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User
Reviews 13
Approval 92%
Soundoffs 4
Album Ratings 90
Objectivity 61%
Last Active 09-04-11 4:11 am
Joined 07-19-08
Review Comments 26
| Chevelle, Ranked
The 3.8-est band of all time, Chevelle, is set to drop a new album, Bright as Blasphemy, on August 15, 2025. They were my favorite band in high school (2006-2010), and a band I continue to enjoy and admire all these years later. Standing alongside Deftones in a class above the the nu-metal / post-grunge / butt-rock wave of the new millennium, Chevelle continues, nearly 30 years in, to churn out crunchy, infectious rock tracks that seamlessly straddle the line between mainstream accessibility and a more complex, soulful sound.
So, in honor of all the 3.8 memories and the band’s upcoming release, I wanted to put together a list of my favorite Chevelle tracks to date. This list is purely subjective: I’m not trying to present myself as an authority with the “final say” of what Chevelle’s “best” songs are - this list is just to share my personal preferences and spark discussion/reflection on Chevelle’s impressive career. | | 21 | Chevelle
Honorable Mentions
Closure
Forfeit
Shameful Metaphors
I Get It
Another Know It All
Emotional Drought
Bend the Bracket
Hats Off to the Bull
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Now let's get to it. | | 20 | Prove to You
Starting off this list with a token inclusion from their first album, Point #1, aka the album *before* Chevelle evolved into the 3.8 band we all know and love. Point #1 asks the question, “what if a nu metal band reallyyy liked Tool?” “Prove to You” served as proof-of-concept for this lesser, but still solid, pre-WWW version of Chevelle. | | 19 | Jars / Self Destructor / Rabbit Hole - Cowards Pt. 1 / Face to the Floor / The Fad / Joyride (An Ome
Lead singles off their respective albums with super-catchy, groovy guitar hooks and catchy choruses. March 26, 2025 release “Rabbit Hole - Cowards Pt. 1” fits extremely comfortably in this lineage of “pretty freaking good” lead singles. These songs are all solid tracks but don’t do much to elevate themselves into the upper echelon of Chevelle’s material.
Yeah yeah, “The Fad” is a third single, not a lead single. But it belongs here. | | 18 | Sleep Apnea (Acoustic Version)
Ok - THIS is the last gimmicky one before I get into the real list. A cool remix of the excellent album opener to Sci-Fi Crimes, found on the band’s 12 Bloody Spies: B-Sides and Rarities compilation. Chevelle + acoustic instruments and egg shakers = pretty freaking fun. | | 17 | Mars Simula
Ultra-groovy, riffy track off of 2021's NIRATIAS with a bouncy chorus that also doubles as an Elon Musk diss track? Sign me up. Seriously, F that guy and also this song rules. | | 16 | Send the Pain Below
Coming in at #16 is the first one on my list off of Wonder What’s Next, aka the album that made Chevelle who they are today. Chevelle’s second album introduced them to the world as they remain today: a confident, crunchy, 3.8, emotive group with a dark aesthetic, a knack for earworms on vocals and guitar, and zero interest in rhyme schemes. Send the Pain Below is something of an outlier off the album: it’s as straightforward of an alt rock / emo track as they’ve released. It was a radio hit (back when those existed) and, along with The Red, introduced them as a force to be reckoned with in mainstream rock. | | 15 | The Meddler
Speaking of earworms… The Meddler is groovy, catchy bliss, with one of the band’s catchiest choruses they’ve written to date. Hats Off to the Bull is, by and large, a lesser Chevelle album (at a catastrophic 3.7), but man, Pete put together some banging choruses on that one. | | 14 | An Evening with El Diablo
Every now and then, Chevelle sets aside the crunchy-guitar hook and serves up a “slow burn” track that starts soft and gradually builds tension. “An Evening with El Diablo” is one of these tracks, with a hypnotic, magnetic, bass-driven pulse that only occasionally bursts into heavy, nu-metal-style breakdowns. | | 13 | Roswell's Spell
