If you can't take the heat... get back in the kitchen

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

they've released the same album about 7 times now but they still manage to sound good and you know what you're getting

the mcdonalds of alt-metal

Album Rating: 3.5

I think they changed things up a bit with Gárgola; that's where they truly started playing with different sounds and introduced some horror elements. Literally both La Gárgola and The North Corridor were inspired by horror movies (Black Phillip from The Witch is on the cover of TNC). Lyrics of "Joyride", "Hunter Eats Hunter", "The Damned", etc, plus some bits and sounds like the intro of "Ouiji Board", the darker tone of "Twinge" or the ominous space horror "Sleep the Deep" from NIRATIAS add an element of originality that I think is never credited to them.



Even on this I hear it on "Karma Goddess" (specially the bridge) and "AI Phobias". "Blood out in the Fields" also feels very unnerving, even though is probably my least favorite song here because of the vocals (music is brilliant, though).

Album Rating: 5.0

Holynfuck

Agreed with most of banana. La Gargola and TNC are probably my favorite albums by them.

This is growing on me really hard. Might like it more than the last one, which is wild cuz I loved that album and have a signed LP

Album Rating: 4.0

Wonder What's Next will always reign supreme for me but TTOT isn't too far behind. The first half of that album is literal perfection

Sincerely doubt this is good but we’ll see

Please give an example of a "fear-laced projection" in this album

Album Rating: 3.8

some great heavy tunes here. it's growing on me, definitely a 3.8 for now

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

Wonder What’s Next, Sci-Fi Crimes, and La Gargola are easily their best. I’d put this way under the rest of their discography. Idk. Seems like I’m the only one not liking it but this just isn’t doing it for me. Doesn’t sound like NIRATIAS to me either. That album was a lot more catchy. Not that they have to be catchy by any means but there’s not a single hook in this whole thing. It’s a very odd entry for them

Twinge is far and away better than either of the two slower tracks here. I want more like that song.

@laterenima - I got two for ya...

1. AI Phobias - "this AI’s holding up a gun… it’s calculating taking us out" (fear-laced projection of paranoia onto an external system)

2. Shocked at the End of the World - "Cause it’s too late now / They sold us war / Shocked, shocked, are you shocked?" (lamenting that catastrophe has already been sold and absorbed, remaining inside the dread of the "end of the world")

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

I’m not entirely sure that could be considered fear-laced projection. They’ve never been a stranger to sci-fi themes. With AI being on the rise and many people fearing AI taking over, that just seems like a commentary on that. Projection is often a narcissistic defense mechanism though and they’ve written songs on narcissism before though (Peach from NIRATIAS). I am also diagnosed NPD, so, those sorts of themes don’t really bother me. But I don’t really see that as a detriment to those songs. Those two are really my favorite here because they’re pretty standard Chevelle.

Yeah, they've touched on sci-fi themes in the past. My point is less about the subject matter itself and more about the stance: in the tracks I mentioned, and a couple of others on the album, it's fear-language, not exploration. That's what I mean by projection; the music reacts instead of exposing.

Also, identity labels don't make or break whether a stance is projection. It's about posture, not diagnosis.

Album Rating: 3.5

"Wonder What's Next will always reign supreme for me but TTOT isn't too far behind"



Those two are my favorites of this first era (pre-Gárgola), but La Gárgola and TNC are my favorites of new Chevelle.

Album Rating: 3.5

Fantastic pair of songs for both the opening and closing sections of the album. AI phobias in particular almost sounds like new territory being this groovy, danceable i would dare say, while Shocked is a career best. Hallucinations has cool production and vocal performance from Pete and, at least to my ears, Blood has a Wovenhand kind of feel.

The remaing three are by the numbers although Karma has a nice Sabbath riff.

I think that they could go into a different direction but opted at the last minute not to fearing that it would alienate longtime fans.

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

La Gargola did all this and more and way better and didn’t alienate long time fans. Twinge can beat any song here and that’s just one slow track from that album.

Trying to figure out how we go from Twinge which keeps us all a bit unnerved and sweaty throughout to Blood Out in the Fields which makes me want to vomit and turn this off. How can you go from such a beautiful masterpiece to… whatever that is?

Album Rating: 4.0

Hallucinations is a really cool song. Give me TTOT vibes.

Album Rating: 3.5

wow! thanks for the feature! it's quite surprising how much replayability this has