After 10 years of playing, releasing a considerable amount of albums and selling a few millions of records most of the artists get into a lack of musical creativity only surviving by hearing their radio hits every once in awhile. Hailing from Chicago, Illinois Chevelle is back on the road with La Gárgola, the follow up of 2011's "Hats off to the Bull" produced once again by Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool, Parkway Drive) and many others. Contradicting myself when I wrote the first lines of this review, La Gárgola meets a totally evolved Chevelle, that's the first reaction by hearing their 7th album, a powerful and renewed band full of freshness. It's the darkest side of the band so far which sounds like the cure in certain times, bringing you back the fear and some kind of horror inspired by the scariest movies of all time. Singer and guitarist Pete Loeffler amps up all his tension and powerful chords on the devilishly song "Ouija Board", offering you the heaviest side of the band in years, lots of desperate screams exploding into guitar bursts. Chevelle has always been a trio, thus they have filled spaces even with 3 musicians playing together on stage they sound like if they were a bigger band never finding a restriction on this. The La Gárgola album it's a heavy/dark record but slow, thick and mighty at the same time, Pete, Sam and Dean are here to expose that their music it's not about quantity, it's just about quality. The more you listen to the record the more you fall in love with, "Hunter Eats Hunter" for example slinks through a black story into the vocalist's own inspiration with deep and heavy riffs, this track is easily one of the best offers on the record. Pete's vocal versatility is better yet halfway through the album, since the second part is darker and less heavy, "One Ocean" and "Twinge" are among different sounds and experimentations they dare to use certain types of delays, reverbs and unusual stuff although "Choking Game" delivers an animosity and infectious groove a mounting tension to the listener again. At the end of the day you get noticed that Chevelle does not sound like somebody else out there and they are not just a clon or a copy of a copy of a copy...
These guys are not predictable and you never know what to expect of them, Sam goes back to that fast drum beat and Dean delivers an infectious aggressive bass sound. Pete tries not to write about typical things in rock music: parties, girls or hangovers; overall La Gárgola increases the band's ability by exploring darker sides, it's a natural progression of the band, it's passionate, powerful and melodic at the same time. I'm going to be clear: while most of you guys are thinking that I'm praising Chevelle's new album just because I am a fan let me let you know that the main single "take out the gunman" it's not my favorite, I even criticize the track because of its lack of identity, even La Gárgola has better songs. Anyway I just wish that the band could go to many other countries and they could get closer to wider audiences.
Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5 stars.
Recommended Songs: "Ouija Board", "Hunter Eats Hunter", "Choking Game".
If you want to see this full review in spanish, head over to: http://polvora.com.mx
