Reynolds met drummer Andrew Tolman while the two attended Brigham Young University.
In 2009 the group, which by this time included guitarist Daniel Wayne Sermon, bass player Ben McKee, and Tolman's wife Brittany Tolman on keys and backing vocals, had made a name for itself regionally and relocated to Reynolds' hometown of Las Vegas to record a pair of well-received EPs (Imagine Dragons and Hell and Silence) at the Killers' Battle Born Studios. A third EP, It's Time, arrived the following year and helped land the group a record deal with Interscope. The Tolmans parted ways with the group prior to the Interscope deal, and Daniel Platzman took over on drums.
In 2012 Imagine Dragons hit it big with the Continued Silence EP and their debut long-player, Night Visions, the latter of which debuted at the number two spot on the Billboard 200 and landed the group multiple awards -- it has since gone double platinum, largely on the smash success of "Radioactive," which became the biggest-ever digital rock track in America. Two other hits followed -- "Demons" in the U.S. and "On Top of the World", elsewhere.
In 2013, then the group spent the bulk of 2014 finishing its second album. Co-produced by Alex da Kid, Smoke + Mirrors, the band's sophomore long-player, was released in February 2015, preceded by the singles "I Bet My Life" and "Shots".
Best Alternative-Rock Albums - Seether-Isolate and Medicate, including Album covers, lyrics, audios and videos. Seether Profile.
Artist: Seether
Album: Isolate and Medicate (2014)
Hailing from South Africa and comprising members Shaun Morgan (vocals, guitar), Dale Stewart (bass), and John Humphrey (drums), Seether embraces a brand of heavy metal mostly associated with the post-grunge era of alternative music, complete with crunchy distortion and brooding textures.
The band emerged in 1999 as Saron Gas (a name taken from the back of a sound effects CD) and released their debut album, Fragile, the following year on Musketeer Records. In a country whose musical tastes center around pop and indigenous music, Fragile found impressive chart success. Across the Atlantic, the U.S.-based Wind Up Records caught wind of the band's growing popularity and signed the South African bandmates, who changed their name to Seether in light of Saron Gas' similarity to the lethal nerve agent sarin gas.
An EP release and a spot on the Ozzfest tour preceded the unveiling of Seether's full-length debut in the summer of 2002. Issued that August, Disclaimer featured the modern rock single "Fine Again" and led to a year-long tour, during which singer Morgan's relationship with Evanescence siren Amy Lee blossomed. But while the tour ensured increasing commercial status for Seether, it also delayed the band's return to the studio.
In March 2004, a few tracks appeared on the Punisher soundtrack, including a duet version of Disclaimer's "Broken" featuring vocal contributions from Lee. Disclaimer II appeared that June, pairing a handful of new tracks with remixed or re-recorded versions of the previous album's tracks. Seether viewed the album as an opportunity to re-evaluate their debut's release (whose mix was, according to the band, subpar) and gave listeners new content as a holdover until the band's proper follow-up.
The promised sophomore effort, Karma and Effect, was released in May 2005 and entered the Top Ten, while the acoustic CD/DVD package One Cold Night appeared in 2006. Following Morgan's breakup with Amy Lee and a successful stint in rehab, Seether returned in 2007 with Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces, introducing the album with the snide and catchy single "Fake It."
In 2009 the band took a break from touring to head into the studio with producer Brendan O'Brien to work on their fifth album. They went back out on the road for another year before eventually releasing Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray in 2011. Isolate and Medicate, the band's sixth studio long-player, followed in 2014.
A Grammy Award-winning alt-rock outfit with a knack for crafting stylish stadium-ready anthems that are as emotionally charged as they are radio-friendly, Las Vegas-based Imagine Dragons had their genesis in Provo, Utah, where vocalist Dan Reynolds met drummer Andrew Tolman while the two attended Brigham Young University.
Hailing from South Africa and comprising members Shaun Morgan (vocals, guitar), Dale Stewart (bass), and John Humphrey (drums), Seether embraces a brand of heavy metal mostly associated with the post-grunge era of alternative music, complete with crunchy distortion and brooding textures.