Chevelle. It’s a hard rock band, not a car. (Though given the fact that I just reviewed a Relient K concert last week, I’m starting to notice a pattern here.) The Chicago-bred trio is what’s next in a growing legion of Christian rock bands - or should I say, rock bands made up of Christians - that have penetrated the mainstream. Interestingly, many such bands are finding more acceptance in the mainstream music world that in the CCM market these days, due to (arguably) more artistic freedom and less pressure to be squeaky clean, cheerleading role models for well-churched teenagers. Having started out on Steve Taylor‘s now mostly defunct label Squint Records a few years back (better known as the home of Sixpence None the Richer), the band soon encountered financial troubles and legal entanglements after the lukewarm reception of their debut, Point #1. But they’ve bounced back with a new label home (Epic Records) and an album titled after a question I’m sure many fans and cynical detractors alike had to have been asking… Wonder What’s Next.

Chevelle’s first disc took a while to sink in. I have nothing against hard rock, but there was something about their style that struck me as rather dry. They were certainly capable of being loud and rocking hard, and vocalist Pete Loeffler smartly avoided most of modern rock’s angst-ridden clichés with an oblique lyrical style that was poetic at best and frustratingly minimal at worst. The band maintained a melodic undercurrent while avoided any overt strains of poppiness. More importantly, they didn’t feel like they had to rap to be popular. They may not have been all that unique - I heard quite a few people cite Tool as the obvious inspiration behind their style - but never having heard Tool, that didn’t bother me so much. There was something perversely seductive about their grungy, almost indie-rock spirit that kept me puzzling over their songs even when they got repetitive.

Two years later, Chevelle is riding on some modest success, having followed in the footsteps of P.O.D. by being invited to participate in the “Ozzfest” tour. That had to have been both a thrill and a huge risk for the band, since they likely got to hang out with a number of their musical influences, but likely faced enormous pressure to act like some of those other bands on stage. To Chevelle’s credit, they’ve made it through without having their every action scrutinized by Christians (unlike P.O.D.) Chevelle doesn’t seem as mission-oriented as P.O.D., anyway - they seem to be artists, simply out to make their music and let it connect with whoever it connects with.

The formula on their Wonder What’s Next stays pretty much the same as it was the first time around - though it’s notable that there are fewer moments of quiet tension to be found here in between all of the cathartic screaming and guitar shredding. Trading producer Steve Albini for GGGarth likely played a role in that decision - Steve tends to take more of an alternative approach (arguably he’s most famous for working with Nirvana) whereas the stuff I’ve heard GGGarth do has more of a “rock your socks off” approach. This album certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. Don’t think that it’s all mindless yelling and bellyaching - Pete and his brother Joe know how to sing, and the balance between singing and screeching is fairly even. Pete’s gotten a little meaner with his guitar riffs, in that sense taking the band’s musical evolution in the opposite direction from that of Tool. The net result is that Wonder What’s Next doesn’t entirely come off as just “Point #2”. It’s actually a little more accessible upon first listen, though after a while it falls into the same trap of repetition as the first album did. It’s no surprise that the boys have essentially left us with another heap of angry songs - but with Chevelle, figuring out what caused the anger is part of what makes them interesting.

Family System
Forget the time I said I would
Replace that with “I never will“…
The album starts off with one of its rare quiet moments, a delicate, ringing guitar riff and some pristine “ah-ah-ah-ah”s from Pete. But it’s not long before your ears get pulverized with a killer lead guitar line - the kind that makes you thrash around and pretend you’re playing the ever-popular invisible instrument. I have to give Chevelle credit for making good use of palm muting - it really adds to the abrasive (but ironically catchy) quality of many of these songs. Once we’ve got that initial burst of energy out of our system, Pete begins to wail away at someone who has annoyed him - this song is basically an intelligent ode to some in-fighting in the family. I guess the brothers went through some tough times in between records, and decided to release that negative energy in a song. Fittingly, this one got picked up as a bonus track for the soundtrack to the most morally upright of all reality TV shows - The Osbornes. Barring that unfortunate tidbit, the song flat out rocks, and it’s filled with interesting lines like “What a man’s got, he’ll learn to hate.” Pete sounds kind of weird when he screams, “Just grow up!“ near the end - I’m sure it’s intentional that he sounds like a grown-up kid throwing a fit. This will probably annoy the same people that didn’t like Linkin Park screaming “Shut up when I’m talking to you!“ And there’s nothing terribly redemptive about the lyrics, but then, this is Chevelle; I don’t expect all of the tension to get worked out in a four-minute song.

