Band: Chevelle
Album: Vena Sera
Genre: Hard Rock
Year: 2007
After success in their first three albums and still ending concerts with their big single “The Red,” the hard rock group from
In fact, if anything the loss of Pete and Sam Loeffler’s brother Joe has helped the band, as it has gotten rid of an on-going distraction in the band (Pete and Joe’s artistic differences were worse than normal ones, since they are brothers) and provided the remaining Loeffler brothers with a full tank of angry fuel, which they used to pen hard rock anthems such as “Straight Jacket Fashion”, “Brainiac,” and “The Fad.” You can feel Pete’s anger with every scream, every banging guitar riff, every shattered Tom-Tom.
Vena Sera is most likely Chevelle’s best album to date, as it seems they have done well in getting rid of the distractions to create straightforward music that makes its point and kicks your ass while doing it.
Scoring:
Replayability: (16/20) There is a lot to find in Chevelle’s new CD. For example, you can spend hours listening to each song more than once to see if any of their lyrics rhyme (answer: no, they don’t). A lot of times, especially in the transition from the last song, “Saturday,” to the first, “Antisaint,” the rock gets to be almost repetitive, but overall it is an easy listen to get you in the mood to kick someone’s ass, or at least imagine that you could if you weren’t 6’3 and 120 pounds.
Music: (18/20) While not extremely musically challenging, Chevelle’s haunting guitar riffs and well placed instrumentals pace the song much more than the aforementioned non-rhyming lyrics. There is a lot more experimentation with guitar than would be expected with a trio, a band where the singer has to bear full guitar responsibilities. Overall, the background music is what makes the atmosphere for their songs.
Lyrics: (14/20) The lyrics…not so much. To mention it one more time, the lyrics don’t rhyme. Ever. This isn’t a deal-breaker by any means – in fact, it’s intriguing that the lyrics can grab the listener’s attention without having the easy mnemonic device of having the last syllable sound the same. However, it doesn’t save the fact that some of the lyrics do not exactly make a single bit of fucking sense. “We know him as one cell/Should've combined to save brains/How bout I teach him to crawl/lift up the head so proud” sounds good when you’re belting it out with a strong voice and shredding guitar, but when spoken it sounds like a forty-year old beatnik poet who is about to be pelted by month-old cabbage.
Completeness: (18/20) This album flows very well. Any time the rock becomes too hard (as if there’s such a thing), Pete steps in with a slow but rocking ballad that keeps the listener on his toes. Remember in High Fidelity when John Cusack’s character explains how to make the perfect mix tape? He says that it has to come out strong to grab attention, then take it up a notch, and then takes it down. This is exactly the method that Chevelle follows, and it makes for a very whole album.
Emotional Pull: (17/20) Though not invoking the same sorts of feelings as my previous review, it does draw nearly the same amount of feelings. The only difference is instead of feeling remorseful about a relationship gone bad, the listener comes away from the Chevelle CD with an urge to hit anything. It’s still a powerful feeling, but dangerous if not treated very carefully.
Total Score: 83/100
Grade: B
So Chevelle’s Vena Sera would make a B in college but a C in high school. This does nothing to take away the CD’s accomplishments, as it is the perfect CD to blare out of your truck when you’re in a foul mood. “The Fad” is a great song to listen to when you’re angry at everything representing establishment, “Antisaint” is a great song to listen to when you’re angry at an egomaniac…pretty much any song on here is great to listen to when you’re angry. Just try hard not to listen to the lyrics. You might go cross-eyed.
-Nate
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