Chevelle Returns with Grit on The North Corridor
Nu-metal is dead and has been for almost a decade. The only vestiges still lingering are some of the genre’s most successful acts like Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin, Linkin Park and Seether. Luckily, due to the internet and artists having a more direct avenue to their consumers, even bands that aren’t making popular music are able to stick around indefinitely.
Chevelle carved themselves out a large audience between 2002 and 2007 with hits like “Send the Pain Below”, “Vitamin R (Leading Us Along)”, and “I Get It” and ever since then they have been one of the most steadily productive bands in the genre. Coming off two middling albums Hats of to the Bull and La Gargola, it seemed as if their days might be numbered. However, for The North Corridor, Chevelle really leans into what made those two albums middling and surfaces with a surprisingly raw, aggressive, and loud effort.
Hats and Gargola were missing the shimmer of accessibly that their previous efforts were able to stand upon. They were both heavy, but the hooks were few and far between, and they sounded like a band that was unconsciously wanting to turn away from the mainstream. Both seemed like a lazy adherence to the norms while dabbling in unconventional melodies. The North Corridor sounds like Chevelle has finally accepted that targeting airplay and mainstream acceptance isn’t important anymore. The outcome is a heavier album with more crunch and aggression.
They have embraced the idea of going it alone into the post-nu-metal world. Tracks like “Joyride (Omen)”, and “Got Burned” are vintage Chevelle with old school Tool influences deeply entrenched in the guitar. The contrast between Gargola and North is so defined it almost sounds like their handcuffs have been removed. These songs get your head bobbing, and feet tapping. Probably the best track of the collection, “Warhol’s Showbiz”, is the equivalent of a sonic science experiment barely held together by Pete Loeffler’s screaming of “THAT’S SHOWBIZ!”
That type of un-hinged metal energy is sprinkled throughout the album making it their most compelling release since Vena Sera (in my opinion, their seminal work). Loeffler does more screaming on The North Corridor than he’s done in years. Are “modern” rock radio stations going to play a few of the tracks here? Sure, they’ll get some play based on name recognition alone but it doesn’t sound this album was recorded for the radio, it was recorded for the concert.
A number of mosh-friendly anthems, enormous guitar riffs, and lightly distorted vocals will drop right into the already excellent Chevelle live show. Honestly, I was not expecting much from the 8th (yeah 8th) Chevelle album, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
I like to contrast today’s music scene with that of the early 90s. In 1993 “Smells Like Teen Spirit” exposed the primary flaw in how the system. Hair Metal was huge through the late 80s and into the early 90s, but after Nirvana hit, it all but completely disappeared. Bands associated with Glam and Hair Metal were dropped left and right and had little to no outlet to continue their craft. the old system hung artists out to dry that weren’t willing or unable to adapt.
In today’s scene, a successful band has a perpetual connection to their audience. Fans don’t have to wait for Rolling Stone articles or radio stations dictating what you listen to, its the Wild West and bands like Chevelle are now free to completely immerse themselves in their own sound and create little distilled snapshots of their own natural evolution.
Fundamentally Chevelle is still Chevelle and The North Corridor is unmistakable Chevelle. It’s a concentrated version of them, A version that the band, their fans, and the scene needs right now.
Verdict – You already know if you’re interested in The North Corridor and that’s just fine.
