IN REVIEW: Chevelle - "La Gárgola"

"Are you up for anything?" is the question Pete Loeffler asks in the opening seconds of La Gárgola; unfortunately your response is moot because, by the time he asks, the band is already off and running, revving up the old chug-a-chug engine and blasting from the gate with a velocity not often heard on a Chevelle record. It's a jarring, surprising turn from a band previously criticized for being not much more than a Deftones/Tool tribute band.

While they've been content to put up with such unnecessary attacks in the past, on this record they're on the offensive early and often. Tempos are up, and the songs are barbarically heavy. Part of this is thanks to the production of "Evil" Joe Barresi, who also helmed 2011's surprisingly spry Hats Off To The Bull; part of it is due to spirited performances by the group.

There is a glaringly detrimental side effect to the increased focus on heaviness, and that's the sound quality. I don't want to sound like a broken record here, but there are too many records being broken by loud masters. La Gárgola's bottom heavy production becomes so distorted by times, it makes Hats Off (a record only three years old, by the same band using the same producer and even mastered by the same person) sound like an audiophile master by comparison. It's distressing, as it takes away from the enjoyment of a solid record. It should be noted that not every song is as bad as the next (nor is it as obscenely bad as the last Cage The Elephant record, which should be burned at the stake for the cruel mastering witchcraft it is), but An Island is a great track that's incredibly hard to listen to, and that's not right.

I don't want the poor mastering of La Gárgola to tell its story (full disclosure though, it earned it an automatic two point deduction); the real story is the extremes they're willing to go to. The heavy stuff here is brutally heavy by Chevelle standards; Ouija Board, the aforementioned opening track, sees them feeding their familiar grooves and riffs power ups and sending them roaring headlong into a wall of fire. Lead single Take Out The Gunman is the ugly, bloody cousin of 2011 hit Face To The Floor. And Hunter Eats Hunter, an easy album highlight, rides a heavy groove through its first half before veering off into a hellish, sinister bridge and boiling over with visceral rage. It's a trick they've played a few times before, with never with such ferocity.

Hunter Eats Hunter is immediately followed by One Ocean, making for perhaps the biggest song-to-song intensity swing Chevelle has ever put to record. Where the former is feral and violent, the latter is pensive and wistful. Its skeleton is certainly that of a Chevelle song, but it's wearing the skin of a U2 song. It's a good enough song (and is the most surefire radio hit they can hope for this time around), but after such a vicious A-side it's too far to fall too fast.

La Gárgola has a level of surprises in store that's, er, surprising. Jawbreaker locks its groove into a boots-n-pants disco beat, and its effect on you will definitely depend on mood. Choking Game is a driving slugger with allusions to vampiric activities, and actually ends up following Jawbreaker to its logical conclusion, morphing into a quasi-Rob Zombian spookshow halfway through (all it's missing is a sound clip from an obscure horror flick). The lyrics are kind of trite on this one, though, and the song's sidesteps don't carry it all the way. Under The Knife takes its essence from the main riff of Nirvana's Very Ape, but sludges it up and throws a fiery chorus on top of it to separate it from a would-be grunge clone.

Then, there's album closer Twinge, which won't do them any favours amongst some detractors. It goes for the same unsettled, sultry atmosphere Deftones perfected a long time ago, but feels like something Chino would relegate to B-side status. Plus, it's a perplexing way to end such an energetic, heavy album.

To be fair, it's great to see a band that just released a greatest hits album in 2012 (often a telltale sign that it's pretty much over) try on so many outfits on La Gárgola. The problem is, many of them don't fit quite right. It's thrilling to hear them going for brutality at this stage of their career, but there's no need for half-baked attempts at strip club rock, stadium pomp or lovers' lane denouements. So much of this album is enjoyable, but the moments that fall short fall flat on their faces. It makes me wonder how many of these cases can be chalked up to failed experimentation versus forced experimentation. At any rate, the missteps aren't entirely damning to the album, but they're damn sure noticeable, especially given the high rate of volume at which they're occurring.

April 1, 2014 • Epic

Highlights Ouija Board • Take Out the Gunman • Hunter Eats Hunter