Leave a Whisper

Prior to the album's release, frontman Brent Smith had been working with his prior band, "Dreve", which had signed a record deal with Atlantic Records in 2000.[7] The record label, unhappy with Dreve as a whole, dropped the band prior to releasing an album, but retained Smith, who they felt was worth developing separately as an artist.[8] Atlantic signed Smith to a development deal where record representatives helped him with his song-writing ability, and helped him recruit members for a new band, which would become Shinedown.[8][9] Smith moved to Jacksonville, Florida and began work on the project in 2001.[10] The first member he recruited was bassist Brad Stewart, through local Jacksonville music producer Pete Thornton.[10] Smith and Stewart began recording demos together in a small local studio, whose owner recommended they meet with her fiance, guitarist Jasin Todd, who Smith brought in as the third member.[10] The original lineup was rounded out by drummer Barry Kerch, who was the seventh drummer the band had auditioned for the spot.[10] The four worked together on creating demos, and submitted their work-in-progress material to Atlantic, who approved of the material and green-lighted a full-length album.[10]

The album was released May 27, 2003.[11] While not an immediate success, through the extensive touring and successful singles, eventually went platinum in the United States, indicating sales of over 1 million.[12] Four singles were released from the album "Fly from the Inside," "45", and a cover of the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, "Simple Man", and "Burning Bright". All four singles charted in the top five of the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts, peaking at fifth, third, fifth, and second, respectively.[13][14] The band toured extensively in support of the album, playing over 400 live shows over the course of 2003 and 2004.[15] The band ended up touring for 24 months straight, doing various tours with Van Halen, Seether, and Three Doors Down.[16] The band later released a live DVD titled Live from the Inside that documented the live shows of the touring cycle.[17]

The album was re-released twice. The final three tracks only appear on the enhanced edition, released June 15, 2004. This re-release was prompted due to the popularity of their "Simple Man" cover, which was not present on the original album's release.[18] On July 7, 2009 Shinedown digitally released a deluxe edition of Leave a Whisper, featuring demo material and unused tracks from the recording sessions.[19]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[20]
Melodic	[21]

AllMusic compared Leave a Whisper to that of post-grunge acts like Creed, Puddle of Mudd, and a modern-day Alice in Chains. They go on to state "Coupled with a plodding, two-dimensional sound varying little from song to song, let alone from the sound of its peers, Shinedown's debut offers scant hope that heavy music will right itself from the nasty stumble of its last few years."[20] According to Melodic, the album will satisfy fans of bands like Depswa and Saliva.[21]

Band

• Brent Smith – lead vocals
• Jasin Todd – guitars, lap steel, theremin, sitar
• Brad Stewart – bass
• Barry Kerch – drums, percussion

Additional personnel

• Bob Marlette – producer
• Tony Battaglia – engineering, mixing, producer
• Steven Marshall – additional guitar on "45"

Album

Singles

Year	Song	US	US Alt. [23]	US Main.
2003	"Fly from the Inside"	—	34	5
	"45"	—	12	3
2004	"Simple Man"	—	40	5
	"Burning Bright"	107	22	2

Burning Bright reached No. 7 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.