A fabulous vocal performance and a prog/post-hardcore-infused bridge make this track an engaging, unique listen off of Sci-Fi Crimes. | | 12 | Vitamin R (Leading Us Along)
This Type of Thinking’s lead single leads with a slick, haunting 6/8 groove, a punchy chorus, and anthemic vocals throughout. It was a hit for a reason, though it drops a few spots by hewing a touch too closely to “The Red” for my taste. | | 11 | Twinge
Twinge, the closer off of standout album La Gargola, is a soft, hypnotic, multilayered track with an absolutely gorgeous chorus. The vocal harmonies, always a strength of Chevelle’s, are a career-best on this track and clinch this song a spot on my list. | | 10 | Punchline
Y’all. Chevelle released a Depeche Mode / Nine Inch Nails number. With a drum machine and reverb up the wazoo. Uhhh yeah sign me TF up. | | 9 | Panic Prone
The first of two standout soft tracks off This Type of Thinking, Panic Prone features delicate guitar, lovely vocal melodies (both lead and harmony), standout bass work from former member Joe Loeffler, and an explosive bridge section that lands a hard emotional punch. | | 8 | Sleep Apnea
I included the acoustic version earlier, but the OG version of Sleep Apnea, the opener from 2009’s Sci-Fi Crimes, is a career highlight in its own right. The lead riff is tasty as hell, Sam’s performance on drums is propulsive and energetic, and the chorus is an absolute anthem. But to me, what tends to separate “good Chevelle” from “great Chevelle” is the quality of the bridge section. Sleep Apnea’s multi-part bridge knocks it out of the park, both with the crunchy crescendo and the soft rebuild back into the closing chorus. | | 7 | The Red
We have arrived. The Red is by far Chevelle’s most-streamed song and is a modern alt-rock classic. It’s got that seductive, slithery main riff, the dark/emotive aesthetic, that iconically angsty chorus. But I’d wager that this song reallyyy broke through because of the lyrics. Specifically, that opening line: “They say freak / when you’re singled out / The Red / It filters through.” Ohhhh boy, does that line hit hard for angsty, outcast teens. Now, “teen angst” is hardly unmined lyrical territory for the genre, but Chevelle’s writing brought a degree of elegance, maturity, and empathy that clearly resonated with a generation of alienated kids in the post-9/11 era. Musically it’s far from my favorite Chevelle track but it lands high on the list due to its cultural impact and impressive lyricism. | | 6 | Ghost and Razor
2021’s NIRATIAS was a mixed bag of an album but when it hit, it hit HARD. With Ghost and Razor, Chevelle basically said “Door to Door Cannibals was kinda cool but what if we did it again and it was freaking AWESOME.” This song boasts guitar riffs to make you bang your head, scrunch your face, and punch the air. It’s got a creepy, futuristic aesthetic with some really fun vocal mixing and a long, patient outro section. This one clocks in at nearly 6 minutes but man, that breezes by fast. | | 5 | Family System
If “Wonder What’s Next” is the album that introduced Chevelle to the world, “Family System” introduced us to “Wonder What’s Next.” It kicks the album off with that creepy, goosebump-inducing crooner of an intro, then smacks you in the freaking face with some of the nastiest, crunchiest riffs in Chevelle’s discography. The lyrics, dealing with family trauma and abuse, are pitch-black but executed with uncommon grace. Family System is a seething, intense track where the band confidently left behind the “nu-metal Tool” trappings of Point #1 and jumped into being the intense, emotive, complex, 3.8 rockers we know and love today. | | 4 | An Island
Hear me out: “An Island” is actually a funk song. And it funking rules. That main riff is fuzzy, syncopated bliss. The lyrics, in keeping with the horror-movie vibes of La Gargola, crank up the fun factor to 11: “Stay there don’t move / I think it’s getting fangs / Watch if they turn / Become the villains.” For all its charms, Chevelle could stand to have a little more fun from time to time. “An Island” is a rare Chevelle song that’ll slap a big, dumb smile on your face while you bob your head around to the beat. | | 3 | Letter from a Thief