Comfortable Liar
Broad is this sea
The salt enters the wounds…
The second track is actually an older song the boys were working on before their Squint deal went South. Riding along confidently on a cool, cymbal-heavy drum pattern, this is destined to become another hit for the Loeffler brothers. The lyrics are subtle and rather minimal - obviously they deal with someone who has lied to Pete, though from what I gather, the person seems to feel no remorse even though they know they’re wrong and Pete’s trying to point it out to them. That’s about all I can figure out for now. The boys lay down a nice groove for this one, and Pete and Joe manage to harmonize a little bit during some of the more drawn out, quieter sections of the song (if you could call them “quiet”). The only thing that brings the song down for me is near the end when Pete screams “LIAR!!!” a few times. I get that he’s angry, but in this case it doesn’t add much to the song.

Send the Pain Below
You used to run me away, all while laughing
Then cry about the fact ‘til I returned…
If you’re not paying attention, track two could very easily run right into track three, since they have the same tempo and I think they’re in the same key. The boys surprisingly take an even more melodic approach here, without compromising too much of their trademark heaviness. I’m really intrigued by the lyrics on this one, since Pete seems rather masochistic when he moans “I like having hurt.” Further examination of the lyrics leads me to wonder if this song was inspired by some childhood wounds the boys are still carrying around, since they seem to deal with stuffing emotions deep down into a place where no one can detect them. Things get a little creepier as the noise level gets cranked up partway through the song and Pete starts to bellow “I can’t feel my CHEST!” I realize the screaming is part of the genre, but there are times when he sounds less like a tortured man and more like a raptor from Jurassic Park. Kind of hurts a few of the songs, in my opinion.

Closure
Two sided time, your rebirth can‘t hurt…
Once again showing us their love for songs in 3/4 time ( a good chunk of the last album was that way, a 4 out of 11 songs are on this one as well), “Closure” is probably the lightest song of the bunch, mostly because its main guitar riff has more of an acoustic flavor to it (it’s still an electric guitar, but it sounds like the distortion isn’t turned on). The whole song has a jittery feel to it, and Pete sounds more than a little tense as he sings the first truly positive lyrics on the record - it sounds like he’s begging for blessing and healing (in a rather vague way) and addressing pain in a personified manner, almost as if breaking up with an abusive lover. “Closure has come to myself”, the guys sing together during the chorus, “You will never belong to me”. As you’re probably expecting by now, they kick the aggression level up a notch near the end, speeding up the tempo for a sweet guitar break, during which Pete growls, and if you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of glass shattering in the background. Hmmm… analyze the cover photo, which from a distance looks like a frog drowning in lava. I think it’s a glass ball filled with liquid, being shattered on the floor - the lighting is just weird.

The Red
When asked, who made it show
The truth, he gives in to most…
Ah, here comes the single - it’s recognizable riff picking up just where the last song’s rhythm abruptly left off. This is also one of the less heavy songs on the album - Pete manages to sing all the way through this one, turning in an excellent vocal performance, because he is able to put the force of one of his screams into it without losing the tune. If you’ve seen the video, then you’ll know that the song is about anger (it takes place in the middle of an anger management seminar, and Pete has an eerie vision of everyone in the room losing control and beating each other with chairs and stuff). It’s about what happens when people can’t control themselves and they start “seeing red”. It serves as a warning against letting your circumstances bring your blood to a boil - “Lay down, the threat is real when his sight goes red again.” The part near the end when Pete screams “Seeing red again!” over and over is just cool - the only real drawback to the song is a guitar break that goes nowhere in the place of what should have been either a bridge or a kick-butt solo. But I love how the song trails off as Pete delicately reminds us, “The red filters through”.

