Review Summary: The edgiest metal release from Chevelle.
Chevelle has been a band I've always tried to become a big fan of with each album release, but it never really happened. When Send the Pain Below off of their sophomore album
Wonder What's Next took over the radio, I bought the album, but it all seemed so disjointed and makeshift. When I fell in love with The Clincher off of their third album,
This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In), I once again bought the album, but came to find out the album lacked an identity as a whole. Once again, I fell in love with the single
Well Enough Alone and mustered up enough courage to buy their fourth attempt,
Vena Sera. The only difference this time around was that I wasn't disappointed. I was delightfully surprised.
Chevelle has become a metal band that gets played on the radio-plain and simple. They're harder then the venerable modern rockers Breaking Benjamin that take the radio by force with each single. They're just pure metal. Loud, heavy guitar riffs litter the backdrop while Pete Loeffler, the lead singer, screams at the top of his voice, at times for a very long time. Let's just say, for a three-person band, Chevelle packs a wallop.
In fact, Chevelle is too macho to even feature a typical nu-metal ballad; they go right for the rockers which each song; in retrospective, the song opens up heavy with
Antisaint and never slows down-not even a bit. But before we get ahead of ourselves, the album isn't mindless, repetitive, boring guitar riffs and choruses like the opener; and you quickly learn that with songs like the tempo and rhythm to
Brainiac, or the ever-building beat to
Well Enough Alone. Not only is
Vena Sera hard, its melodic, catchy, and is honestly some of the best music to come out of the mainstream hard rock/metal genre. The scream at the beginning and middle to
Well Enough Alone sets the song apart from previous Chevelle albums; its loud and long. But enough gushing over Loeffler's scream for now.
The Fad kicks off with some strangely distorted verse before it breaks into a ridiculously catchy and simple chorus where Loeffler screams, yet again. There's plenty other songs that scream metal on this album, like
Midnight to Midnight which sounds like it could have been a hit from their major influence, Helmet.
But not all of the album is the pure metal, it doesn't surprise me that Chevelle keeps with their roots that made them a huge hit-their ability to make ridiculously catchy songs.
I Get It fills this void well. The song starts off with barely a verse before breaking into a simplistic, yet catchy chorus before it breaks down again into a verse. The song is still hard, but feels like it could have been a single off of
Wonder What's Next. Same with
Saturdays which feels the most tame and alt-rock on
Vena Sera.
The lyrics are just like they've always been; haunting, apocalyptic, and at times odd; which is shown in the song
Humanoid, which is about an android. Too bad you can't understand the vocals in half of the songs-Loeffler's vocals are always incomprehensible, and this album doesn't change things. For example, in the verse to
The Fad, the verses almost sound as if he's saying Cinnamon, Taste the Room. No joke-listen to the song and you'll see what I mean. But even with Loeffler's strange way of delivering the vocals, the lead singer makes the band just like always with his screaming, booming, and at times soothing vocals.
Vena Sera is a solid release. No, it's not original, but no, its not like any of their previous albums. With each release, it seems as if Chevelle explores the outer spectrum of hard rock;
Point #1 was all about the slower, alternative metal anthems,
Wonder What's Next was all about catchy radio rock,
This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In) was the edgier, yet boring hard rock mixed in with a few off-tempo rockers.
Vena Sera explores their metal side, and that's where their best. Before this album, Chevelle was a bland mainstream rock band, but with
Vena Sera, Chevelle's made a name for themselves, and officially found a genre that fits them well.
DOWNLOAD:
Brainiac
Well Enough Alone
The Fad
I Get It
