Review Summary: disclaimer: we should all look towards the day when a man realizes the sounds exiting his mouth are mostly complaints and then a change occurs - the intro for "Still Running".
3 of 3 thought this review was well writtenThere is one album within my collection I can throw on and will always accompany my current mood. An album that no matter the place, date, or time is perfect for the situation. It’s the album that escorted me in a better world of music introducing me to some of my favorite bands including (but not limited to)
dredg,
The Dillinger Escape Plan, and to a lesser extent any album I’ve rated a classic. Chevelle’s third release This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In) is a classic in my eyes because it brought with it an endless list of things I still love to this day. I remember the first time I downloaded this album and pressed play on Rhapsody Music Player.
The Clincher crawled in with a crooked bass line, and a guitar riff tuned so low I wondered if it was truly possible to play it while standing up. So I did the only logical thing and picked up a guitar and taught myself how to play the instrument, the rest is essentially history. Now despite how overly cheesy and cliché I’ve been within this first paragraph it in no way reflects the album. In fact, though categorized with other mindless mainstream affairs Chevelle are rather more inaccessible than that of their peers.
With This Type of Thinking, which will from now on be referred to as TToT, Chevelle take their moody and crunch-tastic melody previously heard on Wonder What’s Next and mature it. This is most evident within the first three tracks; Pete delivers a raunchy guitar riff that makes way for violent screams of “Now saturate!” on
The Clincher. Joe, the now forgotten brother, performs a wicked bass groove which carries the off and on stagnant voyage of
Get Some. It isn’t until
Vitamin R (Leading Us Along) that these separate ingredients culminate the perfect recipe; with a healthy dose of the thundering double bass added to haunting swoons leading epic build ups and calculated explosions in both the chorus and bridge.
Chevelle time and time again create these pseudo epic cruises that often have them compared with the likes of
Tool. While these comparisons have their merit in some regards I believe the band do enough to distinguish themselves. This falls directly on the shoulders of front man Pete Loeffler who harnesses one of the most unique voices in rock radio. Balancing a slivered line of melody and aggression Pete often evokes a scream that uproots several stable instances on the disc.
Emotional Drought for example, provides a five minute endeavor that contains the heaviest moments in their discography; rumbling through riffs in trenches lower than those spoke of earlier in
The Clincher, the yells of “One more man tearing at the throat of one more man…” is something not heard anywhere on a FM dial today.
Two reasons I continually replay this album are the estranged atmosphere it creates, and how each time I listen through I find little nuances that make me fall in love with it again.
Breach Birth has a claustrophobic effect with dwindling guitar leads and Pete’s hushed delivery. On the flip side,
Bend the Bracket feels as open as the setting it was performed in. Dealing with a solemn surrounding and intimacy revered long before For Emma; Forever Ago was thought about.
A truly timeless album in my eyes Chevelle have been the gateway to several things I still cherish. This is most obvious to me each and every time I discover a new band and can’t help but compare. I find myself saying things like, “this is good but it’s no
The Red or
Vitamin R”. One of these days though, one of these days…
