5 out of 5

Label: Wind-Up

Produced by: Chevelle

When the growl-heavy, made-for-radio produced Wonder What’s Next made a fairly large sensation of Chevelle, I was happy to be the dude telling people to check out their first album, having stuck in there through the fairly amateurish lyrics, Christian label alliance, and inevitable Tool comparisons to point out the excellent Albini production and obvious tune chops chugging that debut along.  ‘Wonder’ carried its own burdens, though, trading simplistic lyrics for fairly stereotypical angry ones, and falling back on shouty shouts where the first album had musical fortes.  And the seemingly sudden splash it made (and lack of mention of the previous album in most of the press at the time) had me worried that the band that’d been kicking around my CD collection were going to be turning into something less desirable (or just disappearing) soon.

But then this single happened.  And it dashed away all of my fears.

Bringing the production in house seemed to bring with it a ton less predictability than producer GGGarth added to (or allowed on) Wonder, with lovely stop/start dynamics and pummeling drumming.  The lyrics also took a turn toward darkness, but without the youthly “I hate ya” sneer from their sophomore disc.

‘Until You’re Reformed’ remains one of my all-time favorite Chevelle tracks, and pretty much cemented my love and dedication for the band, which I have not turned back on or regretted since.