4 out of 5

Label: Epic

Producer: Joe Barresi

This is Chevelle putting their all into the music.  ‘Gárgola’ hits with more gutsy riffs than the group’s last few outings, and, surprising me, since I felt that Barresi’s production on the previous ‘Hats Off to the Bull’ watered the group’s overall effect down, there are a handful of production flourishes here that, more often than not, add awesome new dimensions to Chevelle’s sound.  Not bad for a 15-year gig that started off as a Tool soundalike and then hopped on the yelly bandwagon for some big hits.  The flourishes are well-handled, enriching the songs instead of coming across as eye-rolling attempts at growth.  The opener ‘Ouija Board,’ for instance, has a mandolin (or something) lead-in that does its job to set the on-edge tone of the disc (which could also be said of the leather-mask cover) and then trails into almost an alarm bell warning before the pummeling guitar and drums quick in.  Barresi and the group don’t make the mistake of trying to overuse this stuff – that Mandolin is just for the intro, the rest is left to the band.  And elsewhere, such notes similarly just touch upon the songs – a sign of a band fully comfortable in the sound its built but looking to experiment where possible.

Pete Loeffler’s guitar has been blitzed out for the gig – the fast pace of ‘Ouija’ is not unusual for the disc, but he and Barresi might also have found the magic mix that just makes it sound like he’s playing the thing with a sledgehammer – ‘Hunter Eats Hunter’ may fall back on typical Chevelle structures, but the pounding chorus sounds harder than anything they’ve played before.  And everyone is on the same level – Sam Loeffler is suddenly working his whole kit like a madman, meeting brother Peter’s speed for a rush that gives average tracks like ‘Choking Game’ some extra bite, lent a hand by Dean Bernardini on ‘Ouija’.  And again, to Barresi’s credit, the often lost component of Chevelle – bass – is given a really unique thump throughout the disc, Bernardini’s groovy playing style rolling along at the same intensity levels as his bandmates (intense grooving?).  So none of the songs here will particularly surprise anyone who only followed the band for a bit after “The Red” – and some are still just straight in that generic mold, like ‘Jawbreaker’ – but there’s an incensed urgency behind the recording that hasn’t been present since ‘Point #1.’

…Whiiiich leads us to the one downside, which is that this is the Pete’s weakest work lyrically.  Lyrics have never been particularly strong with Chevelle, but Pete covers his themes vaguely enough to keep them interesting and relatable, and sometimes finds an ideal metaphor or twisted through that truly connects.  But Gargola is just pissed.  Almost every song is about fighting, and finds the singer resorting to about 2 or 3 sentences of lyrics per song, most of which boil down to growling things like “When hunter, meets hunter, this hunter, meets hunter.”  This is an unfair assessment, skipping over more contemplative tracks like ‘One Ocean’ and ‘Twinge,’ but it’s definitely the over-riding theme, and matches the anger that rumbles through the disc.  I mean, it equaled Chevelle knocking out their hardest hitting album, so I’m not against the narrow focus, but it’s hard to sell it to new listeners when they tune into the lyrics and equate it to every other “fuck the world” angry yelly band.

But: I’m proud to be a fan.  I love that the group has kept it together for 15 years and stuck to the core elements that made us dig ’em in the first place.  And then, occasionally, such as ‘Sci-Fi Crimes’ and now this album, the band will find fresh ways to express themselves that should net them new fans while being equally rewarding to the old.