Wonder What‘s Next
It sometimes feels like a burden
I want to succeed, is this a good quality?
I really have mixed feelings about the album’s title track. It immediately catches your attention with a piledriver of a guitar riff, but as the song unfolds, there’s little variance on that riff other than the occasional cool percussion break. For crying out loud, I think this is a one=chord song. That really bugs people like me who are into musical complexity. Anyway, we’ll ignore that. What isn’t whispered or spoken in this song is screamed - I think the whole point was to let the guitar carry the tune. Pete manages to slip in an interesting spoken tirade on the pressure of the music industry in between his guttural screams - yep, this is one of those bitter songs directed at the record label that did them wrong. He laments the loss of creative ability due to people that wanted to have some control of the message being put out by the band - Pete really puts a punctuation mark on it when he spits out the line, “I thought you only started ‘cause it was fun.“ But then the whole thing just gets ridiculous as Pete starts to scream “We’ve played the blaming game! Yes I mind! It’s not your turn!” over and over. It leaves me wondering where the “next” button is.

Don‘t Fake This
So look and connect, we‘re refusing to rust
Healing has to begin in the past…
Here all the venting of anger begins to show some real sense of purpose. I’m always partial to songs that deal with being honest about negative emotions, and even if this isn’t the album’s strongest song, it’s one of Pete’s better vocal performances, and one of the more lyrically engaging tracks. It starts out with a thinner guitar line and a little bit of vocal wailing from Pete that sounds almost Middle Eastern - I can definitely sense the eerie presence of Maynard James Keenan here. The song veers back into more typical Chevelle territory as it unfolds - a quiet-to-loud dynamic with a good scream-fest at the end - this time it’s a bit more convincing as Pete screams the song’s title again and again. I especially like a couple lines he inserts about “disposable men” - the song definitely paints an image of people who hold their feelings inside, much like in “Send the Pain Below”. This track could do well on the rock radio charts if Epic plays their cards right.

Forfeit
Find a way to relate, or just shut up…
Ready for another mind-numbingly repetitive track? The structure of this one is quite similar to the title track, except this one’s got a little more going for it. The monotone guitar riff will probably catch your attention - it just oozes coolness, once again employing a little palm-muting for percussive effect. I bet that’s a fun one to play! Pete brings us some interesting lyrics about a battle in which he seems to be trying to force his opponent to surrender - perhaps this one deals with the hypocrisy of some Christians whose attitude is “I want to fight, I want to fight, I want to prove I’m right.” Unfortunately, whatever interest I had in the song rapidly dissipates a few minutes in, when that screaming raptor shows up again, spewing forth the song’s title over and over. Time for a new tactic, guys. Next song.

Grab Thy Hand
Bring me Your time
How I long for release…
This is probably the most spiritually overt song on the record - by that I mean it directly mentions God once or twice. The lyrics seem to be coming from a man who is crying out from a despairing place, longing to grab a hold of God and be pulled out of his misery. It’s got a very sinister sound to it. I can’t help but think that Pete is screaming just for the sake of screaming at this point - it’s really awkward to hear him jump between a soft whimper and a yell in the same sentence. Admittedly he’s got vocal talent, but it seems an ill fit in this song. It assaults the listener right at the beginning, to the point where making out the words is difficult - “Grab Thy hand and WAAAAAAAAAALLLLLKKKKK!” It gets even more annoying when he’s yelling “May I come in?” again and again. I guess it signifies his desperation, but it isn’t all that enjoyable to listen to. I guess I could be missing the point here, but anyway…

