By Erin Caine
Elm Staff Writer
The hard rock trio Chevelle formed in a suburb of northern Chicago in 1995, and released their first studio album, Point #1, three years later. In July of this year they released their eighth studio album, “The North Corridor,” which AllMusic’s Neil Yeung has called the group’s “heaviest, darkest, and most aggressive effort in over a decade.”
Chevelle pulled out no stops in delivering a sound brimming with everything one would expect from the group: eardrum-pummeling drums, tight riffwork, heavy bass, and singer Pete Loeffler’s punchy, livid vocals. Though the first half of the album is solid and well-executed on its own with its unrelenting aggression, it is the second half of the album that keeps it from sounding totally formulaic, and Yeung observes this latter half “contains the freshest ideas the band has had in years.”
The album opens with “Door to Door Cannibals,” a song which features Loeffler’s characteristic intricate riffing and raw vocals. Joe Hughes of Alternative Nation describes it as a “sonic gut punch demanding the listener strap themselves in for what is to come. Not to mention the song sports one of the bands greatest guitar solos. Singer/guitarist Pete Loeffler digs in vocally, sounding angrier and more aggressive in the first verse than on the entirety of 2014’s La Gargola. Where on that album, Chevelle seemed to pick and choose their moments of heaviness and aggression, they go full force on The North Corridor.”
The album maintains its breakneck speed and hard energy until halfway through, where the tracks “Rivers” and “Last Days” begin to reveal a more deliberate and measured sound with drawn-out chugging guitars and a throbbing bass line.
“The North Corridor,” seems at times mired in the tried-and-true sound and style Chevelle has developed in previous albums, and doesn’t deliver anything truly unique until its eight song, “Punchline.” This track is moody and atmospheric, reminiscent of ‘90s alternative with its fuzzy, ambient sounds and smooth, unhurried rhythm, and Hughes observes that it is stylistically similar to the work of Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor. He continues, “[The song] sounds nothing like the rest of the album or really like anything in Chevelle’s entire discography, but it is so enchanting and so Chevelle you don’t bat an eye.” The album concludes with its signature sound in “Shot from a Cannon,” which Yeung describes as a song that “truly plays with time and space,” one that “towers and chugs, like a giant stomping across a festival field. Laden with feedback, the song’s final minutes are a hypnotic jam session.” Indeed, “Shot from a Cannon” reels in high-octane circles, untethered from the measured sound from mid-album, and generates a feverish delirium mirrored by tracks like “Young Wicked” and “Enemies.”
Still, though “The North Corridor” is an expertly executed effort sustained on the band’s unrelenting energy, aggression, and genuine talent, it lacks a dimension of memorability. The album feels less like something produced organically, and more as if someone scientifically created the quintessential Chevelle album.
Only very rarely, such as with “Punchline” and the Spanish guitar-tinged “Rivers,” does Chevelle really surprise the listener. Previous albums, such as 2011’s “Hats Off to the Bull” and 2014’s “La Gárgola,” each managed to firmly maintain their own distinctive sound and energy, taking the foundation established in their predecessors and adding a new stylistic flavor.
No matter how well-executed and solid it is as an effort, “The North Corridor” took few risks, and likely won’t stand the test of time as earlier Chevelle albums have.