3 out of 5

Label: Alchemy Recordings

Produced by: Pete Loeffler

Lots of ideas – and especially exciting ones, for this long-running band! – though with the creativity potentially encouraged by this being Chevelle’s first self-produced album, there were maybe equally not enough behind-the-boards chops to shape those ideas into their best album. Still, for a tenth outing, it’s great feeling like the project is far from out of steam, as Pete and Sam Loeffler, now the only two remaining members – assisted here on bass by touring member Kemble Walters – pluck from more melodic albums (like Hats Off to the Bull) and more riff-heavy ones (like North Corridor) to… ultimately deliver something kinda in the middle.

The first track on a Chevelle album is always pretty telling, and Bright matches Hats Off in that department, with a weaker, somewhat hook-less track, Pale Horse. But like the album on the whole, the song improves as it goes on, despite dodging back into some Chevelle tropes. The two part Cowards tracks – Rabbit Hole and Jim Jones – essentially fill out the we’re-getting-older paranoiac lyrical themes of the album, but more importantly start to show off the release’s strengths, with the latter half of Rabbit Hole, much like Pale Horse, showing off some studio experimentation that I think the group’s comforts with longtime producer Joe Barresi had maybe indirectly curtailed, and Jim Jones’ loose, open-ended riff calls back to the group’s self-produced soundtrack work, which is some of their best material – cue my wondering if the group operates a bit more out-of-the-box with these one-off producers or, calling back to Steve Albini, folks not as dialed in to radio-ready rock. This same praise for Jim Jones goes to Wolves, which whips out some damn thrash riffing in all its glory.

Between these, we get one of two acousitc-y tracks, which are generally not the band’s forte; both Hallucinations and Blood in the Fields have – as stated at the start – some really good ideas though, breaking out of the Dashboard Confessional vibes that’ve haunted these tracks from Wonder What’s Next and onward, but also as suggested, I can’t help but feel like Pete, as producer, maybe didn’t know how to draw these ideas fully out, as they itch at the edges of these tunes and threaten to make them solid, and not just “when does the guitar kick back in?” holdovers. …Which sucks to say, as I’m sure these tunes have their fans, and can act as, at least, purposeful moments of rest on a rock disc, but they’ve ultimately always been somewhat generic to me.

Karma Goddess and AI Phobias fill out some more shaking-fist-at-clouds lyrical vibes, though snark aside, these aren’t as cringey as they could be: Pete treads a line between being too literal and too poetic for my tastes, but the lyrics are never just dialed in rhymes, and Karma’s one of the album’s better tracks, musically – noting that the riffs hit harder on the tracks on which Pete double-dutied on bass? (Parallel this with AI Phobias tinny, electronics-touched sounds, a la Chemicals Between Us-era Bush).

I’m ragging on this disc more than it deserves, but only because its potential excites me. Pete had voiced some threats to stop the Chevelle thing over the past two releases; that would be a shame. Barresi may not have always pushed the group to new heights, but each album has brought me joy with some highlights, and Bright as Blasphemy suggests that a self-produced breakout could be forthcoming, if the band sharpens those skills and keeps pushing forward all the interesting ideas that scratch at Blasphemy’s edges.