The frank, aggressive tone of Sevendust's music is emblematic of the band's brash, independent spirit. In some ways, the group are a product of their tough, lower-class upbringings -- a melting pot that percolates with Indian, Italian, Irish, African-American and Anglo-American blood. "We all come from different backgrounds, but every time we're in the same room, we unite into this one powerful force," says Clint Lowery, guitarist. Sevendust originally formed as Crawlspace in 1995; "My Ruin," recorded under the name Crawlspace, which bubbled with spine-tingling melodies, crunching stop-start riffs and passionate, harmony-laden vocals, was a standout track on the Mortal Kombat: More Kombat soundtrack. But the band members knew each other for years before then, playing with each other in a series of bands, including Snake Nation (with members of Corrision of Conformity), Body and Soul, Still Reign, and Rumblefish, all of the hard Atlanta scene. As for the name Crawlspace, "There's an LA band who owns that name," says Clint. "We did a search on the name came up with 13 or 14 other guys that had it also. Finally, we just decided to put two words together and we came up with Sevendust." Sevendust's self-titled debut is a visceral slab of mayhem and melody that combines grinding guitars and surging rhythms with melodic vocals reminiscent of Faith No More's Mike Patton. "When we put this thing together, we decided that we really wanted a singer who could sing," remembers Clint. "All these other bands like Pantera and Biohazard had real heavy vocals, and we thought it would be really cool to have a band that was real heavy, but also had melody." They found Lajon Witherspoon. With their metallic eruption attracting big audiences live, Sevendust are prepared to spread their musical epidemic across the nation. "We have a real good live show," says Clint. "There's a lot of energy in this band. We're like the kids that used to go watch all those metal bands in the '80s, and now we're taking that energy and mixing it up a little bit to come up with something really exciting."