An Evening with El Diablo
He said come, fly around my hell
And know this, you seem to be too scared to run…
This song is a six-minute jam that means well with the nice groove it lays out, but ultimately it doesn’t really go anywhere. I think it’s interesting to have a song about the devil back-to-back with a song about God and all, and the lyrics are definitely enough to give you the creeps if you’re used to Christian bands that play it safe, but then again there’s nothing terribly shocking here - it seems to be one man’s account of a frightening brush with temptation. Pete’s screaming fits in a little better here as he’s describing being “too scared to run”, and the chorus really soars, even though it’s a confusing one, as he tells the devil, “Wish I had your faults/Nothing seems to phase you.” Say what? The last few minutes of the song are perhaps a bit overindulgent, since the entire track basically bounces back and forth between two chords - I’m sorry guys, but if you’re gonna noodle around on your instruments for a few minutes, at least make it sounds cool like Tool does.

One Lonely Visitor
Did you think I‘d forget
Couldn‘t be more of a mess
For to breathe used to be another way I‘d take you in…
It should be no great surprise that the album’s closing track does little to comfort us after all the venting of anger. Musically, the track provides a break from the lumbering noise of the last few tracks by featuring only an acoustic guitar and Pete and Joe’s voices. That would be an interesting departure for Chevelle if the song was more intricate - unfortunately, the guys seem to be making their best attempt at being Dashboard Confessional here. It just isn’t very convincing. There’s nothing to bridge this sad song with its repeating line of “Am I alone in here?” to the rest of the album - it feels tacked on at the end just so they could say they were capable of an acoustic ballad. I hate to be so hard on the guys when they’re obviously trying something that’s different for them and there’s clearly a sad story behind this one (likely involving getting left behind by a girl), but the end result just doesn’t sound that exciting. It’s interesting to note that in the midst of Pete’s wallowing he does mention that “I’m praying this for you, ‘til it’s answered I’ll say/Now it seems there’s a choice that began with a break.” Not sure what that means, but at least there’s a slight glimmer of hope to this sorrowful ending. Other than that, the listener is pretty much left hanging.

Now obviously I don’t expect a hard rock album to tie up everything neatly and leave me feeling happy. But I do expect to be a little more challenged - I see a glimmer of something great in many of these songs, but I feel like it gets lost in all of the harsh repetition. What generally ends up happening when I listen to this album all the way through in one sitting is that it leaves me in a bad mood. I don’t feel cheated - I got the disc for $5.99 at Best Buy the day it came out, and I’ve seen more expensive singles, so I figured it was worthwhile just for two or three solid songs. But I know at the same time that Chevelle is capable of so much more. I miss some of the songs like “Dos” and “Peer” from Point #1 that really excelled at making the soft-to-hard dynamic believable. And there’s nothing on here that I enjoy nearly as much as their hit single “Mia”.

I’m recommending this album with the caveat that you only purchase it if you see it with a three-digit price tag. Because it feels incomplete to me. I think I’ll make it a policy not to pay more than $10 for a Chevelle album unless they make significant strides within the next few years (I got their first disc used for like 4 bucks). Perhaps you’ll enjoy Wonder What’s Next more consistently than I do if you’re an angry teenager - you could certainly do much worse in terms of new additions to your hard rock library. I just prefer a little more positive reinforcement to get me through my anger management seminars. This whole exercise mostly just left me wondering what the point was.

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: The Red, Family System, Comfortable Liar
Good: Closure, Don't Fake This
Decent: Send the Pain Below, Forfeit, An Evening with El Diablo
Weak: Wonder What's Next
Skippable: Grab Thy Hand, One Lonely Visitor

Band Members:
Pete Loeffler: Vocals, guitar
Joe Loeffler: Bass, vocals
Sam Loeffler: Drums

Website: http://www.chevelleinc.com


Recommended: Yes