If I had to name a “perfect song” from Chevelle’s discography, it’d be Letter from a Thief. One of their lighter cuts, it weaves seamlessly and efficiently between a groovy verse and anthemic chorus, with chunky bass pushing the song along quickly between sections. But this song lands this high on my list for that bridge section: it’s got fantastic lyrics (“Solitude / Waste of a Man / This fades as soon as the sun sets”); and a minimalistic guitar solo. But it’s that final vocal passage from this bridge (“I now own this fatal role that lives…”), paired with that delicate, arpeggiated guitar and rolling drums, that bring the song to a crescendo and move me, an incredibly manly man, to tears. There’s something puzzling, eerie, and gorgeous at the heart of this song, but it’s executed in such a fun, compact package. | | 2 | So Long, Mother Earth
If songs 1 and 3 on this list are there cuz they give me the feels, #2 takes the cake as a showcase of Pete Loeffler’s immense talent (on vocals and guitar), and as an unadulterated dose of balls-to-the-wall bada**ery. It’s got an unconventional, 4-section structure, with the bass cranked up to gut-grabbing levels throughout. What really puts this song over the top, though, are Pete’s vocals and their interplay with the guitar. He brings melodic tenor, falsetto, grungy growls, and screams, with each section as catchy and compelling as the last. So Long, Mother Earth is a verifiable orgy of awesome guitar riffs and catchy/compelling vocal hooks. It just. Freaking. Rules - a 5.0 song off a 3.8 album. | | 1 | Saferwaters
This mid-tempo, heavy ballad off of Vena Sera makes the cut as my all-time favorite Chevelle track. The lyrics are meditative and timeless, and the production adds an ethereal, wavelike quality that helps flesh out the lyrical themes. The chorus, which features–get this—a rhyme, is an immediate earworm. The bridge/solo is haunting and beautiful, and Sam brings his A game throughout with really tasteful fills that consistently match and embellish the emotion of the song. It’s an emotive, crunchy classic, and one that typifies and crystallizes what has made Chevelle such a compelling, consistently great listen over the last three decades. | |
Scoot
06.11.25 | straight jacket fashion is an easy 1 for me
that song sounds like a fighter jet taking off | RVAHC13
06.11.25 | Wow I wasn’t expecting you to have the same 1 as me lol | Flashmobba
06.11.25 | niiiice dude 1 is indeed one of the best songs ever
| ashcrash9
06.11.25 | did this last year all the way through and 1 was 1 for me too. righteous | MO
06.11.25 | agreed scoot. anything of vena sera is ace. such a good album | whitecastle142
06.11.25 | Ooooo touche MO and Scoot, Straight Jacket Fashion slaps - "By the wayyyyy / We last because we're colorful" lives rent-free in my head. Minutes to Midnight and Antisaint off Vena Sera are great too. Ranking Chevelle is tough, man... so much good material | PistolPete
06.11.25 | This list would be impossible to nail down for me, their best songs change ranking every year for me. Great choices though, I particularly appreciate 20, 10, and 5 those are not usually called out. | Emim
06.12.25 | Saferwaters most overrated song of theirs by a mile. Family System #1 | Flashmobba
06.12.25 | saferwaters slander will not be tolerated
but yea family system might be my no. 1 too lol | Emim
06.12.25 | Idk it's just so boring to me. Doesn't have the payoff of their other slowburn songs like Panic Prone, Envy, or Closure.
Family System into Comfortable Liar is a crazy 1 2 | Relinquished
06.12.25 | emim is right, and that comes from a longtime fan | Flashmobba
06.12.25 | bro it’s about a dude who wants to go back to being a fish
that’s the most cathartic message ever | Relinquished
06.12.25 | who the fuck wants to be a fish | Flashmobba
06.12.25 | me bro fuck going to work and paying taxes | Relinquished
06.12.25 | don’t forget your gills | whitecastle142
06.12.25 | For the record, Kanye West is a gay fish |
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