CHEVELLE — The North Corridor (review)

CHEVELLE — The North Corridor album cover

Album · 2016 · Alternative Metal

5/5 · 2017-01-06
Unitron

"Dead last with a drumroll, when the dam blows"

Chevelle is one of the few bands that almost always invokes fascinating imagery with both their cryptic lyricism as well as being masters of atmosphere on many of their records. Since 2009's Sci-Fi Crimes, the band have developed such a unique sound that they can only produce. With two masterpieces under their belt, the aforementioned Sci-Fi Crimes and especially 2014's La Gárgola, Chevelle is here with their eighth studio album.

La Gárgola showed the band exploring new territory, with an addition of sludge metal elements and the atmospheric wandering vibe of post-rock. The North Corridor continues those developments, especially with increasing the crushing sludge metal ten-fold. Perhaps one reason I opened up with that lyric from the devastating sludgy attack of the eight-minute closer, "Shot From a Cannon", is because it fits in with how this album can feel. The chaos that occurs as a dam blows can be brutal, and this album can often represent this chaos delivering blow after blow until all is laid to waste. While that would ordinarily be a bad thing, when it comes to a crushingly heavy metal album, it's sublime.

Every song is incredibly emotive, with almost all of them being sludgy and crushingly heavy. Pete Loeffler's vocals are as strong and emotional as ever, but his screams and low deep bellows have increased and improved. Just take a listen to his chaotic screams during the chorus of "Last Days" along with his bellows on the crushing "Shot From a Cannon". His guitar solos are absolutely spine-chilling, having that beautiful sense of melancholy that the band is so well at having especially on opener "Door to Door Cannibals". Dean Bernardini's bass rumbles throughout the album, with the resonance of an earthquake or a cannon blast. Sam Loeffler's drums are chaotic and immensely heavy. Of course, the band knows how to leave some breathing room for the listener, this time in the form of "Punchline". A mellow track dominated by haunting atmospherics as was "Twinge" from the previous album, it certainly matches the melancholic beauty of the aforementioned track.

The lyrics match the powerful haunting music, and made even stronger with Pete Loeffler's devastating vocal performance. As always, the cryptic lyricism really captures the imagination of the listener even while not describing what it may actually about. Call it "Surrealist Metal" if that makes any sense, with the band being able to have a similar effect in music as an artist like Rene Magritte has in his paintings. While I've mentioned it a couple times already, the colossal "Shot From a Cannon" really does beat you over the head with a sludgehammer not only with it's music but the striking pictures it can paint in one's head.

This is easily the best album of 2016, as well as one of the greatest albums I've ever heard. I thought it would be hard to beat La Gárgola as my favorite Chevelle album, but I think they did it. Every song is a complete masterpiece, with nothing coming close to being a weaker moment. If you have not heard Chevelle yet, or heard the old albums several years ago, I highly recommend checking out La Gárgola and this new masterpiece from the band. These two albums have solidified Chevelle as one of the leading metal acts of today in my book, with few bands being able to come close to touching their emotive mastery. Hope you found this review helpful, feel free to comment!