Review Summary: It sounds samey, but when what you have is fun, what's the problem? Chevelle's artistic aspirations aren't high, but the band crafts many moments of greatness on this CD, and even a few shining instances of melodic inspiration.
What if Tool decided to veer a little more towards Breaking Benjamin than King Crimson? You might not have the band Chevelle, but if they leaned a lot more, you’d be closer. Chevelle, as is widely understood but nonetheless enjoyed by the majority of the hard rock music community, deftly combines the aching, passionate vocals, indecipherable lyrics and pronounced bass guitar from the prog-metal foursome with a sense of rock-radio-ready melody, song structure and dynamics. The comparisons to Tool are not inaccurate, but not as accurate as those to their contemporaries- nobody has quite managed to imitate Tool’s dark, misanthropic, minimalist arrangements, and the uncanny vocal similarity is not quite enough to link them as artists. Chevelle draws instead upon years of post-grunge practices, from the soft, brooding verses leading into the passionate choruses to featuring a short bridge after two each of these. They won’t win too many points for innovation, but their sound is identifiable from their peers. The presence of a not only audible, but vitally rhythmic and powerful bass guitar is enough to put them apart from the rest of the crowd, but their vaguely industrial waves of crunching guitar and vocalist Pete Loeffler’s excellent grasp of melody and emotion (regardless of his frequent emulating of Maynard James Keenan, the man can straight-up sing) mark them out as something different, if not new.
Which brings me to this release, This Type Of Thinking (Could Do Us In). I will not bother repeating the history of the band, nor the bar that had been raised with Wonder What’s Next, because quite honestly I’m not informed on either subject and there are several other reviews that would be happy to give you that information. I’m going to focus on the merits, or lack thereof, of this CD, and none other by Chevelle.
The stark white walls and rooms of the album artwork are unfortunately an indicator of the diversity to come. Almost no songs eschew the typical radio-accepted song structures, and no song is so heavy as to be without at least one vocal/instrumental hook. Even the songs that do differ from the crowd (almost every song features at least one component that sets it aside, and album closer Bend the Bracket is predictably but entirely, enjoyably acoustic) seem a bit calculated, as if their differences were premeditated solely for a lack of homogeneity. However, the album sounds the same texturally and tonally, with practically no exceptions. When the guitars are supposed to be heavy, they crunch. When they are soft, they are either palm-muted or they are strummed. The vocalist rarely varies the effect he achieves with his voice. By this I don’t mean that all his vocal lines sound the same- I mean that every part he sings leaves you with the same narrow range of emotions to pick from. During the heavier songs, there’s menace, the softer songs inspire reflection and melancholy, and the choruses are pained but determined. Every song stands alone very well, which to some extent is better than a band like Tool where half the songs flat-out suck, but taken as an album it is thoroughly repetitive.
There are only two other real problems that I have with the CD, neither as major as the above one. The first is the drumming. Quite frankly their drummer is not very good. He can keep the simplest of beats but almost never does any sort of fill and literally never plays his drums at a speed that might be considered impressive. He seems content to just idle around in the background, tapping at his kit and anchoring everything. I guess with the prominence of the bass, something had to be in the background, but sadly the rhythmic potential is limited to being only solid rather than great. Why couldn’t the drummer have left instead of the bassist? I digress. The other problem is that you can repeat a formula over and over again if it’s a good formula, but Chevelle hasn’t hit upon such a formula that bears repeated listening. The one they have now is sleek, fun, enjoyable, good- but never exciting, never interesting. Not only do Chevelle rarely challenge the limitations of their genre, they even less frequently challenge their own limitations, which is quite disappointing.
Now that the bad stuff’s out of the way, let me say what I like about this album. After listening to album after album where the bass is no more audible than on …And Justice For All, this nearly made me cry with relief. I can’t recall the bassist’s name, but not only are his lines solid, but he gets a nice tone that serves to reinforce the guitar rather than simply do rhythm duties. It’s very enjoyable and one of the highlights of the band. The guitar I’m noncommittal about- there are far, far better guitarists, but it would be hard to expect the vocalist to play as well as he sings, so I can forgive that.
Now for my favorite element of this band- Pete’s voice. The lyrics are obscure as usual, sometimes to the point where it really does feel quite a bit like Tool, but the evocative power of phrases such as “To care or plead silent, weak hands are calling” or “This body’s left the soul” are genuinely interesting, and if they recall the dark, depressive verses of Tool more than the angsty musings of their fellows, I’m not complaining. Pete’s great voice would lose much of its power if he were forced to sing Three Days Grace-esque lyrics or worse, cater to the Hot Topic crowd, so it’s fortunate that he picks his influences well. Honestly, though, I can’t imagine the similarities being distracting enough to anyone to merit a lower score because of them- I only mention them out of critical analysis.
Pete’s voice is the best part of the band. Many bands can boast nothing more to differentiate them from the crowd than a skilled or slightly unusual vocalist, but Pete is skilled enough, and the musical section strong enough, to give these guys a genuine reason to exist. He rarely screams, always inflecting even his harshest vocals with an urgent emotion and melody. His quieter vocals, featured most prominently on “Panic Prone” and “To Return,” are filled with a pensive, haunted restraint. The best are his passionate moments of emotional catharsis, where every word is turned from a line on a page into a powerful plea for the peace after the thunderous upheaval of the chorus. Throughout it all there is a sense of dignity, as if he is unwilling to stoop to the angry, anti-everything level of many similar singers. This restraint keeps him from sounding hopeless and despairing- the last plaintive moments of “Bend the Bracket” suggest a tough, enduring optimism despite the conflicts he faces.
It does get a bit predictable, and as an album it certainly repeats itself, but summarized in the concise melodies of a few songs, you could form an outstanding EP from some of the more varied tracks on This Type Of Thinking (Could Do Us In.) Pete’s vocal imitation of Maynard James Keenan finds a personality through the sublime melodies, and the increased presence of the bass suggest a more democratic instrumental section. That’s not to say that fans of the genre and of the band won’t think this a worthy purchase, but even people whose interest in this type of music waned in high school will find the album enjoyable and especially like a few songs. From the opening, discontented guitar squeal of “The Clincher,” through the commanding pronouncements of “Still Running” and the aggressive momentum of “Another Know It All,” to the serene harmony as “Bend the Bracket” fades out the CD, This Type Of Thinking is a pleasure to the ear. Consistently appealing if too consistent in its approach, this is 45 minutes that most rock fans will find rewarding.
